I wasn’t going to fight with him over this. He was handing me a lifeline and I was going to take it. I called Felix first and let him know I wasn’t allowed to leave. I was very aware of the fact that Miller was staring at me. And because of it, I ended the call sooner than I wanted. “Can I make one more call?” I asked.
Miller nodded.
I dialed the number and held the phone back up to my ear. Kennedy picked up after only one ring.
“Please tell me this is my best friend and she hasn’t been murdered by Isabella yet?”
I laughed. “It’s me. And I’m alive…for now.”
“Oh thank God. I’ve been so worried. I looked all over for you after school ended and you were nowhere to be found. I’ve been answering the phone all day like this by the way. I really freaked out the pizza delivery guy.”
I laughed again. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too. What’s it like there?” asked Kennedy. “Oh wait, let me guess. Creepy as hell?”
“Pretty much.”
“Do you think you’ll come to work tomorrow? I know you had called out sick today, but I thought you were still planning on coming tomorrow. I think it’ll feel normal, you know?”
Normal. I doubted that. But a night of work sounded a lot better than a night of whatever the hell this was. “Yeah, if I’m allowed out, I’ll be there. I’ll talk to Mr. Pruitt about it in the morning.”
“If you’re allowed out? What does that mean?” Kennedy asked.
“It means there’s a keypad and I don’t have the code.”
“Weird.”
I stared at the keypad. “I know.”
“Maybe the code is Isabella’s birthday,” Kennedy said. “Do you have any idea when that is?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm. You really should know your sister’s birthday, Brooklyn.”
“She’s not my sister.”
Kennedy laughed. “I know, I was just kidding. Maybe the code is 666. You know…the universal code for Isabella.”
“That’s not a bad guess.” I didn’t try it though. Just because I thought the Pruitts were evil didn’t mean they personally identified as evil. Or did they?
“So you’re really stuck there?”
“Yeah. Nobody is allowed in and I’m not allowed out.”
“Are you going to be okay tonight?”
“It’s the same apartment building that Felix lives in. It’s nice knowing he’s nearby even though I can’t see him.”
“Well, that’s not so bad then. His apartment isn’t exactly homey, but it’s nice. Not even a little creepy.”
“The Pruitt’s place isn’t decorated like Felix’s. It’s more haunted mansion-esque in here.”
Miller laughed from behind me.
I turned around and smiled at him. “I should probably go. I’m borrowing a phone.”
“Okay, but you should call Matt when you get a chance. He’s kind of…losing it. He stopped by about an hour ago and he looked awful.”
I swallowed hard. He’d been a jerk. Countless times. But it still hurt me to know that he was hurting. Or…hurt me more. I was already hurting. “So I guess he told you what happened in class?”
“No. What happened?”
I gripped the phone a little tighter in my hand. He hadn’t told her that I broke up with him? He just showed up at my best friend’s place to try to get her to make me call him back? That wasn’t him being hurt. That was him being manipulative. “We broke up.”
The line was silent for a few beats. “Because of what Isabella did?”
“No. Because of what he didn’t do.”
Another stretch of silence. Kennedy knew about Isabella blackmailing Matt. I’d spilled everything to her on the steps of Empire High the morning before Matt was supposed to announce to everyone that we were dating, but didn’t. The same day that my uncle died. We hadn’t talked about it since. I hadn’t talked about it with Matt either. None of it seemed important after that. But for some reason I expected today to be different. Especially since Matt had just asked me to be his girlfriend officially. Today was my first day back at school and I’d needed him. I’d needed him and he hadn’t stepped up. I’d lost my whole family. I just needed one person to rely on to have my back. And it wasn’t him. I sniffled, remembering how sweet he’d been in the park this morning. Secret rendezvous weren’t enough. “I’ll explain it all at work tomorrow. I just can’t be with someone who…”