How to Save a Life(39)

I was a good head taller than she was, but her bearing had always made her seem like a giant. We’d all spent our childhood—Garrett too—waiting for her precious affection, like baby birds waiting to be fed by a stingy mother. What she did for me tonight was almost unprecedented. I put my hands on her shoulders and bent to kiss her cheek.

“Thanks, Ma,” I said softly. “For everything.”

A wavering smile flickered over her lips. She waved me away. “You’re going to be late.”

I was already late. I was supposed to get Jo at six o’clock. I pulled out my phone to text her saying I was on my way. Garrett skipped at my heels behind me.

Outside, the sky was a strange yellow color with fingers of dark clouds clawing across it. A sleek black limo was parked at the curb so I was surprised to see and Shane and Merle standing by my truck.

I stopped halfway through my text as a black, ugly feeling took root in my gut.

“You want something?” I said warily.

A sick smile stretched over Shane’s face, looking as proper there as on a corpse. “I don’t want to fight anymore. I feel awful for what I did to your note. You remember your note?”

“I remember,” I said, the old pain flaring and then fading. “Forget it.”

“I wish I could,” Shane said. “I just feel so burnt up about it. It was the only tie you had to your real family. The people who abandoned and dumped you at the fire station.”

I breathed carefully, one hand clenched around my cell phone, the other around the plastic box with Jo’s corsage. The cover bent under the pressure. “Leave it alone, Shane.”

“No, really. I feel terrible for burning up that note. Especially since it was the only thing you had to remind you that you’re not, and never will be, a genuine part of this family.”

My vision was turning a hazy red. Garrett was at my heels like a little puppy, asking what was going on in a high, piping voice. For his sake, and for Jo’s, I fought for calm.

“But good news!” Shane declared. “I found another note! It was the strangest thing. I was looking around the house for a gift to make up for the horrible thing I did, and what do you know? I found this!” Shane held out a crumpled piece of paper folded in half. “Go on, take it. It’s yours.”

Garrett frowned. “What is it?”

Shane ignored him. “Go on,” he said to me. “Take it.”

I stared, riveted.

No. Don’t f*cking do it. It’s a lie and you know it.

I broke my gaze away and tried to move past them, rolling my eyes. Merle put his hand on my chest and shoved me back. “Take it,” he said.

Shane wagged the paper. “It’s a miracle I found another one. I mean, what are the odds?”

“Impossible,” I answered, my heart a sledgehammer. I fought to calm my breath. “Look Shane, let’s be cool for one night, okay? Go to the prom. Have a good time. I’ll see y—”

“That’s exactly what I want. For you to have best night. Which is why I’m giving this to you now.”

Merle eyed me darkly. Things would get ugly quick if I didn’t play along. Plus, I was already late for Jo. I held out my hand to Shane even though every instinct told me not to. Shane’s eyes widened in a kind of nervous anticipation and once I had the note, he inched a step closer to Merle.

“Evan, don’t,” Garret whimpered.

I opened the paper with trembling hands. The words were written in a boy’s messy scrawl. Please take the freak off our hands. PLEASE.

“What is it?” Garrett asked, his voice sounding tiny and distant.

“Uh oh.” Shane pouted. “Turns out the note wasn’t too good after all. I may have forgotten to mention that part. Turns out, your real parents thought you were just as strange and freakish as we do. And did you notice, there? Two pleases.”

My vision fogged up red as a horrific glut of pain and rage coiled around my chest, flooding me with the burning fire. I fought not to implode. I sucked in deep breaths, the note in my hand crumpled in a tight fist.

It’s bullshit. Shrug it off. For Jo. Don’t ruin this for Jo.

I chucked the note at Shane’s dress shoes. It took every bit of willpower to keep from breaking him in half. I headed toward my truck. I couldn’t drive, not yet, but I could sit in the cab alone and pull my shit together. I felt dizzy, my vision still blurred and my blood on fire.

“What? That’s it?” Shane cried with mounting fury. “Don’t you f*cking walk away from me!”

His cane snaked out and hit me in the shins, tripping me up. I fell flat, yanking the cane out of Shane’s weak hands. First my chin scraped on the gravelly drive, then my chest, scuffing my white dress shirt with dust and oil. The corsage fell out of my hand and landed a foot away.

“Isn’t that f*cking precious,” Shane said, his voice shaky. “But a white flower for that slut you’re taking to the dance? Seems inappropriate if you ask me.”

I watched as Merle’s foot came down on the plastic box, crushing it easily, destroying the delicate flower beneath. Garrett, somewhere behind me, gave a little cry.

“There you go,” Shane said, as Merle lifted his boot. “Dirty and used. That’s more like her, I think—”

I flew off the ground as if propelled by a jet engine. Shane’s sentence died as my hands circled his throat. He let out a howl as I swung him around and slammed him against the side of my truck. He was lighter than air and his head smacked against the cab with a satisfying thunk.