I Let Her Ruin Herself novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Trail

On January 9, a year later, I woke at five without an alarm and lay in the dark for a minute with my hand on my own knee.

It was whole.

It bent without a catch.

It carried me down the stairs of the apartment above the hardware store.

I passed the coat hooks Wyatt had screwed into the wall for me in March.

He was already in the kitchen, cracking eggs with one thumb.

"You're up," he said.

"It's the day."

"I know what day it is." He slid a plate toward me. "Eat, and then we'll go stand at a gate."

At 7:04 we stood at the greenway gate, in our parks jackets, with two paper cups.

Laney had made the hot chocolate at the diner and driven it over herself, in her apron, complaining the whole way.

Mine was warm in my hands.

Wyatt had handed it over at the gate without a word, the way he had the first time.

The new latch hung where Wyatt had fixed it.

The paved trail ran away from us, white with frost, to the bend.

At the bend, a county crew in orange vests moved along the verge with grabbers and black bags.

Court-ordered, Laney said.

A year of weekend service for a girl who had pleaded to conspiracy.

Her probation officer didn't care how many followers she'd had.

The fourth vest was small and slim, with a gray knit hat pulled over honey-blond hair.

She was picking a soda can out of the frozen weeds.

Savannah had lost her show and her account in one night.

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