White Rabbit(19)

“Nice to see you, too,” I offer, but she ignores me.

“What the fuck does this text mean, I know where you were tonight?” She thrusts her phone into Sebastian’s face. “This has got to be the saddest, most pathetic attempt you’ve made yet to get my attention, Bash Williams. Seriously, truly pathetic.”

The air practically crackles in the silence that follows, Lia’s eyes flashing in the shadows as she stares daggers at the two of us. Sebastian lets her outburst ring in the air for a moment. “Are you done?”

“Screw you,” she spits.

“Great. We’ve got a couple questions—”

“You know what? Fuck your questions, Bash! I am so sick of you jerking me around, making promises and messing with my head! I’m done with all of it, so … you know, whatever this is, you can shove it up your ass.”

She turns to march back up the walk to her house, and I blurt, “Where’s Arlo?”

Lia freezes and pivots back around, eyeing me warily. “I’ve got no idea. Why are you asking me?” Then, as if she’s suddenly confused, “You mean Arlo Rossi?”

“Oh, gimme a break,” Sebastian scoffs. “You mean Arlo Rossi? You are the worst liar.”

“You would know,” she shoots back, immediately venomous, “lying was always your special talent!”

“Stop it, both of you!” As much as I’m enjoying their tiff, I’m anxious to get to the point; Fox is still lying dead in a cottage some twenty-five miles away, and every other second I seem to have a different, heart-stopping vision of the police finding out about it before we have a chance to tell them ourselves. “Listen, Lia, this is actually important. We know you and Arlo went to a party together tonight, so just level with us, okay?”

“We didn’t,” she returns adamantly, flustered again, just as bad at lying as Sebastian pointed out. “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. Who even told you that?”

I weigh my options. “April. She was texting me about Fox’s party, and said she’d call me when it was over, only now she’s not answering and I’m getting worried.”

Lia actually squints at me. “Why would she call you?”

“Because I’m the only other person she knows who’s still into Supernatural, and she wants us to write some fanfic together,” I retort acerbically. “What she wanted to talk to me about is none of your freaking business, but you were with her tonight, so I want to know what happened.”

She looks between the two of us, vibrating like a tuning fork, and directs her next question to Sebastian. “So what are you doing here? What do you have to do with this?”

“Just answer him, okay?” Sebastian sighs. “Please?”

“She’s probably boning Fox.” The answer comes quickly, and with purposeful bluntness. “Nothing like a little make-up sex to keep you away from the phone, right? Hope that doesn’t scandalize you.”

I’m trying to figure out if this is a real guess, or if she’s simply trying to distract me with the unwelcome mental image, when she gives her long hair a defiant toss, exposing her face fully to the light for the first time. A nasty purple contusion arches along her left cheekbone and eye socket, stippled with broken blood vessels, and she only seems to realize what she’s shown us a second before Sebastian reacts, lunging forward. “What the hell happened to you? Did Arlo fucking hit you?”

“No.” She shoves him away, ducking her head down and letting the shadows conceal her injured eye again.

“Don’t lie for him!”

“I’m not lying!”

“I’m gonna fucking kill him,” Sebastian fumes, his face darkening with rage, and I watch as his fists tighten and veins pop up along his forearms. “Where is he?”

“Oh, get over yourself, Bash!” Lia suddenly snaps. “This ‘jealous protector’ crap isn’t gonna work, so you can just drop it, okay? I am so sick of you thinking you can totally ignore me when we’re together, and then make some great big gesture once we’ve broken up, and that that’ll be good enough—that I’ll just take you back because I’m that desperate for some dude to validate me.”

“That’s not—”

“I told you the last time that we were over for good and I meant it.” She makes an emphatic gesture with her hands. “I wasted enough of my life dating you, and you can literally go fuck yourself for all I care.”

Crickets saw away into the charged stillness that follows, and I turn to Sebastian in surprise. He and Lia broke up again? He won’t look at me, though; he’s still glowering at his—apparently—ex-girlfriend. Through gritted teeth, he says quietly, “If you think the only reason I’d go after a guy who hit you is because I want to impress you, then you don’t know anything about me. Any guy who beats up girls deserves to get his fucking ass kicked. I don’t need another reason.” Then, “And, for the record, I don’t want you back, anyway.”

“Great, then we finally agree on something,” Lia snaps, although her relief doesn’t seem entirely genuine. “Besides, like I was saying, it wasn’t Arlo—and it wasn’t even on purpose. Arlo and Fox got into a fight, I tried to break it up, and Fox hit me by mistake. No big deal.”