“He said he was going to kill you.”
“So, why not let him?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, listen to yourself. I should let someone kill you because you fucked my boyfriend once upon a time in high school and you still have a thing for him?”
“Fuck, Rainy. Okay. What are we going to do?”
She licked her lips. “I think I know this guy. I’ve been thinking and I have a few plans. None of them are actually very good but—”
“Oh my God,” Braithe said.
“I think he was watching me…maybe before now. But he saw us together and he—”
“Used me,” Braithe finished.
“I’m sorry.”
Braithe whimpered.
“We have to focus.” Her backside was numb, and she shifted her position, painfully aware of the cuffs. “I set some things in motion before I got here. But first, I need to tell you about my past.”
It was light out when Ginger came back, this time carrying a black duffel bag, the same dingy beanie still on his head. His face was different. What was it? He turned his back to her to set the bag on the table; it made a solid noise when it hit the surface: it was heavy. How long had it been since she’d woken up in here? No more than seventy-two hours. Would that give him enough time to find her? Hurry, Taured.
If he comes…
He will come.
Ginger dumped out the rest of the bag on the small table behind her. The noise of the objects hitting the tabletop was loud and metallic. There were a limited number of things that could fit in a bag of that size and be that heavy. Glancing at Braithe nervously, she saw her playing along, her head resting on her shoulder. He would kill Braithe first, she knew it. He’d played with her the longest, but she hadn’t been his real target, anyway.
He smelled…stank. Rainy wrinkled her nose, watching his movements closely. Beer and unwashed body, she thought. He’d gotten a drink this time…probably a lot of drinks, judging by the smell of alcohol.
“Paul,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Are you okay?”
His shoulders hunched but he didn’t turn around.
He’d been manic so far, riding his own chaotic energy. This was a crash. This is what she’d been hoping for.
“Ginger,” she said clearly. “I have to pee. She probably does, too.”
He froze. She could see his fingers gripping the edge of steel table, gnawing without teeth at the metal until the knuckles turned white. He’d heard her.
Fuck. Maybe that was too far. Licking her lips, she tried again. “Did you think that I didn’t know who you were?”
Still, he said nothing, his back to her.
“You were closest to him, weren’t you? I saw you the night of my mother’s…her funeral, or whatever he called that spectacle. I saw you other times, too…” She let that linger. “I know what he did to you. And I know what you did to Sara.”
His torso jerked and then he turned around. He was smiling, one side of his mouth jerked up like a cartoon character.
“Hey, Summer.”
Something was different, wrong. Not wrong—right. That was it: he’d shaved. Without the beard, he looked a lot more like a kid. She could still see that kid in her memories, tripping over his words and his feet…being tripped. Looking like he’d explode every time Taured paid attention to him.
He’d been on the receiving end of Skye’s right arm, just like her. At the time, she’d only heard the rumors about what had happened to him; it hadn’t been out in the open, in front of most of the compound, like with her. Some of the boys had seen it, and then there was Sara, who, when taking her father his dinner tray, had seen Ginger in the infirmary.
“But why?” Summer had asked. Sara hadn’t wanted to tell her, but Summer had pressed her, so she had: Taured caught Ginger touching his thing. Looking at something bad and touching his thing. Taured said it was a terrible sin. So he had Skye hit him so hard his jaw dislocated.
That had been a few weeks before Skye had launched the baseball at her own face. After that, everything had snowballed, and Ginger had receded to the back of her mind with everything else that happened at the compound. To be happy was to forget, but something had changed in Rainy. Remembering hadn’t felt painful when she went back to Friendship. That had surprised her. She’d expected to feel depleted being there and, instead, felt energized, furious. She’d stayed away for so long to protect Summer, not realizing that it wasn’t Summer who’d be going back: it would be Rainy.