Creating a Diversion: Mallory
By the time my shift ended, the restaurant had become a graveyard of empty booths and the lingering scent of garlic. I moved through my side work with the frantic, jagged energy of a failing lightbulb. Callie’s words hummed in my ears like a swarm of hornets. When I finally made it into the parking lot, I found Jay leaning against his Honda in the back corner near the bushes where he hung out with the Hollands on their breaks. It was also a spot far away from the windows and prying eyes. He liked tired. Not the good tired from the stilt house, but a heavy, guarded exhaustion that wasn’t just the result of a night spent with no sleep. “Callie knows,” I said before I even reached him, my voice tight. “She knows Tiffany saw us. She knows everything.” “She knows nothing,” Jay countered, p
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