Down World by Rebecca Phelps (beach read TXT) 📗

but I could recognize the irony in it. My plans hadn’t worked out so well up to then.

“Nothing,” he said, turning away again.

“I can’t just leave it like this.”

“No, of course not.”

He took a deep breath, massaging his temples. It seemed like something an older man would do, someone who was perpetually tired.

“What will you do now?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. I was going to go to Colorado without her, you know? But I don’t want to go if it’s like this.”

“It won’t be,” I promised. “Go, drive to Colorado. I promise, by the time you get there, it will be back to normal.”

He laughed then, the distant laugh I had first heard in his room all those months ago.

“What?”

“I’m remembering the last time you told me to go somewhere,” he teased me.

“This will be different. This time I know.”

He looked at me again and offered me a very sincere smile, and I wasn’t sure if he believed me or was simply humoring me. “I should have kissed you back when we were in the lake.”

I could feel the blush taking over my cheeks.

“Sorry,” he immediately offered. “That was probably creepy.”

“No,” I said, too embarrassed to say anything else. A thought of Kieren flashed through my mind. “I need to get back.”

“Can I drive you?”

“No, I should take the bike,” I said, realizing that it would be best if the others never knew that Brady was back. It would just cause an ugly scene between him and Piper, and I didn’t want to put my brother through that.

“Be careful,” he said, a seriousness settling over him.

We both knew, I suppose, that this was a real good-bye. I couldn’t say the words, so I just nodded and got out of the car.

I heard a song playing as he drove off, something I didn’t know the name of, but I felt like I had heard it before—a man begging over and over again to get what he wanted for the first time in his life.

I watched him pull away, heading out towards the highway. The song faded, and then it was gone. And I imagined him driving to Colorado, all alone. My heart was breaking as he went, but I knew I had to shake it off. I had a lot of work to do.

A bitter wind blew through our clothes as we approached the school that afternoon. It seemed like all the kids in town were gathering to head inside for the basketball game, a fact that didn’t surprise me, as there wasn’t much else to do since the military had taken over.

The boys and I entered the auditorium together—Scott and Kieren sat by the exit doors, acting as lookouts to let us know when the coast was clear of guards and we could make our way down the hall. Meanwhile, I sat down nearby with Robbie, awaiting the signal. He kept a cap hung low on his head due to an unwavering paranoia that someone might recognize him from when he was a child. I didn’t think that was likely, but he didn’t want to take any chances. And Piper was waiting for us in the bathroom not far away, crouching in the farthest stall, since everyone here actually did know what she looked like and would ask a million questions if they saw her.

The game began and I half pretended to watch. We were all trying to act natural, although if anyone had actually noticed us, I’m sure they wouldn’t have been fooled. I glanced over to Kieren, who was eyeing the hallway through the glass windows in the double doors. Every now and then, Scott would elbow him to pretend to watch the game, and they would both start cheering a little too enthusiastically. I buried my head, trying not to call any extra attention to them.

The guards paced the perimeter of the auditorium, taking no interest in the game. They were watching us. They weren’t dressed as guards—they were wearing the same plain shirts and khaki shorts that the Russians in the woods back in Portland had been wearing. Trying to blend in, I suppose. But they couldn’t have stood out more. They were here to corral us, to imprison us. And everybody knew it.

It was close to halfway through the game when I glanced over to Kieren and saw him give me the signal—two fingers scraped over his forehead, followed by a slight pointing gesture down the hall. It meant that there were two guards, but they had just turned a corner.

“I’m going,” I whispered to Robbie. He was supposed to wait one minute, then get up and meet us by the bathroom. If the guards had returned by then, he would simply go into the men’s room and wait until he heard them walk away.

I walked past Kieren and Scott and made my way to the bathroom where Piper was waiting. As planned, she had her feet on the toilet in the last stall, crouching down low. Somehow, that girl managed to make hovering over a toilet look like a modeling shoot.

“It’s time,” I told her, and she nodded and followed me.

I peeked my head out of the door to see Kieren and Scott standing on opposite ends of the hallway, looking out for guards. Kieren turned and started walking towards me, his eyes motioning to me to head back inside.

I closed the bathroom door, and Piper and I waited until we heard two sets of footsteps pass by. After a moment, the hall grew quite silent again. I knew the game was almost at the half, and lots of people would soon be filing out to use the bathrooms and hit the concession stand. We had to make our move before that happened, or there would be too many witnesses.

Slowly, I opened the door and peeked out again. I looked to the right and saw nothing, then to the left, where Kieren was standing with Robbie and Scott,