“You sure? The app said—”
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved him off and grabbed my bags as he pulled over to the side. “It’s fine, you can still charge me the same.” I pushed the door open and hauled myself out. “Have a great night!”
I dipped my head back as he pulled away from the curb and stared up at the clear night sky. The stars were shining bright, and half of the moon was visible. I wasn’t sure how long I stared at it until I started to walk toward Cade’s house.
Small stones dug into the bottom of my feet, but I was so close to his house now. His car was in the driveway, and all of his lights were off, but I was certain he wouldn’t mind me waking him up, not once I showed him everything I had.
* * *
CADE
I groaned and rolled over, sure I’d only just fallen asleep. It couldn’t be morning yet. I’d had the worse night possible, and it was all because of Willow. I’d been late by five minutes, and she’d let me know if it happened again, things were over, which meant I had to be extra nice to her stuck-up parents and resist stabbing myself in the eye to get away from the dinner table.
I’d made it back home around eleven and crashed on my bed, needing sleep to take me away into a land where I wasn’t being blackmailed into doing anything.
A bang had one of my eyes opening, and I frowned, wondering what it was, but then I heard, “Cade!” It wasn’t a shout, but not quite a whisper either, and then another bang echoed throughout the house.
What the hell?
I jumped out of bed and yanked a pair of sweats up my legs, then ran down the stairs. The banging didn’t stop until I opened the door to Aria, whose fist
was raised, ready to knock on the door again.
“Aria? What are you—”
“Hey!” Her smile was wide as she pushed past me and into the living room. She turned the light on as she went, and I frowned. What the hell was going on? I dipped my head out of the door, looking left and right and not spotting anything but darkness. Why was she here at—
“Cade! Come on, I need to show you what I got!” Her voice sounded higher-pitched and on edge.
Closing the door, I ran my hand over my face to wake myself up more before ambling into the living room. Aria was hunched over several bags she’d placed on the sofa, pulling things out and throwing them to the side.
“Aha! Found them.” She spun around with two boxes in her arms, and I stepped toward her. A scratch on her face was dripping blood down her cheek, but it looked like it was dried. And that was when I took a good look at her. She was still wearing the same dress she had on at the party with no jacket and no shoes. What the hell had she done?
“Aria, what are you doing?”
She rolled her eyes, but her grin didn’t drop from her face. “I’m showing you all my goodies, duh.” She balanced the boxes in her arms and pulled something out of one of them. “I got new running shoes. They’re going to help me with my times—and oh my god, Cade, they’re so light.” She lunged forward and passed me one. “Feel how light they are!”
I held it in my hand, already knowing how light they would be.
“Oh, I got matching leggings too.” She dropped the boxes at my feet and spun around, causing her dress to whip around her because of the split. The bottoms of her feet were dirty—almost black. “And sports bras, and tank tops.” She threw clothes as she pulled them out of the bags. “And a jacket!” She twirled and held the jacket up. “I got you a matching one, too. They’re night-proof, and I thought because you go running in the dark, it would help you—”
“Aria—”
“—be seen by drivers.”
I stepped forward and placed the running shoe on the arm of the sofa. “Aria—”
“Because you need to be safe, Cade. And running at night can be dangerous. The lady in the store told me the statistics of the number of runners who get knocked over by cars—”
“How did you buy all this stuff?” I asked, stopping a couple of feet in front of her. Her pupils were dilated, her gaze unable to focus on any one thing, and her chest was moving up and down rapidly.
“Mom and Sal gave me a credit card for my…” The grin dropped, replaced by downturned lips, and she blinked several times, almost as if she was coming out of a trance. The jacket she was holding tumbled to the floor, and she slowly turned, staring at all of the mess she’d made with the things she’d bought. “Oh my god, what have I done?” She backed away a step, her hand covering her mouth as her eyes welled with tears. “I don’t know what happened, I was with Hope one minute and then…what happened?”
“Aria.” I placed my hands on her shoulders, trying to get her to focus at me, but it was no use. She was off somewhere inside her own head. “Baby, look at me.”
“I don’t understand what happened. I don’t…” Her fingers rubbed on her cheek, and she winced when they connected with the scratch. “Cade?”
I bent my knees so our faces were level and smiled gently. “Yeah, baby. It’s me.” My heart thumped in my chest, my pulse whirring through my ears as I realized something else was going on. The Aria who had banged on my door and whooshed into my house wasn’t the Aria I knew. “What’s going on?”