Page 49 of Mad Girl

“Never happened. Michael’s never cheated on anything in his life—not even a card game.”

Sienna lowered her sunglasses. “Prove it.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Show me your left shoulder.”

The request threw me. But she’d asked to see my shoulder when she’d confronted me at the house, too. What the hell was she looking for? A giant hickey or something? I tossed my hands in the air. “What for?”

“That’s what I thought,” she said, rising from the bench. “You definitely hooked up with him.”

“Fine,” I said with a huff, yanking one arm out of my coat. I pushed the collar of my sweater aside, letting it gape open enough for her to see. Across the park, Hal lifted an eyebrow as Sienna leaned forward and studied my shoulder, bare except for my bra strap. “Are you happy now?”

“This is perfect,” she said, glossy red lips curling into a smile. “This works out so much better.”

“What works out better?”

“Thanks, Elliot,” she said, grinning as she adjusted her sunglasses. “You actually did me a huge favor.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“See you later,” she said cheerily, fingers waggling in the air as she pranced off.

To myself, I muttered, “What the hell just happened?”

And why did I get the feeling that sneaky visit to Michael’s apartment would come back to bite me in the ass later?

LETTER NINE

89 WEEKS LEFT

We coasted along pretty smoothly after the Sienna incident.

Spring arrived, and then it was April, and you became different, Casey, the closer it drew to your birthday. You started snapping at me for little things. Like leaving my dishes in the sink. Or coming home five minutes late. Or turning up my music too loud when Tinsley and I hung out after school.

The first birthday you spent with us fell on a Sunday. I woke up that day, planning to give you a big hug, but found your room empty when I peeked inside it on my way downstairs.

We had brunch as usual, but you never showed, Nic tossing worried glances at your empty seat all throughout the meal. When he caught Michael texting underneath the table, Nic asked if he’d heard from you. Michael said he hadn’t, that he’d been trying to reach you all morning, long before we’d ever sat down to brunch. You’d seemed pretty upset about something when you two had hung out the night before, he said, and it worried him. This information caused a look of alarm to pass over Nic’s face. He excused himself from the table, already lifting his phone to his ear.

As the afternoon wore on, we really began to worry. It wasn’t like you to disappear without a trace, or miss brunch without a reason, or ignore everyone’s texts and calls. The Harrises and Eleanor left, but Nic asked Michael to hang back. They stayed in Nic’s office, chatting forever. When Michael finally came out, he found me sitting with Garland. “Text me if he comes home. My dad and Hal are going to help me look for him.”

“Do you think this has something to do with it being his birthday today?” I asked.

Michael looked away. “Probably. Yeah.”

Later, I approached my dad in his office, where he was staring down at his phone, probably wishing he’d thought to track your location, his head propped between his hands.

“Dad, have you ever talked to Casey’s sister, Claire?”

Nic straightened, his desk chair squeaking across the floor. “No. Why?”

“I overheard her and Casey talking once on the phone. She asked him for your number. Said she wanted to talk to you about some stuff.”

“What stuff?” Nic asked.

“Casey spiraling? Self-destructing? Having to be pulled off a ledge? She sounded worried it might happen again if something didn’t go the way he hoped.”

Nic’s eyes grew wide with panic as he snatched his phone off the desk. “I’ll find her number right now. Why don’t you get started on your homework? Let me deal with this.”