Part 66: James

James wasn’t reading. He was thinking, which was more important than reading, but he needed the book as a prop. At least until Susan and Becca left. Probably after, too, because his dad could come home unexpectedly, or Sean could show up to fight him in person, and Susan would be back so soon. Ashley only lived five minutes away. And he was supposed to have everything figured out already.

He had turned off the monitor so he could think properly, so he wouldn’t be distracted by the flashing windows, and so the people trying to talk to him - Courtney Collins, Victoria, and various iterations of Sean (he’d probably enlisted some lackeys by now, he believed in strength-in-numbers, quantity over quality) - would think he was still online. They’d think he was ignoring them, not running away. Which was true. It could still count as ignoring if you didn’t know exactly what you were ignoring.

So Hannah was in Pittsburgh - it was certain now that he’d said it aloud - following Our Beautiful Misery like people used to do with that band with all the tie-dye. Just like she said she wanted to. That’s what she meant when she said her real friends would know where she was, of course - the only people who know that would were him and probably (he hoped not, but he had to be realistic) Victoria. She never said it publicly, never said it in a survey or in a profile. It was something she confided in just them.

He had surely figured it out before Victoria, so once he did go back online the first thing to do would be to catch her up. But he needed a plan first. How would they get her back? (And who was she with, anyway? Why hadn’t she brought him? Just because he didn’t listen to Our Beautiful Misery didn’t mean he wouldn’t appreciate the adventure, the chance to escape, to run away together. Surely there was at least one cliffside en route to Pittsburgh. But at least she hadn’t brought Victoria, either.)

For one glorious moment, he thought that Susan was about to hand him the keys to her car and tell him to go get her back, consequences be damned, love conquers all, reckless teenage passion, story to tell the grandkids. But if there was ever a part of her that knew what that felt like (for his father? there was no way; passion could only be felt for the passionate) it was dead.

But had it been murder or suicide?

*

CourtSport32: u read it yet????

CourtSport32: told u she was gone

CourtSport32: sry im sure ur sad abt it

CourtSport32: hey did u hear wat victoria did?

CourtSport32: she got in a fight w mr brown in la

CourtSport32: it was abt hannah lmao

CourtSport32: no???

CourtSport32: thought ud answer if i said hannah lmao

CourtSport32: it rly was tho

CourtSport32: ..........

Courtsport32: ok well if u wanna know the deets

Courtsport32: i was there

Courtsport32: pce