Chapter 9: The Bus Shelter Girl

"Driving to a girl," Cassie said. "That's everything Teagan gave you?"

We were in the A/V booth with the door locked and the lights low.

A dozen monitors glowed around us. Cassie had a pen in her teeth.

"That's all of it," I said. "And I know how it sounds."

"It sounds like a lot of girls."

"It sounds like one night in February."

She took the pen out of her mouth.

I had told her about the choir audition and the last bus I missed.

I had sat two hours in the shelter on the edge of town with my phone at nine percent.

I had streamed from that bench as Moth, because I was cold and scared and it made me feel less alone.

I'd joked to the chat, "Somebody come get me."

Then my choir teacher drove past, saw me, and took me home. My phone died in her car.

I never read any of the comments.

"What's the road?" Cassie said.

"Alder."

She typed. Her face changed.

"Maisy."

"What?"

"The crash was on Alder Road."

I did not say anything.

Cassie turned the monitor.

It was a local news story from the first week of February.

A gray sedan had gone off the road, and the driver was nineteen. The photo showed a guardrail with a broken post.

The driver was Bowen Hargrove.

I read it twice. My hands went numb.

"Lots of people use Alder Road," Cassie said gently.

"It's the only way out to the highway. It doesn't mean he was coming to get you."

"No."

"Did anyone answer you in the chat?"

"I don't know. I never looked."

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