One of Us is Lying(49)
Nate was about to kiss me, wasn’t he? And I wanted him to. So why didn’t we?
Eli finally said it. Why isn’t anyone looking at other suspects?
I wonder if Nate and I are officially friend-zoned now.
Mikhail Powers does serial investigations, so this will only get worse.
Nate and I would be horrible together anyway. Probably.
Did People magazine seriously just email me?
“What’s going on in that big brain of yours, Bronwyn?” Nate finally asks.
Too much, and most of it I probably shouldn’t share. “I want to talk to Eli Kleinfelter,” I say. “Not about you,” I add when Nate doesn’t reply. “Just in general. I’m intrigued by how he thinks.”
“You already have a lawyer. Think she’d want you getting a second opinion?”
I know she wouldn’t. Robin is all about containment and defense. Don’t give anybody anything they can use against you. “I don’t want him to represent me or anything. I just want a conversation. Maybe I’ll try to call him next week.”
“You never shut off, do you?”
It doesn’t sound like a compliment. “No,” I admit, wondering if I’ve killed whatever weird attraction Nate might’ve once felt toward me.
Nate’s silent as we watch Shogo fake Shuya’s and Noriko’s deaths. “This isn’t bad,” he finally says. “But you still owe me finishing Ringu in person.”
Tiny electrical sparks zip through my bloodstream. Attraction not dead, then? Maybe on life support. “I know. That’s logistically challenging, though. Especially now that we’re notorious.”
“There aren’t any news vans here now.”
I’ve thought about this. Maybe a few dozen times since he first asked me. And while I don’t understand much about what’s going on between Nate and me, I do know this: whatever happens next won’t involve me driving to his house in the middle of the night. I start to tell him all my excellent practical reasons, like how the Volvo’s noisy engine will wake my parents, when he says, “I could come get you.”
I blow out a sigh and stare at the ceiling. I’m no good at navigating these situations, probably because they’ve only ever happened in my head. “I feel weird going to your house at one in the morning, Nate. Like, it’s … different from watching a movie. And I don’t know you well enough to, um, not watch a movie with you.” Oh God. This is why people shouldn’t wait until their senior year of high school to date. My whole face burns, and as I wait for him to answer, I’m deeply thankful he can’t see me.
“Bronwyn.” Nate’s voice isn’t as mocking as I’d expected. “I’m not trying to not-watch a movie with you. I mean, sure, if you were into that, I wouldn’t say no. Believe me. But the main reason I invited you over after midnight is that my house sucks during the day. For one thing, you can see it. Which I don’t recommend. For another, my dad’s around. I’d rather you not … you know. Trip over him.”
My heart keeps missing beats. “I don’t care about that.”
“I do.”
“Okay.” I don’t fully understand Nate’s rules for managing his world, but for once I’m going to mind my own business and not give my opinion about what does and doesn’t matter. “We’ll figure something else out.”
Cooper
Saturday, October 13, 4:35 p.m.
There’s no good place to break up with someone, but at least their living room is private and they don’t have to go anywhere afterward. So that’s where I give Keely the news.
It’s not because of what Nonny said. It’s been coming for a while. Keely’s great in a dozen different ways but not for me, and I can’t drag her through all this knowing that.
Keely wants an explanation, and I don’t have a good one. “If it’s because of the investigation, I don’t care!” she says tearfully. “I’m behind you no matter what.”
“It’s not that,” I tell her. It’s not only that, anyway.
“And I don’t believe a word of that awful Tumblr.”
“I know, Keely. I appreciate that, I really do.” There was another post this morning, crowing about the media coverage:
The Mikhail Powers Investigates site has thousands of comments about the Bayview Four. (Kind of a dull name, by the way. Would’ve expected better from a top-ranked newsmagazine.) Some call for jail time. Some rail about how spoiled and entitled kids are today, and how this is another example of that.
It’s a great story: four good-looking, high-profile students all being investigated for murder. And nobody’s what they seem.
The pressure’s on now, Bayview Police. Maybe you should be looking a little closer at Simon’s old entries. You might find some interesting hints about the Bayview Four.
Just saying.
That last part made my blood run cold. Simon had never written about me before, but I don’t like the implication. Or the sick, heavy feeling that something else is coming. And soon.
“Then why are you doing this?” Keely has her head in her hands, tears running down her face. She’s a pretty crier; nothing red or splotchy about her. She peers at me with swimming dark eyes. “Did Vanessa say something?”