“Well…yeah. Of course.”
“Sorry, I just…I wish I could go to prom with the person I want to go with. But…it’ll be great anyway. I’m glad I’m going with Luke. I mean, it sucks that his girlfriend broke up with him, but we’ll have fun.”
“Yeah…” I say. “Yeah, I’m sure it will be perfect.”
Darci scoffs and shakes her head. She looks like she wants to say something else but stays quiet for the rest of the drive. She never turns on any music.
“Do you want to come in?” I ask her when we pull into the driveway.
“No,” she says. “I better not. I’ll pick you up tomorrow, though. Around four.”
“Okay.”
“My parents aren’t going to be there; they’re going to a concert in Everett, so I’m going to have a bunch of people over. Of course, I didn’t tell them that, though.”
“Yeah, sounds fun.”
“Trevor will be there,” she says. I want to scream; I wish she’d stop bringing him up. I don’t know why she’s pushing him on me so hard, especially when we all know she slept with him a couple of months ago. “I think you guys would make a really good couple. I wish you’d give it a chance.”
“There’s no point,” I say. “I’m not allowed to date. I don’t think he’s my type, anyway.”
“Well, whatisyour type?” she asks.
“I don’t really know.”
She stares at me like she has something to add, and I wait for just a few seconds before turning and reaching for the door handle.
“See you tomorrow, Darci.”
“Yeah…see you tomorrow,” she says.
I close the car door and head toward the house; the familiar feeling of trepidation runs down my spine as I force myself to turn the knob and step inside.
“Oh, good—you’re back in time for dinner,” Mark says. “Did you have fun shopping with Darci?”
“Um, yeah,” I tell him. “Thanks.”
“I thought you might like that,” he says. “Grace didn’t want to let you go, but…maybe we could loosen the reigns a little if you keep behaving.”
“Her grades are still terrible,” Grace says. “She should be studying. Wash your hands and come sit down.”
I set my bag on the entryway bench and feel my pulse skyrocket. All I want to do is take it up to my room and get that money into my hiding place, but I can’t think of a good reason to go upstairs and don’t want to look suspicious. So, I walk toward the sink to wash my hands and try not to look back at the bag I’m convinced will spontaneously burst into flames at any minute.
“Well, I don’t disagree with you there,” he says. “You do need to get that math grade up—at least get a high school diploma if I’m going to bring you to work with me in Olympia next year.”
He starts toward the dining room but stops behind me at the kitchen sink to run his hand down my back and over my ass.
“And you’ll have to start smiling more, too,” he adds. “Everyone likes a young girl with a pretty smile.”
The music is insufferable.
The thought enters my mind, and it’s so trivial compared to everything else going on right now that I almost laugh out loud.
That’s what Iwouldbe concerned about if it were just another Saturday night at my house and this was just another one of Darci’s parties with her equally insufferable friends.
Now, I have a host of new things to worry about. I blackmailed a teacher. I wired money to some dude I only know because we’ve been gaming online together for two years to make fake IDs for my girlfriend so she can run away from her abusive foster home.
And Darci knows. And Ally is here. So I have to watch her—watchbothof them—and make sure she doesn’t try something or do anything to hurt her.