By midnight, we’d gone through everything Dad had in his filing cabinet. There was still another filing cabinet he kept in the garage, plus all the boxes and stuff in the attic, then there were their computers and Mom and Dad’s personal stuff in their room. It was overwhelming.
Nico rubbed a hand over his face. “Let’s give it a rest for tonight.”
It had been a long day. A really,really, long day. “Yeah. I don’t think I’ll be worth a damn if I have to look through one more file tonight.”
Nico and I made our way to my old room and got ready for bed. While I was brushing my teeth, he must have taken a closer look at my room. I came out, and he was holding a trophy, a lookof bemused confusion on his face. I saw the one he was holding and rolled my eyes.
He held it up and grinned. “What the hell is Miss Teen Naples?”
I walked over and tried to yank it out of his hands. He took a step back, chuckling. He nodded toward the shelf. “And The Florida Teen Pageant?”
“Fuck off, Nico,” I growled.
He laughed and finally let me have the trophy. I put it back on the shelf beside the other one. I flopped on the bed and gestured toward the awards. “So, my mom had always wanted a beauty queen. She did pageants when she was younger and loved them. Likelovedthem. I did a couple here and there, plus those two when I was in high school, but I hated it. Much to Mom’s disappointment. I preferred sports.”
Nico sat beside me and nudged me gently in the ribs. “I’m struggling to picture you as a pageant chick.”
I sighed and shook my head. “It wasn’tthatbad, but I’d never want to do it again. Something gross about getting all made up and in a fancy dress, then having people decide if you were the prettiest and most bubbly and shit. It was all very fake. I don’t like being fake.”
“Fair enough. Looks like you were a pretty accomplished athlete in high school, though,” he said, looking at the other trophies.
“Most of those are from team stuff. I was above average, but nothing special. Let’s just say there were exactlyzeroathletic scholarships being sent my way. That’s actually how I met Abi. On the track team.”
“Seriously? You guys have been friends that long?” Nico asked.
“Yeah. We both did the hurdles. I did the one hundred meters, and she did the four hundred. I also did the longjump, but I was terrible at it. Abi and I tried out when we were freshmen and immediately bonded over our very average athleticism. Two peas in a pod from then on.”
“That’s pretty cool. Did you enjoy high school? I feel like there are two types of people, those who loved it and those who hated it. Which one were you?”
I shrugged. “I guess I’m an outlier. I was pretty apathetic to the whole thing. It never seemed like this life-defining time that the movies and television make it out to be. It was a place I went to learn. I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t enjoy it enough to pine forthe good old daysall the time. It was sort of the Abi and Maddy show. We did our thing and didn’t let anything get between us.”
Nico grinned. “That sounds like you guys.” He raised a questioning eyebrow. “Any crazy stories?”
Of course, there were. Wehadbeen kids after all. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I thought of a good one, then almost burst out laughing. “Okay, here’s one of the best. So, this guy, I think his name was Aaron, started rumors about Abi and me.”
“Rumors?”
“Real douche stuff. He was on the football team and started telling everyone that he’d had a threesome with us. No one actually believed him, but it pissed us off. He had this giant red truck his daddy bought him when he turned sixteen. So, Abi and I decided to get back at him one night. We snuck into his parents’ driveway with three cans of paint.”
“Oh shit.”
I chuckled again. “Yeah. By the morning, it was bright neon pink. It also had several dicks painted on it. I don’t know if he ever actually figured out who did it, but the rumors stopped almost immediately.”
“Damn,” Nico said. “Couple of badasses over here.”
I shook my head. “Nope. Just dumb kids. If we’d gotten caught, we would have been in a hell of a lot of trouble. I’m sure it was several thousand dollars in damage, but I will admit, it was pretty cathartic.”
Nico stood and stretched his arms over his head, groaning. “Are you ready for bed?”
Just the thought of sliding under the sheets and passing out sounded amazing. “Very ready.”
My head had barely touched the pillow before I was asleep and dreaming.
I was walking down a corridor. It was familiar somehow, but I’d never been there before. The walls were ancient, covered in lichen, dust, and caked-on soot from the dozens of candles in sconces along the wall. Even as I walked along the stone floors, I had the sensation that this was more than a dream. It had the hazy realism of an old, almost-forgotten memory. How was it possible?
Before I could think about it, my thoughts were pulled away by the murmur of voices ahead. I moved farther down the corridor, glancing at the tapestries and oil paintings along the stone walls. One of the paintings showed a man with a thick black beard hanging almost to his chest and wavy black hair that fell to his shoulders. The look on his face was one of pious conceit. I had a moment of recognition as well as love and devotion. Who was this man? Why did it feel like he was important to me?
“We must do something,” the voice down the hall hissed. It pulled my attention away from the painting, and I continued down to the doorway.
