Bunny by Mona Awad

Author:Mona Awad
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

18.

We’re in the car he calls the Whale. Jonah is driving about five miles an hour, smoking and smiling beatifically at the windshield. Cranked on the stereo is a weird jazz that consists mainly of horn sounds and squeaks.

“I hope you don’t mind this music,” he says.

“No.” I want to take the CD and throw it out the window, possibly setting it on fire first.

“I love jazz so much,” he says.

We’ve gone to the bus station, the train station, Ava’s house (empty), then back to the bus station.

“You leaving town, Samantha?”

“Yeah. I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Where are you headed?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Just being spontaneous? That’s cool.”

But she wasn’t at the bus station or the train station.

“Decided not to leave?” he says, when I return to the car after circling the bus station like a zombie for a second time. I nod at the windshield.

“Cool, Samantha, I’m glad. Well, where to now? You want to get like a tea? I think you could use—”

“Could we just drive around more maybe?”

She can’t have gone far in this weather, could she? Then I recall those monsoon nights in June. Us drunk beyond comprehension on the roof. Her staring up at the storm like it was a bright blue sky.

Let’s go for a walk, she’d say.

Are you fucking kidding? In this? But she was already gone.

Hours later, I’d wake with her face dripping over mine. Black clothes soaked to her skin.

Morning, Sunshine.

“Sure, Samantha. We can drive around. Like where?”

“Like just all around?” I’m looking out the window but I don’t see anything but gray sky, water sploshing the windows.

“Feeling a little wanderlusty, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“I get that way too. Sometimes I’ll just drive around for hours. I won’t have a destination or anything. I used to go to bookstores but I can’t go in them anymore because I buy too many books. Last time I went into Ada books, I spent almost a hundred bucks. More than a hundred probably.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah, except I was broke after. But it was worth it. I got these amazing poetry books and jazz books. This crazy New Age book called Moonchild by this insane guy from 1900. It was crazy. Pretty cool, though.”

He’s looking at me so I nod. “Sounds cool.”

If the storm would just clear I’d be able to see her. What could Eleanor possibly have said to her?

Samantha told me she secretly hates you, by the way.

Samantha has us now. She doesn’t need you.

But I can’t picture her saying that without teasing her hair and giving the whole scene an eighties movie soundtrack. And why would Ava even care what Eleanor said? She already said she was leaving. I start to feel sick.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not leaving, Samantha. Haven’t seen you around much this semester. I guess you’re been hanging out with Eleanor and them a lot now?”

I see her face, its sharp, dainty bones, the eyes like jeweled pits, and then I remember that she is the Duchess. How could I have called her by any other name? She was looking at me with such hideous .

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