Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Chapter Seventeen<br />
On Tuesday night, Susannah and I tread heavily on the<br />
wooden staircase leading up to the apartment. Ethan’s car was<br />
parked around the block so Tucker wouldn’t notice and think we<br />
were ganging up on him or staging an intervention. My heart was<br />
down in my feet, weighing them down so much I thought the steps<br />
might break beneath me.<br />
<strong>The</strong> phone call had been surprisingly easy. He’d answered,<br />
apologizing a thousand times, telling me he didn’t know what had<br />
come over him. He had absolutely not meant to hit Trouble with the<br />
car, and he didn’t know what made him burn himself with the<br />
lighter. After he’d been sorry for about twenty minutes straight, I<br />
<strong>final</strong>ly got enough words in to tell him that it was okay and I needed<br />
to talk to him. He said that was fine and I was welcome to come<br />
over.<br />
Susannah’s hands were in the pocket of her brown jacket<br />
with the fuzzy white lining. She let me knock on the door and kept<br />
glancing in the direction of the car, like she was contemplating<br />
whether or not to bolt.<br />
I had no idea what to expect, but when Tucker opened the<br />
door, he looked completely normal again. His eyes were soft and<br />
welcoming, and his smile was genuine as he stepped aside to let us<br />
in. “Hey! I didn’t know you were coming too, Susannah.”<br />
“Missed you.” She wouldn’t look him in the eyes.<br />
When I walked past him, I managed to meet his gaze for a<br />
moment. <strong>The</strong>re was pain smoldering in the dark brown depths, and<br />
I wondered how much of that belonged to the real him and how<br />
much was caused by the entity inhabiting him.<br />
“So what’s up?” he asked as we all stood awkwardly in the<br />
kitchen.<br />
“We need to talk.” My voice was stronger than I’d expected<br />
it to be. Maybe it was because Susannah felt so weak beside me.<br />
Tucker nodded. “Okay. Do you want to come sit down?”<br />
We followed him into the den with the big L-shaped black<br />
couch. My heart, as leaden as it felt, fluttered a little as he sat in the<br />
<strong>17</strong>9