Page 389 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

The Yeah filling with air in my brain…

My head swings to him,

my stare showing its ass.

“You still mine?”

His jaw falls slack,

then his face goes still,

a timeless statue trapped with his lies.

All that moves is his heaving chest

before his jaw deadbolts shut.

Someone honks behind us.

The light’s green.

His eyes leave me

and return to the road.

Then he hits the gas.

// 10:38 PM - DOME SPORTS - WALDWICK, NJ //

The Civic rolls into a space at the sporting complex.

Andrew leaves the engine running,

the heat filling the cabin,

but the silence is loud between us.

He’s staring down at his lap, his thumb beating out some pissed-off drum solo against the wheel while his mind is a million miles away.

Through the windshield, I watch the dome ceiling tremble each time the wind blows, still haunted by the ghost of Hunter and his car, and the shadow my question left behind.

I want an answer.

I want an explanation good enough to never circle back here. But his silence turns into a different kind of violence.

He knows I crossed a line.

He knows I dug through his phone now, and I have no idea what’s going to happen next.

His lips part,

but only air comes out.

He swallows hard, tries again,

but the truth gets trapped inside him.

With a hissed curse, he snatches the door handle and throws himself out into the cold.