“Then why take her?” My anger was beginning to boil over.
She looked at me and just smiled, the corners of her lips curling like withered leaves, her eyes sparkling. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Ha. Wouldn’t you just like to—”
I stood abruptly and raised the back of my hand—but was restrained by Linda, who had inserted herself between us. “That’s enough! Please—Chris. Enough. She’s not going to tell us.” She backed me away from the girl. “But I have an idea ... if you want to hear it.”
I yanked away from her and began pacing, furious at the stranger but really angry with myself—for losing my cool in front of my crush, whom I’d liked since the moment we’d met (at the Coke machine in the Community Room, about a month before the Flashback). And for sending them—Penny and Fred—to the food ma
