Page 30 of Escape

I watched them drive off. Ariana wouldn’t be hurt, just discarded on the side of the road a few blocks away from her home like the trash she was. She could call the police if she wanted, but there would be no trace. No evidence. Nothing led her capture back to Jasmine or me. Nik and Nova were thorough in their cleanup.

It was almost time for the final test and I needed to be prepared. I was hyperaware of the fact that at that very moment, Jasmine was probably on her way to the janitor’s closet, where the final clues were in place for her to piece everything together.

She would finally know the truth and I only hoped she would handle it well. I hoped she wouldn’t blame herself for something that wasn’t her fault. I hoped she saw that through all the lies. Through all the betrayal. Through all the manipulative people who constructed her into someone she never wanted to be. I hoped she saw that I was there. That I was always in her corner. Waiting for her. Protecting her. Loving her.

And even if she crumbled under the weight of the truth, I’d be there to hold her up. Like it was always meant to be.

Chapter 24

Jasmine

Standing in front of the janitor’s closet where everything began and ended, where we shared our first intentional kiss and unknowingly at the time, our last kiss, where I’d chosen her and where I’d left her, a battle raged inside me. I couldn’t decide if going back inside was another beginning or another end.

I thought back to the first time I dragged Kel into the tiny supply closet. I’d been crushing on her since she first started at Maple Meadow. With my attraction to women finally clear to me at that point, I knew with certainty what the flutters in my stomach were.

I tried to act natural, smiling at her whenever I took my seat next to her, but when she first slid her paper over to help me with a test, the flutters morphed from tame, little butterflies to raging, fire-breathing dragons.

I leapt at her offer to tutor me, anything to be closer to her. Over late nights and skipped class periods, I learned all of the parts of her. As broken and bruised as they were, I loved them all. When I finally passed my first test, I was so excited that I couldn’t contain it. Without thinking or letting my logic hold me back, I kissed her for the first time.

With all the feelings exploding and multiplying the second our lips touched, I had to take some time to sort it all out. Selfishly, I avoided her, but I was balancing two parts of me in either hand. The me I showed to the world and the me I was with her. The me I wanted to be. The me I was deep down inside, who was still buried there today.

After a few weeks, I lost the will to stay away from her, but I also couldn’t choose. So, I pulled her into the closet to kiss her again and offer her half of me. I’d give her the me I truly was, but only in the dark and she loved me so much, she accepted it. She’d always given me her 100% and I didn’t deserve her. I never did. Maybe that’s why she was torturing me now. I deserved it all and she deserved to finally express her pain.

So, with another shaking breath, I wrapped my fingers around the handle and went inside the small closet. I stepped inside, tempted to shut my eyes and imagine I was back in high school with the girl I loved.

I stood in the center, spinning in a circle as I took it all in. It really was a miracle that Kel and I were able to both fit inside, let alone have hour-long makeout sessions. With how much she’d grown, there was no way we could have both fit inside now. The thought made me whip around toward the door again. I hung my head just outside the frame and looked both ways down the hall to make sure I was alone.

Once I was satisfied, I stepped back inside. It was almost exactly as I remembered it. The dusty, damp smell. The single light bulb and string hanging from the ceiling. The faucet and mop bucket in the corner. Everything was the same, but the metal shelves against the walls that were once filled with cleaning supplies were now empty.

I spun in another circle, confused about what I was supposed to do next. Just as I was about to give up, a small white paper resting on one of the bottom shelves caught my eye. I grabbed it and carefully unfolded it, revealing another handwritten note.

Leave her alone or you will regret it. Fucking freak.

I studied the curve of the letters. The loop of the Y’s and G’s tail. The way the lowercase A’s had the tail over the top instead of the side. My mind spun for a moment as I realized I’d seen the writing before. I’d been seeing it all night.

Slamming down to my knees, I pulled the backpack open and yanked out the torn yearbook page and the two notes. I laid them next to each other and another piece of the puzzle slid into place. Ariana. It was all Ariana’s handwriting. In the yearbook. The janitor’s closet note. The threat I just found.

I sat back on my heels as I tried to figure out what the fuck Ariana had to do with all of this. I imagined her blindfolded and strung up by her neck, like she just was a few moments ago. The picture was fuzzy, but one thing about it was clear, she definitely knew about Kel and me way before she exposed us in the janitor’s closet.

I lifted the most recent note to my face again, wondering why she would’ve been summoning someone to the janitor’s closet. Could Kel and Ariana have been hooking up like we were?

Before the small tingling of jealousy that sparked in my stomach could stoke into a full-blown fire, a vibrating sound murmured somewhere in the closet. I looked all around me, dug into the backpack, but I couldn’t find its source. I huffed in frustration, throwing my head back, when I finally saw it hanging over the edge of the top shelf.

With each vibration, it inched closer and closer to falling. I shot to my feet, pushed up onto the tips of my toes and stretched my arms as high up as they could go, swatting the cellphone with the very tips of my fingers.

It finally fell into my hands and I flipped it open, pressing it to my ear. I was too afraid to say anything, so I just listened. After a few seconds, her smooth voice filled the speaker.

“Do you see now, my smart girl?”

My stomach curled at the use of the nickname again, remembering when she used to praise me with it when I finally understood whatever algebra concept she was teaching me. I pressed a hand over my belly, soothing away the feeling as I searched for my words.

“Ariana,” I whispered. “She knew the whole time.”

“Yes, but what else?”

“Um…you were seeing her, too?”

Her low, soft chuckle took me by surprise. “Fuck no.”