I cross the lot and push through the Elm Hall entrance. I take the stairs because the elevator is slow and I don't have the patience right now. Fifth floor. The hallway. Her door.
I knock.
Adela's roommate answers — I've seen her once, briefly, the morning after the first time I was here. She looks at me with the specific blankness of someone who doesn't know whether to be alarmed.
"I forgot something," I say.
She steps back.
I push Adela's door open.
Everything is exactly as it was when I left.
Her coat on the floor where I dropped it. The books on every surface. The bed unmade.
She's not here.
I stand in the doorway for three seconds.
I close the door, and I'm back down the stairs and across the lot. I jump into Theo's passenger seat.
"She's not there."
Theo pulls out of the lot.
"Her coat is still on the floor from when I took it off," I say.
He drives. The city moving past. He's putting distance between Elm Hall and us.
"What do you know, Beck?" The tone means he's already suspecting I know something important.
I exhale.
"She told me she was going to break up with him."
Theo's hands stay exactly where they are on the wheel.
"Today," I say. "This afternoon. She said she was done."
He stares into the traffic.
The city moves.
"Fuck!"
It comes out of him like something physical. One word, full velocity, his fist hitting the wheel once. Then he's quiet again. Jaw set. Eyes forward.
I look out the window.
Silas has been out of the loop.
I don't say it again.
I think it.
We drive.
Chapter 50: Cody
