The Disappearance of Sloane Sullivan, page 14
I turned to tell Jason to calm down and saw Mark through the large window next to our booth. He was standing across the street, jaw clenched tight. Crap. I had more damage control to do than I thought.
Without saying anything, I jumped out of the booth and walked to the back of the diner, where I knew Mark would go. I didn’t even stop to wonder whether an alarm would sound when I shoved open the unmarked door by the bathrooms.
As soon as I stepped out into the quiet, cool evening, a hand wrapped around my arm. Mark led me a few feet away to a hidden spot between two Dumpsters. “What was that?” he hissed.
“I don’t know,” I shot back. It’s not like I had a lot of kissing experience to draw from, but that felt more like creepy Ben from the waterfall, more like a kiss to prove something than like Duke’s kisses. “I was teasing him to get our waitress’s phone number. I didn’t think—”
“Did you want him to kiss you? Because it didn’t look like you wanted him to kiss you.” Mark looked like he wanted to strangle someone. “Who was that?”
“Sawyer,” I mumbled.
“I thought you said there were no stalkers here.”
“He’s not a stalker.” I sighed. “He’s just annoyingly persistent.”
Mark raised his eyebrows, clearly about to point out how stalkerish my explanation made Sawyer sound, when the back door I’d escaped through banged open. Mark pulled me farther into the Dumpster shadows.
“Sloane!” Jason called. It was quiet for a moment, then Jason muttered, “Damn it, Sawyer.” The door slammed shut and based on the silence, I knew he’d gone back into the diner.
“Who was that?” Mark asked.
“Jason. He’s just a friend—he’s fine.”
Mark peeked his head out between the Dumpsters. When he was satisfied the coast was clear, he nodded toward the sidewalk just beyond the edge of the diner’s lot. “Come on.”
I followed him as we walked the few blocks home, daylight quickly fading around us. About halfway there, Mark whirled on me. “Do you want me to call in reinforcements on this Sawyer kid?”
I snorted at the image of Sawyer being surrounded by a team of Marshals in the middle of the cafeteria and hauled away. “That’s one way to blend in.”
Mark frowned.
“Look, it’s no big deal. I thought it would be enough to have Jason tell him I wasn’t interested, but maybe he needs to hear it from me. I have an idea. Let me handle it, okay?”
He shifted, his expression unreadable. “You’re not interested in him?”
My mouth twitched at the memory of my conversation with Jason the night before. “He’s not my type.”
“Hmph.” Mark started walking again.
As I hurried to catch up, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and read Mark’s texts for the first time. The first one was basic:
I’m home.
Followed two minutes later by two more in rapid succession:
That diner is close.
Are you up for some company?
His last two texts came less than a minute later.
Screw it. I’m coming.
Last chance to stop me.
“Hey.” I wrapped my hand around Mark’s wrist to stop him. “You wanted to have dinner together?” I held up my phone as evidence.
He closed his eyes and when he opened them, I was surprised to see hazel instead of his natural brown. I’d forgotten for a moment. “I didn’t remember you were going out with your friends tonight. I thought maybe you’d gotten tired of feeding yourself.” He looked down the block. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was about to turn around when...”
“Hey,” I repeated. “You don’t have to apologize for wanting to eat out with me. We should try that place sometime. It’s neat inside and the food...” I paused. “I can’t say what the food’s like because I left before it arrived. Crap!” I searched his face in alarm. “I think I just walked out on my check.”
“Don’t worry,” Mark growled. “Lover boy can pick up the tab. They won’t let all of you leave without someone paying.”
I remembered the observant hostess and figured he was probably right. I released Mark’s wrist and we walked side by side in silence, Sawyer’s kiss replaying in my head. “I wanted to stab him with my fork. Or maybe punch him in the throat,” I admitted as we turned onto our block.
“Maybe it’s good you didn’t.” There was a smile in Mark’s voice. “We know how well that worked out for you last time.”
I bit my lip to keep from snorting.
I let the water run into the sink, pretending to wash my hands to waste a few more minutes. What was Mark thinking? I knew there were times we needed to play along, to say yes to invitations in order to fit in and not raise suspicions, but this? This was cruel and unusual punishment.
A shrill shriek followed by a chorus of giggles made me jump. I ran a hand down my black hair, watching my reflection in the mirror. Autumn was turning thirteen—too old to need a babysitter, too young to be someone an almost sixteen-year-old would actually hang out with. The only reason I was even at her party was because her dad was Mark’s boss and an invitation from the boss couldn’t be ignored. The fact she’d only invited me in some misguided attempt to look cooler to her friends—apparently claiming that the sophomore you think of as a “big sister” can’t wait to come to your party gives you some middle school cred—didn’t matter.
I turned the water off, slid my phone out of my pocket, and texted Mark: You owe me. Big time. Like fettuccine alfredo and chocolate mousse from scratch big.
Making sure the phone was set on silent, I hid it away and mentally prepared myself for more gossip about middle school boys and questions about popular clothes in high school and how far I’d gone with a guy. I shook my head. If that was what Autumn wanted to know, she’d definitely picked the wrong fake “big sister.” I didn’t know how to do the friend gossip thing. If they’d been paying even the slightest bit of attention, they would’ve known from my nondescript wardrobe that I wasn’t exactly following fashion trends. And my only experience with a guy had ended with me kneeing him in the balls.
A small smile tugged at the corners of my mouth at the image of telling them that story. I bet Mark’s boss would love that. Instead, I opened the bathroom door, plastered on my this-is-so-much-fun grin, and stepped into the hall.
It was darker than it had been a few minutes before. And quieter too. Other than the one burst of laughter I’d heard in the bathroom, the ten girls at the party had suddenly become oddly silent.
I eased down the basement hall into the playroom. Bowls of chips were still overflowing on the pool table, balloons were still dancing along the ceiling, a super sappy romantic comedy was still playing on mute on the TV, but no girls. The fact they’d all disappeared together wasn’t too unusual; they seemed to travel in packs. But the lights were out. The life-size cutout of that teen heartthrob Autumn wouldn’t let go of was missing. And it was quiet.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
I edged around the pool table to get a better look out the sliding glass door. Maybe they went outside. But the light was fading too fast for me to see very far into the yard. Squinting, I took a step closer.
A shadow in the yard moved.
I scrambled backward and bumped into a large body right behind me.
Without thinking, I crouched down and swung my leg around in an arc just like Mark taught, sweeping a man’s legs out from under him. He crashed onto his back with a loud oof and before he could blink, my hand was hovering over his throat, ready to crush his windpipe.
There was a collective gasp.
I looked up to find ten girls huddled in the entrance to the playroom, all staring at me with varying degrees of shock. They must’ve come from somewhere down the hall, beyond the bathroom I’d just left. I glanced at the man on the ground beneath me and saw Autumn’s dad—Mark’s boss—sprawled on the ground surrounded by a very large pile of scattered birthday presents. There was no way he would’ve been able to see me over all of those presents, let alone avoid coming too close to me in the dark.
The sliding glass door slid open and the lights flicked on. “What are y’all doing in the dark?” Autumn’s mom asked. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene in front of her. Her grip on the sprigs of holly—the ones she must’ve just cut from the backyard bushes—slackened.
“What was that, Olivia?” Autumn exclaimed.
“Um.” I stood and smoothed my shirt. Think, think, think. “Well, you were asking me about guys earlier, and that—” I stared down at her dad, who was staring back at me with the reddest face I’d ever seen “—is what you do when a guy won’t leave you alone. I thought it’d be easier to understand with a real-life example.”
A tiny “oh” escaped Autumn’s mom.
I held out a hand to her dad. “Sorry about not warning you, but that move really only works when the person isn’t expecting it.” I put on my best fake smile.
He sat up, his eyes narrowing before he took my hand. How is it possible for his face to be getting even redder? “Gotta teach these girls how to protect themselves, am I right?” I said as I helped him stand.
“That was awesome,” Autumn muttered.
Another girl pulled out her phone. I angled myself behind Autumn’s dad right before she snapped the picture. “I’m posting this right now. Wait until we tell everyone at school what she can do.”
“Ooh,” the girl next to her said as she tapped on her phone. “I’m calling my sister. She’s a senior and said some guy keeps bugging her. If she can come over, can you teach that to her?” She looked at Autumn. “Maybe my sister could invite some of her friends too. Everyone should know this.”
Several of the girls nodded their agreement.
Crap.
“Is it presents time?” I asked, picking up two packages from the floor and placing them on the pool table next to the chips. “I left mine in my jacket pocket, but I’ll go get it right now.”
I brushed past Autumn’s dad as I headed for the stairs and took one quick glance back at the room. Autumn’s mom and the girls were talking excitedly, words like spy and ninja jumping out of their conversation, but he was watching me with hard eyes.
Crap, crap, crap.
I took the steps two at a time, snatched my jacket off the chair by the Christmas tree, and slipped out the front door.
Running as fast as I could, I covered five blocks before I even broke a sweat. I kept the same pace, my breath making puffy clouds in front of me, until I’d made enough twists and turns that no one from Autumn’s house could’ve kept up. I slowed down and called Mark.
“I’m already making the pasta,” he said as a greeting.
I didn’t bother with a greeting either. “Start packing.”
Something clattered in the background. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. No one’s here. I just...”
“If you don’t start explaining, I’m coming to their house in full Hulk mode.”
“No!” I peeked over my shoulder at a car driving by. “You’ll only make it worse.”
“What happened? I wasn’t supposed to pick you up for another hour.”
“Okay. Um, I may or may not have gotten a little spooked and thought something was off and...knocked your boss flat on his back and been about to punch him in the throat right in front of everyone.” That last part came out all in a rush.
I winced, waiting for Mark to start yelling.
Instead, he laughed. “Oh my God, you knocked Doug down? He’s almost a foot taller than you and has gotta weigh at least two hundred pounds.”
“Sorry.”
“No. Never be sorry for trying to protect yourself, okay?”
“But we’re going to have to move now! The girls wanted to post stuff about it online and get me to teach everyone at school and Doug definitely thought something was up. I tried to spin it but I don’t think it worked. I just screwed everything up.”
Mark’s voice was calm. “Are you close?”
“Three more blocks.”
“Good. When you get here I want you to tell me the exact look on his face when he realized he was on the floor.”
I cracked a smile. “You’re not mad?”
“He’s an ass. Worst boss I’ve had so far. And I hated sending you to that stupid party. It’s fine, Kid.”
The tightness in my chest loosened a bit. “What’s the reddest you’ve ever seen a person’s face?”
“Oh, now you’re just teasing me.”
I bumped Mark’s shoulder with mine. “What about you? Your reaction back there definitely wasn’t dramatic enough. There was this giant window just ripe for destruction. You could’ve stormed inside and thrown Sawyer through it. Gone into Marshal-turned-overly-protective-fake-dad mode. That’s a thing, right?”
Mark didn’t respond, but I could see his grin in the dim light. He pulled out his phone and the glow from the screen lit up his face. A second later, my phone chimed.
I snorted. The only person who had my number was walking right next to me. But I still read the three words Mark sent:
I missed you.
Fifteen
My fingers drummed against the steering wheel in Mark’s car the next morning. I patted my pocket to make sure the paper was still there, the buzz from just successfully completing phase one of my repel-Sawyer plan making me feel like not going home yet. Without consciously deciding to, I turned out of the diner’s parking lot packed with Sunday brunch-goers and headed for the ocean.
It wasn’t hard to find a parking space by the nearest beach access, a wide swath of sand surrounded by grassy dunes on either side. I turned off the engine and listened to the waves through the open windows. Shh, shh, shh, they said, whispering their secrets. Suddenly, I couldn’t get to the water fast enough.
I kicked off my flip-flops and crossed to the beach, smiling at the way the cool sand squished between my toes. I climbed the slight incline of the beach access until I passed the dunes and saw the ocean spread out before me. I gasped.
It was massive and blue and peaceful and endless, gentle waves crashing while wispy clouds watched overhead. The beach was deserted, which wasn’t surprising given it was midmorning on a Sunday in early April. April 10, to be exact. My mother’s birthday.
I grinned and ran toward the ocean, sucking in a shocked breath when my feet finally reached the cold water. I closed my eyes and let the spray of salt water cover my skin and the briny breeze ruffle my hair. When my feet turned numb, I backed up and sat on the sand. I picked up a handful and let it sift between my fingers. It had been almost six years since I’d been at a beach, any beach, but it felt exactly like I remembered. It felt like home.
Because my mom’s birthday was only six days after mine, we always celebrated together at the beach. We would set up camp on the deserted sand—early April was too cold in New Jersey for anyone except the most diehard beach-goers like us—and spend the day playing in the waves and building sandcastles and reading curled up on fuzzy beach towels, just the two of us. It was right to come to the beach today, to come home, on my mom’s birthday.
I leaned back on my hands and stretched out my jean-covered legs. I was contemplating the possibility that some of the water in front of me could’ve been the same water I once played in with my mom hundreds of miles up the coast when a hesitant voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Hey.”
I turned and saw Sawyer standing a few feet behind me. Warning bells went off in my head. This Repel Sawyer plan better work. “What are you doing here?”
“I followed you.” My alarm must’ve been written on my face because he quickly added, “Not like that. I was driving by when I saw you get out of your car. I parked but it took me a few minutes to work up the courage to come over.” He pointed to the sand. “Can I sit?”
I glanced at the empty stretch of beach behind him, then nodded.
He sat a safe distance away and watched the ocean for a minute. “I want to apologize about last night.” He faced me. “I’m sorry about the kiss.”
Just hearing him mention the kiss made me want to smack him all over again. But that’s why I had a plan. Because I wasn’t running away this time. I had to learn how to deal with the stupid things people did instead of leaving. But I wasn’t letting him off that easy.
“That was seriously not cool, Sawyer.”
“I know. You weren’t giving off kiss-me vibes so I should’ve stopped. And J told me you weren’t interested but I... I don’t know, I thought maybe you were playing hard to get. And then Kylie was there and I wanted to make you jealous by flirting with her. I thought you’d change your mind if there was someone else into me.” He hung his head. “I swear this all sounded better in my head yesterday.”
“I wasn’t playing hard to get. And you really need to make sure someone wants you to kiss them before you do, okay?”
“Yeah, definitely. No yes, no kiss. Got it.” He buried one hand in the sand. “J threatened to duct tape my mouth shut after you left. Any idea why he actually had a roll of duct tape in his car?”
I remembered Jason’s promise to be my wingman and bit back a smile. “Nope.”
We were both silent, listening to the waves, but I felt Sawyer’s eyes on me.
“Can I ask you something?” he said.
I smiled at him. I didn’t need things to be any more awkward between us. “Sure.”
“Are you not interested in me because you’re holding out for someone better?”
I picked up a handful of sand and threw it at him.
He ducked, but his shoulders shook with laughter.
“What is it with you people and better? No, Sawyer, I don’t think someone’s better than you. You’re cute and goofy and happy. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone grin as much as you do. And, okay, maybe you’re a little too touchy-feely for my taste...”
