Nice Girls(52)

I couldn’t think of anything to say back.

“But . . . would he do that?” I asked finally. “He’s a cop. He could do that stuff to anybody.”

“Some people more than others . . .” Dwayne said, trailing off.

He seemed lost in thought. For some reason, I thought of Jayden and his aversion toward Charice’s brother.

But Kevin confused me. He was thorny, and he came off as more vindictive than he meant to be. He’d hurt me as a child, and he was rude to people he didn’t care for. Kevin had lurked in Dwayne’s shadow for years, but things had changed. Kevin had power as a police officer, and he liked that he now had it over Dwayne. He would have relished it, and Dwayne would have taken things the wrong way.

But Kevin cared about Olivia. I believed it fully. He’d loved her since childhood. At the park, he’d diligently searched for her. When her nude photo had been leaked, Kevin had tried to stop the situation, even though he’d been flustered. I knew that no matter how badly he treated other people, he would make Olivia the exception. I had to trust him.

Dwayne cleared his throat. He had a tired grin on his face.

“I don’t want you to feel bad for me, Mary. Things change after high school. Some people drift apart, others just cut it off. Kevin and I happen to be very different people,” he said mirthlessly. “It would’ve always ended up like this. Outside of the partying, we didn’t have much in common anyway. It was all convenience.”

I thought about Madison. Maybe our friendship had been like that—one of convenience. Maybe we stuck together because instinctively we knew it was better to have someone than no one. Perhaps we’d never liked each other—it was all contempt, masked by high school desperation.

“Who’d have thought things would turn out the way they did?” Dwayne asked. I heard the unmistakable pang in his voice.

“You sound like an old man when you say that.”

“I do feel old,” he said.

“That makes two of us.”



By the time my shift was over, it was already dark outside. In the break room, I put on my winter jacket and grabbed my purse. Dwayne suddenly came in, a black duffel bag slung around his shoulder.

“You heading to the gym?” I asked.

“Mm-hm.”

The two of us left the break room together, walking down the hallway.

“You got plans tonight, Ivy League?”

“Probably dinner with my dad and some TV.”

“Sounds exciting.”

“That’s me. Always exciting.”

But more than likely, I would be holed up in my room.

I had no idea how to leak DeMaria’s investigation to the local press. Their websites couldn’t protect their anonymous sources—there were no encryption programs in place. Even a fake email account could be tracked. I could only think of sending paper copies through the mail, but there was more room for human error.

Meanwhile I had to hope that Charice and Jayden were doing their work. I couldn’t risk texting them for updates.

Dwayne stopped at the exit doors, an arm out on the handle. He turned toward me, smiling sheepishly.

“If you’re not busy tonight, would you want to come over to my place and hang out?”

There was a pause as we looked at each other. My face grew warm, and I thought about how my hair stuck out from under my wool hat and how my scarf was unkempt around my neck. My pulse was racing. It was strange how this exact moment had occurred other times before, with other people. Yet I still never knew how to react when it did.

A door slammed down the hallway—the two of us nearly jumped. Ron skulked by, a skateboard under his arm. He squinted at us, suspicious.

Dwayne raised a hand to greet him. Ron just looked from me to Dwayne, his expression sour, as if the guilt were apparent on both of our faces. Ron left without a word.

When it was just the two of us, I felt my face burn again.

“I’ll see you tonight after dinner then,” I said.

Dwayne nodded, his smile still sheepish.

By the time I made it to my car, the cold air had blasted across my face and seeped onto my fingertips. But I could only focus on the small knot of warmth that had built up in my chest.



After dinner, I showered. When it got late, I told Dad I was going to see a movie with my friend Charice. I would be sleeping over at her place for the night.

Dad said nothing as he watched TV. He told me to drive safe. He could tell that I was lying to him, and he probably suspected that there was no Charice for the night and no wholesome girls’ movie to watch. But what else could he do except play along?

At the Jewel of Liberty Lake, I parked in the only open guest spot, beneath a light pole. Dwayne buzzed me through the front doors, and I waited as the elevator propelled me upward.

It was quiet in the hallway when I knocked. I fought the urge to turn back. I was past high school, I was older now, I was better—

And then the door opened. Dwayne peered down at me in a gray T-shirt. The apartment was dark. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, feel the air ripple with heat. And I liked that rush as the thoughts went away and pure feeling remained.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

As soon as he shut the door, I felt his fingers dig into my waist. And his lips were falling onto mine and my arms were wrapping around his shoulders. He lifted me through the dark of the apartment, tossing me onto the bed as our hands peeled off each other’s layers. We were greedy and hungry and desperate. We were frenzied, as if we’d been deprived our whole lives.