I Was Already Gone novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Three A.M.

I turned the phone face down on the pillow and did not answer it.

Roxie was awake.

She lay with her eyes open, looking at the ceiling, and she didn't ask.

"No talking about her in bed," I said.

"I know."

"That's your rule."

"It's a good rule." She rolled toward me. "I just didn't think I'd need it by seven a.m."

"It's three."

"Then I didn't think I'd need it by three."

I laughed, and she kissed me on the shoulder, and we went back to sleep.

The phone buzzed twice more before dawn.

I left it where it was.

At seven Roxie dressed in the dark, kissed me again, and said she had a seminar.

I walked her down to the front steps in my socks.

Laney was sitting on them.

She had pulled her knees up inside Brecken's jacket, and her hair was tied back with a rubber band.

She looked like someone who had not been to bed.

"Hi," she said.

Roxie stopped on the step above her.

Laney looked at Roxie's creased shirt, and at my bare feet, and at the way we were standing.

I watched her work it out.

"Hi," Roxie said. "I'm Roxie."

"Laney."

"I know. I'll leave you two." She touched my wrist, once, quick. "Text me."

She went down the street with her bag over her shoulder and her cello on her back.

Laney watched her go.

"She's nice," Laney said.

"She is."

"She's the one who posted the video."

"Yes."

She picked at a thread on the jacket's sleeve.

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