Chapter 12: What Corinna Saw

"Jo! Jo, stay with me!"

Elias had both fists in my coat, and he was dragging me backward off the wall.

My heels hit the gravel and I sat down hard.

For a moment I could not tell where I was.

I knew his voice, and I knew the wind, and I knew the cold brick against my back.

"You were standing on it," he said. "I couldn't sleep, so I came to check on you. Your door was open and your bed was empty."

"How did you know where I was?"

"Where else?" His voice cracked. "I ran the whole way."

He was in a T-shirt and jeans, with no jacket, because mine was the only one he'd brought, and he'd put it around my shoulders.

His hands were shaking on my arms.

I looked at my own hands.

My phone was clamped in my right fist, and I didn't remember picking it up.

The screen was lit.

It was the forum, and at the top of it was a notice with my name.

JO HARTIGAN. YOUR SPIN IS READY.

Under it, in small letters: Spun by you at 11:58 p.m. Result: TRUTH.

"I never spun," I said.

"The log says you did."

"I didn't. I..."

I stopped.

I knew who knew my student ID by heart.

The same girl who had printed my papers on her own card for three years, because my printing balance was always zero.

"Roxanne," I said.

Then the roof went dark and then bright again, and the cold changed.

It was a different night, with no wind at all.

I was still sitting on the gravel, but I could see a girl on the northeast wall, ten feet away, in a long wool coat.

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