Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison

Author:Kate Ellison
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781606844076
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Published: 2013-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

fifteen

I kiss Mom’s piano goodbye, finish closing it up with the gentleness of someone laying a baby down to sleep, and hurry through the flicker-lit halls of E-Z-Store and out to my car.

I’m still processing: Stern’s legs wrapped around me, his arms, his fingers over mine—feeling all the bewildering intensity of him in those moments we played, our fingers sliding together over Mom’s keys like it was some intimate party trick we’d been practicing for years.

Storm clouds gather in the distance. I signal my left turn out of the parking lot, try to turn the wheel to the left when I realize: I can’t. Something’s very wrong—my whole car, too, feels lower to the ground—like it’s scraping against the road. I pull, best I can, to the curb at the end of the street, shift my sad clunker-junker into park, and step outside as the first fat drops of rain start to fall.

My tire—no, all of my tires—are flat. I stoop closer, searching for punctures, bits of lodged glass, nails. I notice there’s a flat, inch-long slit through the side of the driver’s side front wheel.

Curious, I step around and examine the three remaining tires: all of them have the same inch-long slit. No glass. No small, sharp-toothed animals. The same exact slit. I step back, feeling suddenly dizzy, realizing: someone did this on purpose.

There’s a thick knot in my throat. I climb back into my ruined ride, feeling suddenly exposed. Who would do something like that? And why?

A prank—a stupid prank. Probably nothing more than that.

Raina would know what to do right now. Raina always has the answers, and even when she doesn’t, she knows how to make me feel better.

Her Rihanna ringback tone cycles three times before she picks up. “Liv! Where the eff have you been all my life, girl?”

“Rain.” My voice catches in my throat as I say her name. I miss her. I miss feeling normal. I try not to cry but obviously she can tell something’s off.

“Liv—what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Can you come get me, Rain?” I gasp. The rain pounds the roof.

“What? What happened? Where are you?”

“Liberty City.”

“Pork and Beans? Geez—what are you doing there alone? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“I played hooky again,” I tell her, pausing. “I had to follow a lead.”

“A lead?”

“Just come get me. I’m calling a tow-truck as soon as I get off the phone with you. It’s the E-Z-Store on northwest 62nd.”

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