Real Bad Things(79)

Jason chuckled, his surrender a surprise given his ongoing adamance. “You’ve always gotten your way.”

“I try,” she said. “I was mad, you know. When I saw you in that room earlier, after you’d confessed. I’m sorry for what I said when I was angry. I promise I won’t tell anyone that I saved you and that you were wearing footie pajamas that night even though you were fourteen, or what have you.” She had gotten a bit carried away in her anger. “I’ll tell them you tried to stop me, but I was out of control. Blame my hormones if you must.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“It is.” She put her lips to the sheet to get as close as possible. “It is necessary. I’m sorry you got pulled into this. I never wanted that to happen. I want to apologize to you, Jason.” She straightened her posture and took a deep breath. “I apologize.”

Jason paused long enough to worry Georgia Lee, but then he laughed. “You’re really very weird sometimes.”

Georgia Lee would never understand Jason or Jane, or anyone really, how they found the things she did and said so funny but not in a normal funny way. It hurt sometimes, to be that misunderstood. To be laughed at when all she wanted was to say sorry. To be good. To be kind.

“I’m asking you to forgive me. You don’t have to. I know that. But I have to ask.”

“Isn’t that an AA thing? Asking for forgiveness? Making amends?”

“It’s a Christian thing. Perhaps they stole it.”

“Are you decent?” he asked, which startled her.

She had certainly tried to be, to varying results. “What do you mean?”

“Do you have clothes on?”

Puzzled, she looked down until she caught his meaning. She’d not changed out of her clothing but had slipped off her bra. She pulled the blanket tightly around her shoulders. “Yes.”

He pulled the sheet aside and stood before her. “I, Jason Tran, forgive you, Georgia Lee Lane, for involving me in a murder.”

She gripped the blanket tighter. “You’re making fun of me.”

“Yes. I am. It’s the least you can allow me.”

“That’s fair.” She couldn’t shake how similar he looked and acted to Jane despite having a different father. Diane’s genes were as heavy handed as her. There was the dry humor and sarcasm. The way they could make fun of her but she could still laugh and like them afterward. The way they looked at Georgia Lee. Not unlike a zoo exhibit, but still.

As if reading her thoughts, Jason asked, “Does Jane know you’re here?”

“No. You?”

“No.”

“Well,” she said. “That’ll be a fun conversation.”

Not that Jane would speak to her about it. Georgia Lee would need to hear the particulars from Jason, including, most likely, Jane’s suspicion that Georgia Lee had tried to trick her with sex. But what Georgia Lee had felt in the car was real. She’d thought it’d been real to Jane as well. But to Jane it was only sex, brought on by fear and an uncertain future. She had to remind herself of that. They might have worked in the past, but they would not work in the future. It helped to tell herself this. It soothed the ache.

“Can I tell you something?” he asked.

The request surprised her. “I suppose.”

“I actually thought I murdered him that night.”

“With the rock?”

He shook his head no. “I put roach killer in his food for weeks. Even his Bud Light.”

“You did?” She remembered the time he had spit in Warren’s drink behind his back. Seemed he was doing more than that.

He laughed. “Yeah. Fucking hated that guy.”

“Did he not know?”

He shrugged. “He and Mom were always so wasted. I could’ve put a gun in his mouth with his own hand and pulled the trigger, and he wouldn’t have noticed.” He paused. “I should’ve done that instead.”

She’d never heard him talk this way. But then, she barely knew him now, as an adult.

“And you thought that’s why he died?”

“Of course. I was young and stupid. I didn’t think it would do anything that bad. I just wanted to make him sick. But then he died, and I thought for sure they were gonna arrest me and blame me.”

“Does Jane know? Is that why she confessed?”

“Of course not. I’d never tell her. Besides, she’d never believe it.”

Georgia Lee could hardly believe it. The sweet, quietly funny kid who sat next to her on the couch and shared popcorn? Impossible.

“Warren did look a little rough that night. Perhaps it did affect him.” She recalled the vomit on Warren’s shirt. A vague recollection of him saying that Diane had hit him over the head with a beer bottle. The confused looks. It hadn’t affected his ability to hunt her in the woods. Some things were innate, she guessed. “No wonder you feel so responsible for my crime.”

“Well, you could say I loosened the lid for you.”

“Loosened the lid?” She didn’t catch his meaning. And then she did. “How dare you!”

Before she could object further, the lights burst on in their cells.

She and Jason held their hands over their eyes and squinted. Tom walked to Georgia Lee’s cell and unlocked it. Then he unlocked Jason’s. Neither one of them was offered handcuffs.