AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were already handling this better than I expected, but I really never expected them to try to set up a Scooby trap to catch Tony. That’s way out of our area of expertise, and even if I trust these boys with my literal life, there’s no way I want to put them in danger. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if they got caught in the cross fire.
Mason tugs at his hair. “But it would be so simple. We won’t even need to get the sketchy government agents involved. You said you think Agent Dylan doesn’t actually want to keep you hidden, and that you feel out of control. So let’s create our own control. Create an S-Live Time account under your real name and post a picture of yourself. He’ll contact you.”
“No,” Aiden states, his voice trembling.
“She should put her phone number under so he can just contact her right away and skip the games,” Noah adds, ignoring Aiden. “He’ll call her, we know he will.”
“No!” Aiden snaps, louder than last time.
“Don’t you want your life back, Thea? We can help you! We want to help you,” Noah pleads, his eyes boring into mine.
Mason’s standing again, pacing in front of the coffee table. “You wouldn’t even have to leave King! Your mom’s clearly attached to, well, my dad, so she wouldn’t ship you back home. You won’t be scared of leaving anymore.”
I move my mouth but no sound escapes. I do want my life back. I want to go to school and only worry about passing calculus, not keeping a man from killing me. I want to take pictures with my friends and post them to social media without fearing repercussions. I want to have a decent night’s sleep without popping sleeping pills because I’m worried about Tony breaking into my bedroom. I want to be just like everyone else.
I pick up my phone sitting on the coffee table in front of me. S-Live Time is still loaded from when Charlotte borrowed it and I used it against Andrew and Harvey. It would be easy to make an account, post a picture, and wait for Tony to call me. He’ll be curious. It’ll be a chess game, him waiting to see what my next move will be.
“Let’s say he does call me . . .” I start, my voice small.
Aiden straightens beside me, his body tense. “Thea, you can’t be serious.”
“What then?” I continue, looking Mason in the eye. “What would I do?”
Aiden growls in frustration beside me and throws his hands in the air. I know where he’s coming from—he doesn’t want me to get hurt—but I hate this. I hate sitting and waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m taking my life into my own hands. But maybe I’m not done lying to my friends. Not yet.
Noah hoots and pumps his fist in the air when he realizes I’m relenting, and Mason’s lips tug into a victorious grin. “We set a trap, and we end it. Tell him about Anna. Tell him he’s her daughter. With what you told me, he’ll be curious enough to agree to meet up.”
“No. We’re not involving Anna,” I state, trying to put authority in my voice.
The fewer people who know and want to help means fewer people who can get hurt. I place my phone back on the little coffee table, and Aiden stares at it, probably willing it to disappear through sheer willpower alone.
“We’ll figure that out later. First things first.” Mason plucks his phone from his back pocket and before I realize it, there’s a flash.
My heart stops. This is going too fast. I jump up from where I’m sitting. “Mason! I wasn’t ready for a picture!”
“The sooner we get everything set up, the sooner we can end this.”
He walks into the kitchen and I follow him, stepping around Aiden, who’s got his elbows on his knees and his fingers rubbing circles on his temples, the tension rolling off him in waves.
“If anyone’s going to post my picture, it’ll be me. And I don’t want Noah or Aiden in it!” I grab the phone from him and examine the picture. I feel Noah standing over my shoulder, looking down at Mason’s phone. I start to delete it, but Noah stops my hand.
“No. Don’t delete it, we look good.”
We do not look good. I look confused. Noah looks like there’s smoke coming out of his ears from thinking too hard, and Aiden looks pissed. Hot, but pissed.
“Fine,” I relent. It won’t matter if I have pictures with my friends soon anyway. “But don’t post this. I’ll post a picture of just myself. Only if Aiden’s on board.”
We all turn to look at Aiden, who’s just joined us in the kitchen, my phone in his hand.
I don’t need his permission to do anything and he knows it. But I’ve got a plan forming in my mind, and I need Aiden on board if this is going to work.
His face is hard, his jaw set. He stands in front of me and lowers his head so he’s looking right into my eyes. “Are you sure this is what you want to do? That you’re ready for this?”
Am I? I’m not sure. But I am ready for the running and hiding and lying and stress to be done with. I’m ready to just live my life. It’s time I do something about it.
Without taking my eyes off his, I nod, and determination washes over his face.
“I hate this. I really, really hate this. But if it’s what you want—” His jaw works for a moment as he reads the determination on my face. “All right then,” he says, handing me my phone. “We do this. Together.”
After running through a plan and forcing the boys to swear not to tell anyone, including a pinkie swear so I know they’re serious, I create an S-Live Time account under my real name, Thea Kennedy. I post a lone picture of me, and the caption is simply my phone number. As I drive home around noon and make a stop at the hardware store, all I can think about are the things that can go wrong. I don’t want my friends to get hurt but I can’t stay here and wait for them to eventually get hurt anyway. I’m just so tired of running and hiding and keeping secrets and looking over my shoulder. I’m taking back control and handling this by charging headfirst into my problem. I will end this. One way or another.
The store is in a plaza with other stores, one of which is a coffee shop. As I walk to my car, I spot a familiar Porsche sitting near my car. Kaitlyn must be on lunch break from school.
She exits the coffee shop and notices me standing near her car. She pauses before sighing and continuing toward me.
“Are you stalking me?” she asks, opening her car door. “Did you forget what I said about us not being friends?”
“Yeah, yeah, not friends, got it. Have you told your mom about Anna?”
The plan might not work out, but at least I’ll know that Anna’s reputation has been righted and she can come back to King City High with her friends, even if she’s pissed at us.
Kaitlyn huffs but doesn’t make any move to get in her car and drive away. “Yes. She can’t come back until the end of the week, though—some paperwork thing.”
“Good. And Ryan?”
“Ryan was arrested, like, two hours after I got home last night. I think he’s been charged and let out on bail, but he’ll have a hearing. My mom thinks he’ll have to do court mandated community service and anger management or intimate partner violence counseling or something.”
He deserves it for what he’s done to her, and knowing she’s getting justice makes me happy. “I’m glad. I deleted the video I took of you, by the way.”
She shrugs like she couldn’t care either way. “Whatever. My coffee’s getting cold,” she glances at the hardware store supplies I’m holding. “And I don’t really care to get mixed up in whatever you have going on right now, so bye.”
She gets in her car and I let her go. It was weird, having an almost normal conversation with her, like two mature people, instead of trading insults. I’m also glad that I had the chance to catch her before the plan with Tony, in case it doesn’t work out and I’m not the one who walks away from it. Even though I can’t personally make things right with Annalisa, at least she’ll know I didn’t betray her for Kaitlyn. But for now, I clear my mind of all those thoughts. Right now, I need to focus on the task at hand, on confronting Tony and not letting my friends die because of me.
