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My grin falls. “Sure I remember. Why are you asking me this?”
“He’s still around.”
“Dad—”
“I see him sometimes, too,” Josh says. “Here and there, on the main street sometimes, smoking.”
Cold fear sloshes through me. “With his friends?”
“Nah. They don’t seem to hang out together anymore.”
“Did they bother you? Did they hurt you?”
“No.” He shakes his head so fast his fine brown hair flies about. “Just seen him. He hasn’t talked to me at all.”
Him.
Ross Jones.
“A lot has happened since you left,” Dad says, watching me carefully.
“A lot has happened.” As if I’ve been gone for years without a phone or email.
I huff. “I was here every few weeks, Dad.”
“But we didn’t talk about this. You were busy with assignments when he was attacked. And I wasn’t sure you’d want to know anyway.”
“Attacked?” That gets my attention. How did I miss this little bit of news?
Oh right, because I forbade anyone talking to me about Ross and his friends. How can you make a fresh start when those old taunting ghosts keep haunting you, right? My cousin suggested that I erase them from my life, so I did.
“His dad attacked him,” Josh says. “With a knife.” He lifts his brows dramatically.
“Josh,” Dad scolds him mildly. “It’s not funny.”
I barely notice. “Karma is a bitch,” I murmur, distracted.
Wait... his dad? That’s screwed up, even for a bully like Ross...
***
Landing a job in a town as small as Destiny isn’t easy. But Dad knows people, or so he said. “I know people.” Makes it sound dangerous. Like he’s Jason Bourne or something.
But he wasn’t lying: thanks to him, I land a job in one of the town’s diners. Such a glamorous gig. But it will do for Summer.
Having lived here most of my life, I know everyone, too, which is a blessing and a curse.
“Look at you.” The girl behind the counter of the diner snaps her gum at me, and gives me a once-over, a gleam in her bright brown eyes. “I remember you. You changed your hair. And you lost weight.”
“Yeah, thanks?”
The girl—her name’s Dena. Her dad is from Spain, I recall, searching in my extensive mental Destiny inhabitant index. Speaks fluent Spanish. Had a nerdy and cute boyfriend during high school.
Never spoke to me before.
How can I be the new me when these people have known me since I was a toddler and remember me exactly as I was three years ago?
And that “You lost weight” line. Tagged on, like a parasitic afterthought, meant to put me at ease, please me. They make it sound like a good thing.
