Chapter 93
I kept talking. “Look, I think this business is pretty serious, Luce. He said that Christian spends a lot of time taking down posts where people seem to know things they shouldn’t know. And he’s also told me before they send people over to erase people’s memories who post that stuff.”
“Christian seems like a real nerd,” she said, setting her bottle aside and continuing to stretch.
I remembered what Elliott had told me about him the other day. “I’ll say,” I agreed. “But seriously, if you want to keep your memories, keep your lips zipped.”
“Okay,” she said, more of an acquiescence than anything else. “It’s just… I keep having weird dreams.”
Jess was back. I took a deep breath and blew it out as she offered me the water. “Oh, this is really cold,” I said. “Do you happen to have any that are more like, room temperature?”
“Seriously?” Jess asked, but she took it and turned around and went back in.
“I won’t be able to think of anything else to tell Jess,” I said quickly.
“Me neither. Yeah. Bad dreams. About vampires. And your sister. I wonder… I mean… is Jack really killing all of those people?”
I didn’t have an answer for that. For some reason, I hadn’t asked Elliott the day before. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because I didn’t want to know. “I hope not,” was all I could say.
A warm bottle of water was thrust in my general direction, and I looked up to see irritation written all over my friend’s face. “Thanks, Jess. You’re the best.”
Lucy cleared her throat as she slid down onto the ground in a near split. I knew she could go all the way down, but she was warming up. I followed suit. I wasn’t quite as limber as her, but I needed to work on it. Jess began to stretch her arms, likely glad we seemed to be letting her stay and practice now.
“Hey, I was just thinking,” Lucy said coming up to standing and switching legs, “you should ask your dad if that guy at work could tell him if that other guy really does drink a lot of tomato juice. I mean, if your dad says that he’s acting totally weird, maybe he’s got some sort of vitamin deficiency. You know?”
I knew. I wasn’t exactly sure how I knew, but I did know. She wanted me to ask Elliott if Jack was killing all of those people. Maybe we could figure out a way to talk in code from now on so I could keep my promise to Elliott and still let Lucy know stuff. And then… maybe she could get Emma on board, and she could be back in the loop, too.
“That’s a good idea,” I replied. “Maybe I’ll ask him tonight.” I decided to go a little bit deeper into my split and regretted it as my hamstring screamed at me.
“Tomato juice is so disgusting,” Jess said, and then she launched into a discussion about her favorite kinds of juices. Lucy and I did our best to tune her out, and I lost track of what she was talking about altogether until I heard her mention homecoming.
“What did you say?” I asked, suddenly interested.
“I said… doesn’t it stink that homecoming isn’t until almost spring break this year? It’s the last basketball game of the season. I’m used to it being around Valentine’s Day. I sure hope Jason Bronson asks me. He’s such a hottie.” Her mouth kept moving, and I slipped back into my mental coma. I did think it stunk that the dance was so late in the year but only because I, too, wished a certain guy would ask me out.
“I’m sure someone will have a Valentine’s party,” Lucy said, flapping her arms around like she was getting ready to do something really difficult. There was plenty of room in the garage for us to do whatever jumps we wanted and to do what little gymnastics we knew. I really wished I knew how to do a back handspring but had never learned. Lucy could do a walkover but not fast enough for it to be considered a handspring.
“A dance is totally different than a party, though,” Jess went on as Lucy took a few running steps and launched into a perfect cartwheel.
“Nice job, Luce,” I said, thinking there was no way in the world mine would be anything like that.
“Thanks,” she replied, standing. “I’m so sick of all of the guys at school anyway,” she muttered, coming back over to where she’d started. “They’re all so immature.”
“Not Jason,” Jess protested. She spent the next five minutes telling us why he was so awesome while Lucy and I practiced toe touches and pikes. When she was finally done, I decided it was time to try out my cartwheel.
“Wish me luck,” I said, and taking a few hurried steps, I threw my hands down on the ground and brought my feet over. It ended up being a sort of round-off, though not really round, and when I landed, my foot slipped out from under me, almost knocking me over. “Well, that was graceful.”
Lucy laughed at what I said, not my technique. “You just need to practice.”
“For sure,” Jess agreed, and then she tried one that ended up looking a lot like mine.
“Not bad for a week before practice even starts,” Lucy offered.
We practiced for another half hour or so before calling it quits and moving inside to watch TV for a few minutes before my mom pulled up to get Lucy and me. Mom had offered to give her a ride home. “Thanks a lot for letting us practice here,” I said to Jess as I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door.
“Anytime,” she said waving back at us. I couldn’t help but look up at the roof. I didn’t see anything, and I hadn’t heard anything while I was there, and since it was a ranch-style home, I felt like I would’ve known if Elliott had figured out what we were up to, but I knew we still needed to be cautious. I realized Lucy was right, and she and I were smart enough to speak in code and know what the other person was talking about.
