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Being out of the house for the first time in almost a week was weird. My entire spring break had come and gone, and I barely ventured out of my bedroom. The last time I’d been sitting behind the wheel of my car, things had been so different.
I wasn’t wearing Stella tonight, not to the full extent. No wig, no nose ring, but I did wear the black turtleneck. The heeled boots, though, were definitely Destelle.
Like the best of both worlds.
My heart hammered as I made the last turn, taking the route I knew by heart. Day or night, I’d never forget this path. Hallow was an easy village to navigate. It wasn’t as big as Addison or Bayview, but so many memories lived in Hallow, ones that would be near impossible to forget.
As soon as I made my final turn, my stomach dropped. I’d turned onto the main road in Hallow, the one that held my favorite coffee shop, and the road was practically empty. No cars lining the streets. No cars in the lot. As I drove past the café, I caught a glimpse inside the windows: no excited crowd.
It was Friday night, and Untapped Potential wasn’t playing at Crushed Beanz.
The SUV’s tires squealed as I shoved it into park, fumbling my phone from my pocket. After a frantic check, I found Untapped Potential’s latest post from last night.
Untapped Potential Status Update:
We have to cancel our Friday gig—our poor singer has come down with the flu. Hopefully we can perform for you Saturday night! In the meantime, what’s one Untapped Potential song that always cheers you up?
I put the car back into gear before I realized it, then merged onto the roadway. This was a route a little less known, a little less memorized, but I tried as hard as I could. So much pent-up energy danced inside me, no way I’d swallow it and go home.
And even though I could’ve called him, this definitely wasn’t a conversation to be had over the phone.
Harry’s house was easy to picture in my mind, but it took me nearly an hour to find, especially in the dim light of the sky. I’d turned down the wrong road three times, and even then I drove past his house, too busy looking at the other side of the street. I didn’t know the exact address, so I couldn’t plug it into the GPS. But when I spotted the siding and the porch with a red car parked out front, I slammed on the brakes.
He was inside. This was it.
For the longest moment, I sat in the driveway. Did I even want to know? Did I want to learn all the secrets he kept? Everything that happened?
Ugh, as soon as I thought the questions, I knew the obvious answer. Of course I wanted to know. After four days with nothing but my raging thoughts to keep me company, I needed to know. All of it.
Just because I missed him didn’t erase what happened. What he did. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand.
But I’d never understand if I never asked.
I popped open the car door, stepping out into the breeze. Finally, my warmer weather arrived. Gone was the cold of winter; the briskness of spring came as a nice reprieve from all the snow, but all of me still felt chilled.
My chunky-heeled boots carried me on the cobblestones that led to the porch, a click-clacking accompanying my racing heart. It reminded me of the drumbeats in the newest Untapped Potential song, the one Harry had written about me.
The porch creaked under my weight, and I stopped right in front of the door, heart hammering a mile a minute.
I really could throw up.Ugh, maybe this had beena bad idea. I checked my posture, standing up straight, even though everything in me fluttered nervously. Was it too late to run? I hadn’t knocked yet. He didn’t know I stood on his porch. I could just turn around and—
Right as I thought that, the front door swung inward, and Harry stood on the other side.
He looked terrible. Completely terrible. His auburn hair was all rucked up, his skin pale. His eyes were wide as they settled on me, and the first emotion I caught was disbelief. “Destelle.”
“Harry,” I returned, glad my voice sounded slightly steady. Only slightly. “Hi.”
“Hi.” His hand still clung to the doorknob, tension keeping his body ramrod straight. Caution flashed across his expression, like he was afraid to hear me speak.
I curled my hands behind my back to hide their quivering. “So, do you really have the flu, or is this something more important to do?”
Our old joke, but he didn’t react to it, not this time. He seemed to be holding his breath.
“Can we…” I cleared my throat, clearing the emotion. “Can we talk?”
Harry took a jerking step back out of the doorway, making room for me to pass through. “Y-Yeah, for sure. Um, come on in.”
I tried to look at the situation as if I were Margot, the Queen of Assessment. I thought about how she always looked at her suits with a keen eye, spotting the problems, making decisions. So, that’s what I needed to do. Harry wasn’t truthful with his past—he hadn’t lied, but it was definitely something he should’ve told me. It was a huge secret he kept. It was acriminalsecret he kept.
