I Was Already Gone novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Right on Time

The poster went up on the Kettle and Spoon's front door on Thursday morning.

By seven that evening I was standing in front of it, an hour early.

THURSDAY OPEN MIC.

Under it, in Roxie's handwriting, a line she had added in marker.

ELLIOTT MARLOW, WHO WROTE "LAST AT THE DOOR."

I read it three times.

Then I took out my phone and sent her a picture of it.

"You spelled my name right," I wrote.

"I spelled it with love," she wrote back. "Also I'm running late. Don't go in without me."

I laughed, and I stayed on the sidewalk in the cold.

Gus arrived at a quarter to eight, in his hoodie, eating a muffin.

"Look at you," he said. "You're early."

"I'm on time."

"For you, it's the same thing."

He read the poster, and his chin wobbled.

"Do you think the bird man will cry?"

"He cries at everything."

"Good. I need a witness."

He held up his phone.

"Also, Brecken's account is gone. All of it. The friends took down every clip, and the label's lawyers sent him a letter."

"I heard."

"You don't want details?"

"No."

Gus looked at me.

"Okay," he said, and he meant it.

Roxie came running down the street at five to eight, with her cello on her back and her hair sticking up.

"I'm late," she said. "I'm so late. I'm sorry. The radiator, the cat, it's a long story."

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