Page 83 of Challenge Me

The car next to that one suddenly revved loudly, and she jumped. Immediately, her hands came up to her ears, and her shoulders curled inward. I rushed over to her, making sure not to touch her, but panic rose in my gut.

“Hold on,” I said, swinging my backpack in front of me. Someone bumped me from behind, and I stumbled to the side. My phone clattered on the asphalt, and I barely managed to swipe it before it got stepped on.

Gods, people were oblivious to their surroundings. All public spaces might as well have been labeled zoos.

When I looked up, my heart rammed against my chest. I glanced in every direction, then spun in a circle as I searched for her blue and pink tie-dye t-shirt. With how packed the crowd was, I could barely see through the gaps.

“Mal!” I called. A couple of people glanced at me as if I was disturbing their peace. I craned my neck and rose on my toes. “Mallory! God damnit. Move, people!” Spotting a boy about her age, I rushed over to him and pulled up the picture I’d just taken. “Have you seen her?”

He looked at me like I was a crazy person and turned around.

I could barely manage to breathe as I raced down the lane. For all I knew, she could’ve gone the other way. What if I was getting farther away from her?

Amir shouldn’t have trusted me. Sure, things had been great when we were together, but as soon as I went off script, it spiraled rapidly. I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off of her. I should’ve let the phone get trampled. I should have noticed when Clara showed up and tried to talk to her. I always noticed people, especially ones that were dangerous. What the hell was wrong with me that I’d missed something so important?

I pulled out my phone so that I could call Amir, but then I remembered that she had her own. He’d given me her number in case anything ever happened, so I hit call. It rang all the way through to her voicemail.

“It’s Mal. I’m not here, but I’ll come back soon. Bye.”

My eyes felt hot and my hand shook as I ended the call. Maybe she hadn’t heard it. Or she didn’t want to answer.

Instead of trying again, I sent her a text.

Me: Where are you?

Please answer.

The phone vibrated, and I saw a picture of the back of a vehicle. The logo was something I didn’t recognize, so I reverse-image searched it. Oldsmobile. It was a lot like half the cars here, but it was cyan, so that was distinct enough.

After shoving through the people around me, I made it to a vintage truck. I didn’t give a single fuck about it as I climbed onto the wheel well to get a better view. Someone shouted at me, but I ignored him.

There, around the bend.

I jumped down and took off at a sprint. This time, people moved for me. As soon as I reached the car, I leapt over the rope barrier and nearly fell as I skidded to a stop behind it.

Breathing heavily, I shoved both hands through my hair. “Mal, god damnit, you scared the hell out of me.”

She was on the ground, leaning against the back of the car. Her knees were up and her arms were around them. I noticed that her hair was messy as if she’d been tugging at it, and her eyes were a little dead.

With a sigh, I joined her on the ground and sat crisscross in front of her. My shoe bumped hers, and she drew her knees in tighter.

The noise around us was only slightly muted as we huddled between two rows of cars. There was no path between them and they were blocked off, so there was an odd sort of peace in the middle of it all.

“I’m sorry I brought you here, Mal.”

She grunted, but I didn’t know what that meant. If Amir was here, he probably would. Even when she said nothing, he heard something in her silence.

“When I was younger, there was a boy I lived with. We were orphans,” I explained. “We got put in houses with people we didn’t know, and a bunch of weirdos who make a lot of money have decided it’s better than living on the streets. Sometimes it was. Sometimes it wasn’t.

“Anyway, Aiden was sort of like you. He didn’t like cars, but he loved space. He used to draw the planets on his arms with Sharpie, and when they faded, he’d do it again. I would tease him and say he’d get along with the people who built the pyramids. Those are aligned with the stars, you know.”

I looked around to make sure nobody was on their way to kick us out.

“He was the first friend I made after my parents died. He got bullied at school, so I learned how to fight. Violence isn’t always the answer, but there’s this quote from the Hávamál that always stuck with me. ‘Where you recognize evil, call it evil, and give no truce to your enemies.’ I probably took that a bit too literally, but then again, my enemies never deserved an ounce of peace, so . . .” I shrugged.

“Aiden.”

“Hmm?”