CHAPTER 10
925 Words
CHAPTER 10
She imagined screaming but was too petrified to make an actual sound. She pictured herself running behind the door so that when it swung open she would be partially concealed behind it. But her feet fastened to the ground like a slide on a microscope stage, held in place by unyielding metal clips. Her scream stuck between her throat and her mouth, closing off her trachea so she couldn’t breathe.
She watched the door swing toward her, clutched her phone as if it could ward off an attack. Blood drained from her head to her limbs, which still refused to move.
“What are you standing in the middle of the room for?”
At the sight of her roommate, Kennedy’s breath whooshed out of her lungs like wind through the subway tunnel. The paralyzing power of fear melted, and embarrassment heated her face. She steadied herself against her desk and clicked off her monitor. “Oh, you startled me, that’s all. I was just talking with my dad.”
Willow raised an eyebrow and glided in, leaving the door partially open behind her. Lock us in here, Kennedy wanted to scream. She forced a smile. How many times would she humiliate herself before the night was over? “What are you doing? I thought you were going right from Cape Cod to the airport.”
Willow tossed her long raven waves over her shoulder. Of all the hair colors Willow had gone through this semester, Kennedy liked black the best. It reminded her of those smooth onyx gems her grandmother used to buy for her at the little knick-knack shop in upstate New York. Kennedy had loved the soft feel of the stones, which could stay several degrees cooler than the ambient temperature.
Willow tossed her duffel bag onto her bed. “The partying was lame.”
Kennedy tried to hide her surprise. Willow hadn’t talked about anything besides her trip to the Cape during all of finals week. She and about a dozen of her theater friends had rented a little cottage, and Willow had rattled off their inventory of entertainment plans — both legal and illegal — nearly every night like a bedtime prayer.
“Besides,” Willow continued, “I got a text from this guy I met at the bakery. He thought it might be fun to get together, so I left early.” She plopped onto her mattress and studied her fingernails which were painted with the swirling colors of the aurora borealis. “Anyway, what’d you do tonight? Eat Cheerios and stick your nose in a book?”
Kennedy had to chuckle at how well Willow knew her. “Actually, I was out with Reuben. We saw The Nutcracker.”
“It’s about time you two finally started to date.”
Kennedy fidgeted with some old papers on her desk. Maybe she should clean up a little before she left for Maryland. “It wasn’t a date.” Kennedy’s back tingled at the spot where she knew Willow was staring.
Willow let out a dramatic sigh. “You two are so cute together. Just going slow like you both have all the time in the world. It’s adorable.”
Kennedy’s brain was too groggy to defend herself or Reuben.
“Anyway,” Willow prattled on, smacking gum while she talked, “you know I totally respect your morals and everything. Because if I didn’t, I would have figured he was gay or something and that’s why you hadn’t hooked up yet.”
Kennedy’s whole stomach scrunched as if someone was trying to twist excess water out of it. She hoped her expression was more neutral.
“Boy, you look tired,” Willow exclaimed and kicked off her shoes. “Are you ok? Wait.” She stood back up. “He didn’t hurt your or anything, did he?”
Kennedy was itchy beneath her sweater. Itchy and sweaty. “No, nothing like that.”
“Good. Because, honestly, from the looks of it, you’re either doped up or something freaked you out. So what is it?”
Kennedy inhaled choppily. Maybe she needed acting lessons from Willow. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
Willow raised her eyebrows, which were about as thin as two blades of grass.
“It’s just my dad,” Kennedy explained. “I guess he read in the news that there’s now another suspect at large.”
Willow frowned. “He give you one of his famous freak-out safety speeches? Well that explains the shell-shock.” She chuckled. “For a minute, I was worried it was serious.”
Something buzzed, and Kennedy flinched at the noise.
“Geez, woman. You’re as jumpy as a poodle in heat.” Willow reached into her pocket and smirked at the screen. “It’s just a text from the guy I met. He’s an actor. Hey, let me get on your computer. I want to see if he’s got an IMBD page.” She turned on the monitor and froze when the Channel 2 page leapt onto the screen. Her eyes widened, and she brought her blanched face closer to Kennedy’s computer screen. “Where’d you get this picture?”
Unease splashed at the bottom of Kennedy’s gut and sent waves of fear rippling outward. “That’s the guy I told you about. The one they think helped mastermind things last fall.” Even now Kennedy couldn’t bring herself to use words like kidnapping. “I forget his name. Something kinda ethnic. Guido? Giulio?”
“Gino.” Willow’s voice, usually dripping with melodrama, was terse. Expressionless.
Kennedy’s legs felt like they were supporting one of Boston’s looming concrete overpasses. “What are you talking about?”
Willow pointed at the computer screen, but Kennedy didn’t even want to look. What venom dripped from that photograph? What new threats would she discover in that pixelated image?
Willow slammed her fist on Kennedy’s desk. “No, no, no, no, no.” She pinched her forehead between her thumb and forefinger. “The jerk!” If Kennedy had been critiquing one of her roommate’s plays, she would say Willow was overdoing it. Willow held out her hand in the universal sign for Don’t freak out on me. “That guy in the photo, that’s the one I met at the bakery. The one I was supposed to ...” Willow scrunched up a large handful of her jet-black hair. “We’ve been texting all night, making plans for tomorrow. I gave him our dorm number and everything.”
- Writer
