Adrian.
Anger builds the longer I look at his stupid face. “Thought you were at your aunt’s.”
“I was,” he says, one shoulder shrugging as he props himself up on Evie’s pillows while she tugs the quilt up higher. “Now I’m here.”
“You should be in jail. You could have killed an animal. Did you know that? Their pet was inside the offices when you threw that crowbar.”
He looks momentarily taken aback. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t throw anything.”
“I should call the cops right now.”
“Josie!” my cousin pleads.
“You have no proof,” Adrian says. “Who’s to say it wasn’t another car? Or maybe it was Jam or Crandall?”
I have no idea who those people are, but I’m guessing they’re his Golden buddies who were in the car with him.
“Besides,” he says. “What if there were actual people inside my dad’s store when grease monkey threw the rock into our window? Ever think about that? Not animals, but real people. He could have murdered someone when he threw the rock.”
“It was an accident,” I say. “I don’t how many times I have to keep saying it.”
Adrian looks at me funny. “Why did you say it that way?”
“What way?”
He points in my direction. “Thatway.”
Oh god. How did I say it? My heart races when I glance at Evie’s face. She shakes her head—almost imperceptible, but a shake. A warning. “I just meant that I was there with Lucky that night,” I explain to Adrian. “I was there when it happened, andit was an accident. He wasn’t trying to hit the window. He was aiming for the sign. It wasn’t intentional.”
Adrian looks at me for a second too long.… Finally he frowns and sighs. “Whatever, kid. Let’s just agree that both incidents were misguided. Best for all of us if we forget it and move on. Why are you here, anyway? You need something from Evie? Otherwise, we’re kind of busy.…”
Wow. This guy just doesn’t give a damn. No damns. One minute he’s breaking windows, and the next, he’s up here in my cousin’s room—
Nope. Don’t want to think about it.
I look at Evie and say, “We’ll be having company in about an hour, just so you know.… Might want to clear out.”I strongly suggest you do.
My cousin nods at me, understanding, Cleopatra makeup slightly askew.
“Right. Well, then …”Have a good evening? Enjoy sleeping with the enemy—literally? Please, continue your toxic relationship that is clearly ruining your life?“I don’t know,” I mumble while I exit the room. “Whatever, Evie.”
As I’m pulling the door handle, the second Evie’s head turns away, Adrian puckers up and makes a kissy face at me.
Just for a second, I consider sticking my phone back inside the door and taking a quick photo of him as revenge for what he’s done to me, but my mind quickly sobers to what that photo would entail:He’s on Evie’s bed. Besides. I’m not sinking down to his muck. Screw him.
I slam the door behind me.
At first, I head into my room, but it’s next to hers, and I can hear them arguing through the walls. That’s too weird, so I quickly head to Mom’s room and shut the door, listening for sounds that Adrian’s clearing out of the apartment.
They’re definitely fighting. Good.
I’m not sure whether to be mad at Evie or disappointed. Hurt? It was one thing for her to go to him that first time after the party, when they were in the wreck together, if she was genuinely trying to get him to talk his dad into dropping the department store window settlement against Lucky. But now?
He broke the Karrases’ window.
He showed everyone a nude photo of my mother—thinking it was me.
That’s not okay. And I’m furious that she’d disregard all that like it wasn’t a big deal. Because it is. But even if none of that had happened, he’s still a dick. He still treated her like shit at that party. He humiliated her. He harassed her, sending all those demanding texts. And if he’s going to show everyone nude pictures of “me”—someone he doesn’t even know or care about—then what’s to stop him from doing the same to her if he gets mad enough?
