“No,” Mateo says quickly. “Autumn’s at work and my mom’s in the Bronx, remember?” He drags a hand through his hair, his expression ragged. “But yeah, my house probably looks like Charlie’s right about now. Autumn doesn’t keep anything there, either—she says they moved the stash from the shed where they found it to some other location—but I guess it doesn’t matter. Whoever’s doing this isn’t asking questions, they’re just…they’re doing whatever the hell they want.” He swallows hard. “Autumn really messed with the wrong people.”
“Yeah, she did. And you let her,” I say, my anger returning now that I know his family is safe. For now, at least. “Oxy’s no joke, Mateo.” I don’t know much about it, to be honest, but ever since Wes learned about a spike at Carlton College, he’s been up late most nights reading about addiction and overdose rates. Sometimes he shares his findings over breakfast, and I can hear his worried voice as clear as a bell as I continue, “People’s lives get ruined. Do you even understand how serious this is?”
Mateo’s eyes flash, and I brace myself for a scathing response. I want it, actually, and move a little closer so he knows I won’t back down. For a second we just stare at each other, shoulders squared and fists curled at our sides like we’re about to throw down. Which is ridiculous, because I don’t know how to fight and if I tried, he’d kick my ass. I mean, look at what happened to Charlie. He has twenty pounds on me and a golf club, and still almost died.
But right now, I’m mad enough to not care.
Then Mateo drops his head and rubs the back of his neck, looking suddenly exhausted. The dark circles I noticed this morning are more prominent than ever. “Yeah,” he says heavily. “I understand.”
I blink, and have to literally bite my tongue to keep from spewing more vitriol. I wasn’t expecting him to agree with me, and it takes the wind right out of my sails. I was ready to go toe-to-toe with defiant Mateo, but this guy? This guy looks like he hates himself.
Ivy glances tentatively between us. “I have a question,” she says quietly, like she’s afraid to disrupt the fragile moment of peace. “I don’t understand the connection between Charlie, Boney, and Autumn. How did that happen?”
Mateo heaves a sigh. “So, like a month ago, Autumn and Loser Gabe went to a party at this empty house at the edge of Carlton. It was condemned or something, supposed to be torn down soon, totally deserted. Anyway, Gabe was being a dick, like always, so Autumn went outside, and while she was walking around, she heard voices coming from a shed in the backyard. She said a couple guys from school were there, and started acting shifty and weird when they saw her. Turns out they’d found a bunch of Oxy hidden under one of the floorboards, and they were talking about taking it and selling it. One of the guys said he could get eighty bucks a pill.” He swallows hard. “And Autumn…Autumn wanted in.”
That’s pretty much what Charlie told me, except a lot less garbled.
“Why?” I ask. It’s what I came to find Mateo for; the piece of the puzzle that makes no sense. Even though Charlie and Boney weren’t friends, they had friends in common, so I can picture the two of them running into one another at a party. And I can definitely picture them stumbling drunkenly across a bunch of hidden drugs and thinking it was a gold mine. Boney used to see dollar signs everywhere, and Charlie’s the kind of guy who thinks rules don’t apply to him. But Autumn Wojcik? She’s always been quiet and serious, and probably made it through four years of high school without a single detention. I could imagine her walking away, maybe, and letting Boney and Charlie drown in their own stupidity. But joining them? It doesn’t fit. “Why would Autumn want to be part of something like that?”
Mateo’s jaw clenches. He doesn’t answer right away, and Ivy lets out a strangled little gasp beside me. “Your mom,” she breathes.
He nods, his expression pained. “It’s like I told you guys in the car—her pills cost a fortune, and our insurance has sucked ever since Spare Me shut down. So most of the time, Ma doesn’t take them. Autumn said that if she sold six pills a month, she could pay for the prescription. She said six pills wasn’t a lot.”
Ivy and I exchange glances as Mateo stares at the floor. “I tried to talk her out of it. Swear to God, I really did. I’ve been sick about it. But Autumn wouldn’t listen. And she wouldn’t listen when I told her how much my mom would hate it, or that it could all blow back on Ma and screw up the way people see her. My mom’s a Reyes, not a Wojcik. It’s different, and Autumn doesn’t get that.” He exhales a heavy sigh. “She doesn’t get a lot of things. Problem is, once my cousin gets an idea in her head, it’s like she has tunnel vision. She sees the light at the end, and none of the mess she’s making to get there. She said if I wanted to stop her, I’d have to turn her in. And I couldn’t do that.” His head drops, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mateo look so defeated. “There’s no way I could ever do that to her. And I didn’t think—I never thought something like this would happen.”