Chapter 24: Go Back to Sleep

Jo's POV

I played it on the roof, with Elias's arm around me and the wind gone quiet.

The first ten seconds were the ones I knew by heart.

There was the gravel, the sharp breath and the beginning of my name.

This time the wind didn't take the rest.

"Jo," Corinna said. "It's me. I know you're asleep. You always are after a double."

She sounded tired, and a little amused with herself.

"I'm on the roof of Bell Hall, which is dramatic, I know."

She breathed out.

"I just wanted to call somebody who wouldn't make it a thing."

I put my hand over my mouth.

"I know you sent that post around. It's okay."

"You were shocked, and then you had a double. Don't carry that."

She laughed, once, quietly.

"Tell Elias he doesn't have to call back. I was only going to say I miss him."

"Tell Mom the casserole thing was fine. She had a lot going on."

There was a pause, and I could hear her breathing.

"Thank you for being the one I don't have to explain myself to. That's all I wanted to say."

The gravel shifted.

"I think I'll stay up here a little longer," she said. "Go back to sleep, Jo-Jo."

The message ended.

Elias was crying without any sound, his forehead against my hair.

I held on to him and let it come.

I did not think it was a goodbye.

I thought it was the answer to the question I had asked every night for seven weeks.

It was kinder than I had earned.

When we came down the fire stair the sky was gray, and two state troopers were waiting at the bottom.

They took the professor first.

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