I don’t want to be alone with these thoughts, or worse, thoughts of Adam, but there is little else to do. If I have to spend the night here, I’m staying where it’s most near where someone will hear my banging on the door first thing in the morning. I wince as I imagine what the town will have to say about that. Sky Flores, town freak, locked herself in a secret room overnight in the church after breaking and entering.
Honestly? That wouldn’t matter, either, considering what Adam’s going to publish about me. There’s really no use in trying to belong anymore.
I place my handbag on a step above me and use it as a pillow. I’ve cried all the tears I can. I’ve worried all the worries I can. Now I am beyond exhausted and it would be great if I could just sleep instead of remembering my current circumstances.
Except, just as I close my eyes, the door handle jangles loudly. I sit straight up so fast, I get dizzy. The door swings open right in front of me and there stands a familiar silhouette.
“Sky?”
I rub my eyes. I’ve got to be hallucinating. “Adam?”
“Hurry. Hurry. I’m pretty sure one of the priests is calling the cops on me literally right now.”
What he says doesn’t sink in, but the tone of his voice does. I’m on my feet in an instant, allowing him to pull me through. Nadia’s key ring is in his hands, meaning I definitely dropped it before I got inside the underworld back there, when I was trying to move too quickly without being caught.
Adam pulls me out of the office of education, and I see a man in the distance, on his cell phone. It might be Father Phillip, the nasty know-it-all who didn’t believe I hadn’t anything to confess during my first confession. I really didn’t. I was a good kid. What was I going to do, make up some lie about my sins? Which would literally be a sin, if you think about it. That’s what he wanted, I guess, because he told me I was sinning right then and there by lying to a father of the church. I’m glad his sleep is disturbed right now. It’s what he deserves.
Adam pulls me to run with him across the courtyard of the tiny K–12 school behind the office’s building, and we cross through a thicket of trees into the parking lot of the neighboring Denny’s. “Inside,” he says. I obey without words. I don’t feel like I really have words right now, anyway. I’m barely able to process what’s happening as it’s happening.
Adam nods to the waitress and we take a booth as far away from the entrance of the restaurant as possible. He stares at me in a way that makes me think my exhaustion isn’t anything compared to his.
My phone begins to buzz uncontrollably, and I pull it from my bag, frowning. “What is—”
“That would be me. And your sisters. And your aunt. And your grandmother. They’re all at your aunt’s house right now.”
“Because of me?” I ask incredulously.
“Yes. Because of you. Nadia noticed you weren’t home when you usually are.”
I shake my head. “Nadia never notices when I’m not home.”
“She checks on you at a quarter till midnight every night. She called me up—I don’t know how she got my number—”
“Meddling Latine elders,” I mutter.
“But she wanted to know if you were with me.”
I glare at him. “Obviously, I wasn’t.”
He sighs and looks down. “Obviously. But then she called your sisters. She called everyone in your circle…no outsiders, she said. No cops.”
“Every cop is a bastard,” I say. As if on cue, police cars rush past on the main road through the window, their sirens and lights on. “You think they’ll, you know. Find me? Or you, rather, since Father Phillip probably gave them your description?”
Adam shakes his head. “Nah. Beatrice—” He nods toward the server. “As far as Beatrice knows, you and I have been sitting here drinking coffee and chatting for hours.”
“You’re making her commit a crime?” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “Beatrice and William go way back. She’s trustworthy. And none of these places—not this Denny’s, not the church—none of them have any kind of surveillance. There’snothing the police will know except that the priest saw a guy go in and come out with another person. Nothing damaged. Nothing stolen.” Adam shrugs. “Don’t worry, Sky.” He has his phone out. “I’m texting your people. They’re going to want to see you as soon as possible.” He swallows. “You gave them quite a scare.” His next breath is shuddery. “You gave us all quite a scare.”
I roll my eyes. “What would you have lost if I’d disappeared, Adam?” I wave my arms around. “Oh no. The lying, crazy woman won’t bother me anymore.” I shrug. “It’s not fair for you to pretend like you actually care.”
Adam nods and reaches into his sling bag he’d slid into the seat beside him. “I deserve that. I know I keep saying things like ‘I’m doing it all wrong if you think that about me.’ But I really am doing it all wrong. All so fucking wrong.”
He hands me a pad of loose papers, held together with a paper clip.
“What’s this?” I ask.
He stares at me and swallows. “It’s— Sky. I know I don’t have any right to ask you anything. But please, I am begging you to read it.”
