What Happens Now(60)

Mom’s eyes swiveled to my phone, which I was still holding in one hand. “Why will so many people have seen these photos?”

Oh. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that.

“Because they’re posted on Eliza’s page in an online community where a lot of cosplayers hang out, called AlternateArt,” I said as casually as I could. “The whole point is to take the photos and then share them.”

Her frown line deepened. “Pictures of you dressed like Satina Galt are all over the web?” She sounded so horrified, so embarrassed.

“Not all over,” I said, feeling anger form into an actual shape in my throat. “Just on this one page.”

Mom shook her head. “This sounds dangerous to me. Is your name associated with the photos?”

“No!” I felt my voice getting louder and higher. “Eliza uses an alias on her page. I’m sure she gave us aliases, too.” Then, because that anger was getting big and there was no way I was going to swallow it down now, I added, “But way to take all the awesomeness out of it, Mom.”

She looked at me like I’d kicked her.

“I’m sorry, but it’s my job to keep you safe. Especially after everything you’ve been through. Especially now that things are going so well.”

I laughed. “Going so well? For you, maybe! Have you looked around at the rest of us?”

Mom stood up. “Ari. We’ve had such a nice day. Don’t ruin it.” The same tone she used with Danielle, but stripped of at least three more layers of softness.

I laughed again. It may have sounded a little maniacal. “You’re using that line on me now?”

She held up her hands. “I’m not continuing with this conversation. I’m done.”

“Okay,” I said, standing up, too, and climbing a step so I was taller than her. “Are we also done with our little show for Camden’s sake? We can take off all the makeup now. We can stop pretending we’re a family that actually cares about one another.”

Mom stared hard at me, scanned me head to toe in much the same way Eliza once had. It was possibly the most she’d looked at me in a long time. Then she flung open the door and disappeared inside the house, slamming it behind her. There was something profoundly satisfying about the sound of that slam. Boom.

I waited a few minutes, staring out at the street, watching the top of Mr. Gustafson’s head bob up and down. Finally, I went inside.

It was dead quiet.

I paused in the hallway to look at that fifth grade picture again. The girl in the photo looked different to me now. Camden had seen her. She stared back at me with a knowing expression, like she’d seen him back.

As I moved down the hall toward the bedrooms, I started to hear some noises. I lingered between the closed door to Dani’s room and the closed door to Mom and Richard’s room.

Behind the door to Dani’s room, I heard the sound of Richard’s voice, rising and falling in a lilt from Narnia.

Behind the other door was the sound of something high-pitched yet soft, jagged but shapeless. It was something I used to hear a lot.

My mother, crying.

I went into my room and picked up the copy of Planet Jasmine that Camden and I had left on the floor. Then I started to read.





16




Vera the dog had been found.

She and her owner stopped in to the store the next day to give us the good news and remove the flyer from the bulletin board.

“Where did she turn up?” I asked the guy after he crumpled the flyer with great ceremony.

“In the parking lot of the nature preserve,” he said. “About two miles from our house. She climbed into the bed of a truck that looks like mine, and some dude drove around for half a day before he noticed her in there.”

I crouched down to pet Vera. “She looks happy to be home.”

The dog’s ears stood up at the word and she gave me an expression like, You have no idea.

On their way out, they held the door for someone coming in, who turned out to be Camden. Followed by Max and Eliza.

“Hey,” said Camden, leaning across the counter to kiss me. I assumed it was going to be a quickie and drew away after a moment, but he reached out and pulled me back toward him for another, longer one. He tasted like grapes. When we finally managed to separate, I turned to face Eliza.

“Sweet,” she said. “You guys are sweet together.”

The proclamation felt important somehow.

“Although,” Eliza continued, a wicked smile spreading across her face, “the words people are using most often include hot, crazy sexy, OMFG, and my personal favorite, Satinazor.”

“People,” I said.

“The AlternateArt people,” said Camden. “Apparently, my Azor and your Satina are the couple of the moment. Among the geeks and freaks, that is.”

Eliza fiddled with her phone and hoisted herself onto the counter so she could lean in next to me. “See,” she said, and showed me a phone-sized view of all the comments.

“I really don’t need to read them,” I said, waving the phone away.

“You really don’t,” added Camden, giving me a meaningful look before turning to Eliza. “Who cares what other people think of the photos? We did it for fun. For ourselves.”

“Maybe you did that,” said Eliza.