Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(64)

“I’m curious, Gloria, why you considered leaving?” Dr. Brenner asked, eyes only for her now.

“I was just exploring my options.”

He nodded. “I promise you my work is the best of them.”

Brenner continued, explaining to her parents how important he was without saying much of anything.

I wanted us all to be able to leave. I figured I’d better discover if it was possible in some easier way first…

Before Terry broke into his office again looking for evidence. Those plans had seemed to stall out. Terry had been quiet after their field trip to the Brickyard, a jaunt that had proved fascinating. Gloria had Alice take her around and explain all the workings of the race cars to her, even though only a few were on hand that day. It had been the “fun activity” that Alice promised.

And that underlined how not-fun the lab was. Gloria was now at pro level of managing not to take her acid, or at least not the full dose. She pushed it into her cheek with gum and then spat it into her palm when no one was watching. Her interrogations continued and she faked being ditzy sometimes to keep it interesting. This was the opposite of science.

The things we’ve done to stop it are more scientific. Alice’s handmade electroshock machine. She’d never been more terrified of anything in her life.

Before she’d sent the current through Alice, Gloria had imagined every possibility if something went wrong and the shock hurt her. No one would believe she’d volunteered. No one would believe a girl like Alice, not formally schooled, could create such a thing. People would’ve been all too ready for the scandal of Gloria Flowers embroiled in some oddity in the woods that hurt a young woman. With an unmarried man in tow.

Sure, she’d been worried about being caught by the lab guys, but her concerns had been larger, too. Some lives were easier to ruin than others.

“Nothing’s ever going to be fair, is it?” Gloria interrupted Brenner’s oratory about his great work.

“No,” Dr. Brenner said. “The world isn’t a fair place.”

Her father’s forehead wrinkles deepened, the way they did when he gave something thought. “In this house, everything always will be that can be. But outside, no, I won’t lie to you. Dr. Brenner is correct.”

“Thanks, Daddy.” That Brenner was here at all proved it.

Her mom picked up her own fork. “I’m glad to hear that Dr. Brenner appreciates you girls, both of you.”

Gloria took a bite of pink salad.

The last thing she wanted to do was upset her parents, who’d done nothing but try to help her.



* * *



—

Dr. Brenner finally left, after pushing his luck for an after-dinner drink with her father. It was like having a poisonous snake in the house.

Alice hung around, and Gloria was grateful. She’d have hated to be alone with him here. She also wanted to know what Alice had come to see her about. Gloria said she was going to walk Alice out to her car.

A light drizzle of March rain fell, so they stayed on the porch while Gloria looked to make sure no strange vehicles could be seen on the street.

“He’s gone. What is it?” Gloria asked. “The reason you came, I mean? I’m sorry you had to endure that man somewhere besides the lab.”

“He really won’t let us go, will he?” Alice asked.

“Terry would say we’ll make him.”

“Terry’s why I’m here,” Alice said. “It’s about the future. I’ve seen her in it…It’s not good and I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know whether to tell her or not.”

Gloria didn’t want to know any more awful secrets. But sometimes that was what having friends meant.

“Tell me,” she said.





2.


Terry checked again in the slender dorm room mirror that she’d put her shirt on right-side-out. Yesterday it had been lunch before a kind stranger pulled her aside and touched the tag on the back of her peasant blouse’s neck. She’d gone into the nearest bathroom and taken it off, cringing at the deodorant stains revealed by the correction until she could dash back to the dorm and change.

Yes, today her shirt was on right. A pretty paisley pattern Andrew had once told her made her look like a painting. A skirt that was a little snug. She’d been starving lately, but had barely gained a pound. Her body was changing its weight distribution somehow, though.

She assumed this was one of the side effects Brenner had warned her of. She wasn’t going to ask him about it.

Terry checked her makeup. After that, her hair. She peered out the dorm window again.

She had never been nervous about Andrew. Possibly the only boy she’d ever liked—definitely the only one she’d ever loved—that she felt instantly comfortable with and about. He was so straightforward. Andrew said what he meant. He might change his mind, but he’d tell you that, too.

His emerald green Barracuda pulled into the lot below and she rushed to get her big bag together, Polaroid camera tucked inside, and dashed out. She stopped in the hallway. Did she lock the door?

Who cares?

She rushed down the stairs, unwilling to wait for the elevator, and by the time she got to the lobby doors Andrew was approaching them. She bolted forward with a push that swung the doors out and then launched herself at him.