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“No. You’re trying to stall me,” I replied as I opened the door. I didn’t look back as I raced down the hall. I saw Jessica come out of the girls’ restroom, Nicole and Billy in front of a row of lockers.
I didn’t hear Sorina follow.
I thought of what she was, what the Deacon could be.
I couldn’t let them go with me. I couldn’t let them step into that house. I needed to lie to my friends.
I caught up to them, calling out.
Billy turned, then his sisters did. They stopped.
“So, what’s his plan?” Billy asked. “Archer house? Do you think Kyrie’s there?”
I shook my head, pretending to pant from the run, from my exciting news. “No, no. I just talked to Sorina. She says she knows where Kyrie is. She’s out of town. The Little Creek Baptist Church. Something about the woods there.”
I saw the shock on Billy’s face, and I regretted my lie immediately. “Sam’s father’s old church? Why would she be there?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She said something about there being a significance to it, to the woods there. She’s going to fill me in on the way, but we need to get there now.”
Billy looked at me like he didn’t quite believe me, but Nicole and Jessica nodded, accepting my lie.
“Okay,” Billy said, his voice harder than normal.
“You guys head that way. We’ll meet you there,” I said.
Again, Billy watched me, but his sisters walked to the door, and after a moment, we ran to catch up with them in the parking lot.
I was buying time. And I had little of it. It would take them ten minutes to get to the church and ten minutes to get back when they realized I wasn’t coming, and I had to hope the time they spent waiting was enough to end whatever would take place at the Archer house. I needed to get Kyrie and Valerie away from the Deacon. Though I didn’t know how.
“Where is your girl parked?” Billy asked.
I surveyed the parking lot. On the far side of the school where the teachers parked, I saw Sorina’s Firebird.
I pointed to it, and Billy nodded, then looked at me. “Okay. We’ll meet you there. But if you’re late, we’re going to her house. I don’t trust her, and neither should you.”
“I know. But I can’t risk Kyrie being there and not going,” I said.
That worked. Billy clapped me on the back, then turned around, following his sisters to his Camaro.
I jogged across the parking lot toward Sorina’s car as they started the engine, and when Billy and his sisters were gone, I turned back around, running down the parking lot to the road that led to the Archer house. It wasn’t far. And when I turned onto the main road, I saw Sorina standing on the sidewalk, gazing up at the moon. When I reached her, I saw the red stains on her cheek.
She’d been crying.
I’d meant to walk past her, be defiant, and make a point. But her tears struck me, cementing me.
I towered over her and pressed my fingertips to her cheek, wiping the blood away.
The next moment would stay with me when she was gone, when I knew she was lost to me.
She grabbed my hand and turned it. I stared at the red on my finger in the moonlight. With her other hand, she reached for my jaw and ran her thumb over it, up to my lips. She pulled down on my bottom lip, opening my mouth, and with her other hand, she brought my bloody finger up.
I didn’t protest. I didn’t ask her what the fuck she was doing. I just stuck my finger in my mouth, my tongue swirling around, tasting her salty, bloody tears.
She let go, dropping her hands, a small smile on her mouth.
I pulled my finger from my mouth and stepped back. “What are you trying to tell me? I’m not a—”
“No, no. You’re not what I am. I just wanted you to …” she trailed off.
