"Hey, Reed."
His voice filled me, as always, with warm fuzzies. Even as typed words like withdrawn, agitated, and death flitted through my mind.
"I need to talk to you," I said firmly.
"Are you okay?" he asked. See? Always concerned.
217
"I'm fine," I said. "I just need to talk to you. In person."
A moment of silence. "It's past hours."
"So we'll meet somewhere."
Natasha widened her eyes at me, but I turned my back on her.
"What's this about, Reed?" he asked.
"I'll tell you when I see you. Wherever," I told him. "We just have to do this. Now."
"Fine. The cemetery. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
He hung up before I could say goodbye.
I tossed the phone on my bed and grabbed my coat and scarf. I might have been sweating, but it was frigid outside. I was practically trembling with anxiety. I just wanted to get this over with. Hopefully tomorrow everything could go back to normal.
Not that we had yet figured out what that was. I was starting to realize that the term normal was relative.
"You're sure about this?" Natasha asked me.
I checked my watch and buttoned the last button on my coat.
No, I'm not sure. But what else am I supposed to do?
"Yes. I'm sure. I'll. . . see you later."
Natasha sighed and I walked out into the hallway. "Normally," I would have been concerned about getting snagged by our housemother, but I knew that she actually didn't much care what any of us did as long as we could bribe her heavily enough. I didn't have the means for that kind of thing, but by now I knew plenty of people who would do it for me as a reflex. It was us against Lattimer, and we always had the upper hand.
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I was two steps from the front door. I needed to plan out what I was going to say. How was I going to broach this? How did you ask someone why they'd been lying to you when the only reason you knew they'd been lying was because you had searched through their stuff when their back was turned. What was I doing?
"Reed."
I froze. As did my heart. It was Noelle.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
I turned around. She stood on the bottom step of the common stairs. I hadn't even heard her behind me.
"I'm going to meet Josh."
Her dark eyes were piercing. "Do you really think that's the best idea?"
She was too serene. Too placid. How did she do that?
"It's not true, Noelle," I told her, infusing my voice with certainty. "Josh could never hurt anyone."