“Damn, these are good,” he mumbled around a huge bite as I pulled my shorts back on. “Where’d you get ’em?”
“Truck by my house,” I answered distractedly. I was staring at the front of my shorts, and without the nude colored underwear on, I was sure I could see the shadow of my fucking pubic hair.
“You look fine,” he assured me with a crooked grin.
“Yeah, until I go out in the sunshine!”
“I’ll walk ahead of you.”
I opened my mouth to bitch at him, but before I could say anything there was a knock on the door.
“Tommy, cops are here,” someone called. “Lookin’ for you.”
Tommy made an irritated noise in the back of his throat and stuffed the rest of the taco into his mouth as he got to his feet.
“Why are the cops looking for you?” I asked in confusion as he picked up the bag of food and grabbed my hand.
“Who the fuck knows,” he replied, giving me a swift peck on the lips. “Better go find out.”
He didn’t seem concerned, so I tried not to be either, but I wasn’t stupid. If the police had come all the way onto Aces’ property, they were there for a reason, and it wasn’t good. I followed him outside and forgot all about my see-through shorts as I got a good look at the patrol car parked sideways in the lot.
“You lookin’ for me?” Tommy asked, squeezing my hand before letting go completely. He handed me the bag of tacos and walked toward the officers slowly, his arms loose at his sides.
“Thomas Hawthorne?”
“Yep.”
“We need you to come down to the station and answer a couple questions for us,” one of the officers said.
“What’s this about?” Tommy asked calmly, looking back and forth between the two policemen.
“The disappearance of Mark Phillips,” the officer replied.
It took every single ounce of reserve I had not to make any type of noise. I didn’t fidget. I barely breathed.
“The teacher at the high school?” Tommy asked, seemingly confused.
“We can get into it down at the station,” the officer answered.
Tommy nodded, then looked at his dad. “Make sure Heather gets home alright?” he asked.
Grease nodded.
Then, just like that, they were checking Tommy for weapons and putting him into the back of the squad car. He didn’t even glance my way as they turned around and drove sedately back down the long driveway.
And I was frozen in place, my heart pounding in my ears.
“Heather!” Grease snapped, waving his hand in front of my face.
“Yeah?” I asked dazedly, turning to look at him.
“You got any idea what that was about?” he asked, glaring at me.
I stared at his angry brown eyes and swallowed hard. “None whatsoever,” I finally replied, my voice solid and strong. “Do you?”
He didn’t answer the question. Instead he stomped over to my car and opened the driver’s side door. “Get in,” he ordered. “I’ll follow you home.”
“You don’t have to—” I said as I hurried to my car.
“Told my son I’d make sure you got home,” he said, cutting me off. Then he walked away without another word.
I got in my car and started it up before backing slowly out of my parking spot. From the outside, I knew that I looked completely calm as I waited for Grease to pull up behind me on his motorcycle. I took off slowly and drove the speed limit the entire way home, then waved a little when I pulled into my parking lot and Grease continued past.
I walked coolly toward my front door, fit my key into the lock and let myself inside, shutting the door behind me.
Then my hands began to shake and I completely lost my shit.
* * *
“Where the hell is he?” I muttered to the universe later that night. I’d tried to do anything I could to keep myself busy. I’d finished my homework for the entire week, cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, washed and dried all of my laundry, and had finally dropped to the edge of my freshly made bed and bit my nails down so far one of them had started bleeding. I hadn’t heard a word from anyone all day.
When my phone rang, I sprang off the bed and grabbed it, answering without even checking who it was.
“Hello?”
“Hey, sisterbeast,” my sister’s best friend Molly said quietly.
“Hey, Moll,” I replied, reaching up to rub at my forehead where a massive headache was forming. “What’s up?”
“I know it’s kind of late, but I was wondering if Reb could come hang with you for a little bit?” She went quiet for a moment and then sighed. “Will’s family is having some sort of meeting tonight and he wants me to go with him.”
My eyes watered a little and I dropped the phone down at my side so I could clear my throat without her hearing. I raised it to my ear again when I knew I could speak without giving myself away. “Sure,” I replied easily, sitting back down on my bed. “You sure you don’t want me to come there?”