I turn to Riley. "Riley, will you excuse me, please?"
I walk out his door and down the hall.
"He was in New York City, Garrett. What if I didn't lose him? What if I just thought I did? What if he followed me here? What if he didn't know where to find me on campus and broke into the office to find out my dorm number. And what if he's just waiting for me?"
"The timing is troubling and no security system is infallible. That and the rehabs getting broken into is too much of a coincidence to ignore. I'm sending a car for you. I want you out of there until we can locate Vincent. Until we're certain it wasn't him."
"How long will that take?"
"About an hour."
"An hour? Are you fucking kidding me? What happened to We'll send in the cavalry? I thought if something happened to me, there'd be people here right away." All of a sudden, it hits me. "There is no cavalry. You're relying on the necklace, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Don't bother sending a car. I'm going off campus, and I'm leaving the damn necklace here."
"Keatyn, don't. Don't do anything stupid . . ."
"I'm not. I'm doing something smart. I'm getting the hell out of here."
I hang up, go back to Riley's room, take off my necklace, and lay it on his dresser.
Riley grabs me. "I want the truth. You're shaking and scared to death. I can see it in your eyes."
"The truth is I need to leave campus. Now."
He shakes his head. "No way I'm letting you drive. I don't know what's going on, but you are in no shape to drive." He gets on his cell. "Hey, Mom, can you call school and tell them I'm headed off campus? Yeah, everything's fine. I just need to help out a friend. Tell them I have a dentist appointment. Thanks, Mom." He nods at me and grabs his keys. "Let's go."
I get outside the dorm and feel completely exposed. Like I'm naked at the Super Bowl.
"Run!" I yell.
He grabs my hand and we sprint to his car. I dive into the backseat.
"I'm not checking out," I tell him. "I don't want anyone to know I'm gone."
He starts his car, drives down to the entrance, checks out, and drives through the gates.
"Where do you want to go?" he asks.
I want to go see my mom and Tommy, I think.
Which causes an idea to pop into my head. "The movies," I say. "Let's go see a movie."
I'll hide out in the dark all day then call Garrett later to find out if Vincent got on his flight home.
I decide to text him.
Me: I'm sorry I yelled at you, but I assumed that if I needed help it would be there instantly. I know logically that's not feasible. Please don't call my mom. I don't want to worry her. I left school with a friend. I didn't sign out, so they don't know I'm gone. I'm sure I'll get in trouble later for skipping, but that's the least of my worries. Please let me know if Vincent gets on his flight.
Garrett: I'm glad you left. I sent a man to his hotel, and he's not there. It also appears that he did not spend the night.
Me: So he could have been here? He still might be here.
Garrett: Yes. Where are you?
Me: I'm going to the movies. Not the theaters by school. We're driving to another town in my friend's car. Mine is still at school. I hid in the backseat, so if anyone was watching, they wouldn't have seen me.
Garrett: I'm very impressed with your quick thinking. I'll keep you updated.
About twenty minutes later, Riley stops the car and says, "In case you're wondering, we weren't followed."
I climb into the front passenger seat, but leave his sunglasses on and the hood up.
He looks at me seriously. "Let's go inside. Then you're going to tell me what has you so scared."
I buy tickets to Mom and Tommy's latest release. We go inside the theater, but since the movie doesn't start for almost an hour, we sit on a bench out front.
"Okay," he says.
I blow out a breath of air. "Remember my meltdown that day in my room?"
"Yeah."
"My parents moving to France wasn't the only reason I came here."
"You did mention something about a guy."
"I had a relationship, um, go bad."
"Go bad? Like abusive? You don't seem like you would put up with that shit."
I shake my head. God, I hate lying to him.
Close to the truth, Keatyn. Close to the truth.
"I would never stay with a guy who hurt me. This was, um-look, you have to promise, swear to me, that you won't tell anyone this-not even your brother."
"I swear, baby." He holds out his pinkie.
I laugh. Take it in mine and swear.
"Tell me."
I close my eyes and think. About Vincent. About his grabbing my arm on the escalator. How I got away from him. How I know he's found me.
But I have to tell him something. I may not ever be able to go back to school.
I may have to just up and leave like I did at home. I wouldn't get to see Dawson anymore. Or Riley. Or my friends.
I'd be alone again.
I can't help it. My body involuntarily shudders and tears start streaming down my face.
Riley wraps his strong arm around me, pulls me into his chest, and whispers, "You'll feel better if you tell me. I need to know if I'm going to help you."
I can't look at him. I keep my head buried in his chest and start talking. "My mom has this, um, ex-boyfriend. And he sorta was stalking me."
"Stalking you?"
"Yes. Following me around when I didn't know it. Coming to my soccer games. Showing up at restaurants I was at. He was even taking pictures of me." Even though I'm lying about who Vincent is, I'm telling him a lot of the truth. And it feels good-like it did that day with Aiden in the chapel, so I keep going. "He was older, good looking, and he flirted with me. When I met him, I didn't know he was, um, my mom's ex-boyfriend." I sit up and take a deep breath. This part isn't a lie and it's the part I'm most embarrassed about. "I was flattered by his attention. I was so stupid, Riley. I always thought I was a good judge of character but I'm not."
"Did he hurt you?"
"He tried to kidnap me at my seventeenth birthday party. It was supposed to be this magical night. You should have seen my shoes. And my dress. He showed up. I think he caused a commotion. Then he grabbed me. I tried to fight, but he was strong. He was dragging me toward an exit." I suck in a big breath of air. "He was opening the exit door when I got away. There was a van outside the exit that he was taking me to. Inside the van they found zip ties and drugs. He was going to. To . . . I don't know for sure, but people think that it wouldn't have ended well for me."
"Was he arrested?"
"For about two seconds. There was no proof he did anything wrong. The van was a stolen rental. It was my word against his. And my word didn't mean much since I invited him to the party because I didn't know. After they released him, he sent some pictures he had been taking of me to my mom. He wanted her to know that he could hurt me anytime he wanted. At one point, he even put a note in my little sister's backpack. That's how close he got to her. I left mostly to keep them safe."
"Even if they couldn't prove the attempted kidnapping, stalking is illegal. Why isn't he in jail?"
"Stalking is really hard to prove and it didn't help that I thought we were friends. I had dinner with him one night. Let him videotape me on the beach. We couldn't even get a restraining order. My family moved to France. I came here."
"So that's why you didn't have a Facebook and why you only had like four numbers in your phone?"
"Yes. I just had to leave. Only a few people know what happened. There were rumors at my old school that my parents sent me to rehab. Not long after, the three rehab facilities-where people said I'd gone-were broken into. Their files accessed."
Riley's eyes get big. "And here, your file was accessed. Wow."
"That's why I'm freaking out. I know he's found me."
Riley shakes his head. "No. It's not him. If it was, he would have broken into your dorm last night and surprised you."
"You're probably right. I don't think he would have waited. But maybe he needed time to plan. Maybe he wasn't sure I was there. Maybe he sent someone to break in. Either way, now he knows."
"I keep going back to Whitney. I'm telling you, that girl is evil. I think she was looking for dirt."
"I'm not worried about her. Hell, I used to be her. Kinda. At my old school."
"You were Queen Bitch?"
"No. That job was taken by my best friend. But I could be mean sometimes. I got caught up in the whole popularity thing and I really didn't like the person I was becoming. I swore to myself that when I came here that I wouldn't be popular. That I would never sit at the popular table in the cafeteria."
"And my brother has been dragging you straight to that table, hasn't he?"
"Yeah, but I've realized it's not the table that matters. Just because I sit there, doesn't mean I have to be like Whitney."
"You are nothing like her. So follow along with my reasoning here. We have major security at school. If this guy broke into the office, he had to get on the campus first. Our campus is extremely secure. If someone broke in, got past the guards, the whole school would have been on lockdown. That's why I think it was done by someone who was already at school."
What he says actually makes sense, but I'm not convinced. "I hope you're right."
"Come on, our movie is about to start. Let's get some popcorn."
We eat popcorn and I get to spend a couple of hours with my mom and Tommy.
Dawson: Where are you? I heard you get called to the office. Is everything okay?
I have similar texts from most of my friends.
"What am I going to tell them, Riley?"
"Maybe you should tell them the truth."
"You won't tell me the truth about Homecoming and why you got kicked out of school."
"That's cuz it's embarrassing. Epic, but embarrassing."
"It's been two years."
He give me a big dramatic sigh and then says, "Fine, I'll tell you. So, freshman year, I come to school thinking I'm the shit. I'd had sex a few times that summer and felt like I was joining my brothers for what was going to be four years full of nothing but girls and sports. So Homecoming weekend rolls around. By this time, I've been with two older girls at school, which has done nothing but up my cockiness.
"You know, the Cave has traditionally been a place that only juniors and seniors get to go to. I talked Cam into letting me come to a party with him. He handed me a flask and told me to find someone to share it with. I shared it with this gorgeous junior. Maybe it was the combination of the fact that I was pretty big for my age and the alcohol we'd shared, but I had her convinced that I was Cam and Dawson's older brother and a college freshman. That even though I had gone to a different school, my parents made me come to support my brothers.
She bought that and proceeded to tell me how she hated that her dad came to Homecoming. How she hated him showing her his old stomping grounds and telling her long, boring stories. She also mentioned she hated her dad, although I forget why. Then she told me she had the perfect revenge. She dragged me to every place he took her that night. The bleachers at the football stadium where he played in the band was the first place we had sex.
"There were about four more places, many of which I only vaguely remember. Which is a surprise because I remember thinking she needed to shut the fuck up about her dad because dads are sort of like cock-blocking.
"We drank more, lost our clothes, and screwed our way around school.
"One of the things her dad was the most proud of was the alumni band float. He always helped plan it. Came in early to work on it. Had even designed that year's and would be riding on it.
"All I remember is her being really pissed at that point. About her telling me this was the place she wanted to defile. How awesome it would be to watch her dad ride on the float we'd done so many dirty things on. That's all I remember until I was woken up that morning by her father, who had come down with some other band alumni to make some last minute adjustments to the float."
Riley laughs.
"We were both completely naked and passed out on the float. The float was half trashed and I was in a whole lot of trouble. They threw us each a coat and dragged us to the dean's office."
"Talk about a walk of shame," I say with a giggle.
He nods at me and continues. "I was somewhere between still drunk and majorly hung over. And if getting caught wasn't already embarrassing enough, our parents sat in while the dean questioned us. By this time, most of our clothes had been recovered and turned in by various people. Granted, in retrospect, the girl was obviously pretty messed up and had some serious daddy issues but I was drunk and horny enough not to consider that at that time.
"She started crying. Thinking she'd get out of it that way. She told them all how I got her drunk and took advantage of her. When they seemed skeptical, she pulled out what she thought was her get out of jail free card. She told them that I was a nineteen-year-old college freshman and that she was underage. That I forced her. The dean stopped and looked at me. Sized me up. Glanced back at my dad. My dad and the dean were in the same graduating class, and I think they have plenty of their own stories because the dean sort of smirked at the girl when he informed her that I was actually a freshman at Eastbrooke.
"She just started going psycho. Yelling at her dad. Screaming at the dean. At me. She tried to attack her dad.
"My parents dragged me out of the room and told me they were extremely disappointed.