Choker (20 page)

Oh God. Cara’s stomach made a little dive. Everyone probably already knew she’d never been out with a guy, or even kissed anyone before. She could only keep the normal girl charade up for so long.

“Dave Alcorn.” Sarit’s manicured finger slid to the first photo in the junior class, a moon-faced guy with a unibrow.

“Nasty.” Consensus on that one.

Next, a big blond with a sweet smile. “Mike Balducci.” Sarit looked around. “Madeline wants to hit that.”

Madeline turned a little pink. “He’s so nice. He gave me a pen in trig today.”

Sarit rolled her eyes, smiling, before she went on. She called out a bunch of other names—most were deemed nasty, though a few others made the cut. From her seat on the couch, Cara watched with something like excitement and something like dread as Sarit’s Vamp-polished fingernail approached
him
.

“Ethan Gray.” Sarit’s finger stopped.

“Hot.” Everyone agreed on that. Sarit looked around. “Caarraa.” She drew the word out. “You’re all over that, right?” She grinned.

“Yeah,” Rachael chimed in. “I’ve seen you two talking.”

Cara lowered her head. “I feel so guilty,” she mumbled. “I mean, his girlfriend’s missing. But I can’t help it. He’s, like, the nicest guy I’ve ever met.”

“And the nicest guy you’ve ever gotten the Heimlich from!” Julie called out. Her volume control was permanently broken. She laughed, then seeing Cara just stare, the huge brocade pillow on her lap, she quieted down. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just kidding. If you want to know my opinion, Alexis was horrible. You deserve him.”

Sarit gasped a little, but Madeline nodded. “Totally. Julie’s right, Cara. I don’t care that Alexis’s missing. Why should a bitch like her get him? She treated him like crap anyway.”

“Yeah, she did!” The words fell from Cara’s mouth as if someone else were talking. Before she knew what she was doing, she threw the giant pillow across the room, where it bounced off the flat-screen. “Fuck off, Alexis!” she yelled. For one instant, everyone sat in stunned silence. And then the entire room broke out in cheers. Sarit launched herself over and hugged Cara with such force, they both fell onto the thick beige carpet. Everyone was clapping and patting Cara on the shoulders. She sat up, panting, a huge grin splitting her face. It was like redemption for all the humiliation Alexis had poured on her over the years.

The laughter trailed off into the occasional snort and giggle, while Cara lay on the floor, staring up at the underside of the glass coffee table. From this angle, it looked like it was ten stories up.

Then Julie’s round face leaned over the edge of the couch. Her hair dangled over her shoulders, almost brushing Cara’s chest. “Okay. Here’s the real question: Have you kissed him yet?”

Everyone sat up attentively and looked toward Cara.

She felt her breath come faster just at the
thought
of kissing Ethan. “No. He likes my evil twin better.”

Everyone laughed. Cara shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. As nonchalant as Zoe would.

“What are you waiting for?” Madeline said. “Just watch, Alexis’s going to come back and steal him away again.” Before Cara could react, Madeline reached across her lap and grabbed her bag.

“Hey,” Cara said weakly.

Madeline held up Cara’s phone. “Got it!”

Everyone else squealed and pounced. “Me! Me! I want to send it,” Sarit shouted. She grabbed the phone from Madeline.

“Oh, wait,” Cara tried, but she knew it was hopeless.

The girls crouched around Sarit, who peered at the tiny screen. “Do you have the team directory in here? Wait, don’t answer, here it is. Okay, this is him.” She tapped her cheek with her finger, then typed something and sent it. All of the girls screamed with laughter.

“Oh my God, what did you say?” Cara reached for her phone. This time, Sarit handed it over. Cara looked at the sent message.

Want to hang out tomorrow? It’s Cara.

“Oh God.” Cara dropped the phone. Just then, it buzzed on the coffee table, skating around by itself like a large beetle. Everyone screamed like the house was on fire and grabbed for the phone at once. Sarit got to it first and pressed read. Cara hid her head in the pillow.

“‘Sure. I’ll pick you up tomorrow,’” she read in a loud, theatrical voice. Everyone started screaming and bouncing up and down like crazed monkeys. Cara screamed too.

“Oh my God, I have a date with Ethan Gray,” she yelled. Julie grabbed her by the hands and started jumping up and down on the couch. Cara jumped too, until she fell into a recliner in the corner, exhausted, but exhilarated.

As she lay there, clutching her phone to her chest, she realized that not only did she have a date with Ethan tomorrow, but for a few brief minutes, she’d been a normal girl, just hanging out and laughing with her friends. Not a girl who was hiding a secret.

Not a girl who was hiding a fugitive.

Chapter 24

“
C
ARA, ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT?”
Mom asked for the thousandth time the next afternoon. She looked over from the passenger seat as Cara leaned forward, trying to merge onto the busy, rush-hour expressway. There was a semi behind her, but she pushed the car forward anyway. She didn’t want any delays getting her parents to the airport. She had to get back in time to get ready for her date with Ethan.

Mom was still talking nonstop. “You understand that I have to go, don’t you, honey? It’s the worst luck that this would happen just when Dad’s gone too, but I just have to be there during Grandma’s surgery tonight. Uncle Bruce can’t make it up until tomorrow morning, but I’m going to leave as soon as he gets there. I’ll be gone less than twenty-four hours, and Dad will be home from his conference Monday morning.”

What benevolent god had arranged things so that Grandma Lynn slipped and broke her hip just at the exact right moment, Cara didn’t know. But the timing could not have been better. Dad left this morning for a law conference in Phoenix, and Mom would be tending to Grandma. Her first date with Ethan, and no parents would be around to get in the way.

“Watch it, Cara!” Her mother gripped the door handle. Cara cut the Volvo in front of a silver minivan. The driver braked rapidly and blew his horn. Cara hung on to the wheel to keep the car from swerving into the next lane.

“Be careful!” Mom stared at her with her brows knitted.

Cara threw a quick glance at her mother and pressed the brake, slowing the car down as gently as she could. “Sorry,” she said blithely. Mom was really starting to get on her nerves.

Her mother rustled around in her purse. “Let’s go over this stuff once again,” she said. Cara knew without looking that she was holding the all-important emergency number and instructions sheet.

“Mom, I’ve got it,” Cara cut in. “You’ll be at Grandma’s, phone number on the sheet. Turn the heat down to sixty at night.”

“No boys, no fires, no parties,” her mother instructed. Cara smiled grimly to herself. It just showed how out of touch her mother was that she actually thought she needed to remind her about parties and boys. Like she’d ever had a party in her life. Boys, on the other hand . . . Cara smiled to herself. Well, maybe that warning wasn’t so far off.

“Cara!” her mother shrieked, bracing her feet on the floor. Cara saw the taillights looming in front of her fast, much too fast, and hit the brakes, barely managing to stop before she smashed into the car in front of them.

“Sorry, sorry, Mom,” she managed. She slowed to a crawl. The airport exit loomed ahead. With relief, Cara signaled and took the off-ramp.

“Cara, I’m worried about leaving you,” Mom said. She twisted around to look her daughter in the face. Cara focused on the maze of terminal signs in front of her. The sky was leaden. A huge jet soared in overhead. From this angle, its engines looked as big as a house.

Mom went on. “I’m going to call tonight and first thing tomorrow. And, Cara, I want you to answer your cell every time. No messages, or I’m coming straight home.”

“Okay, Mom,” Cara said seriously, but a crazy urge to laugh bubbled to her lips. It was so kind of her mother to remove herself so promptly. She pulled up to the long line of cars idling in front of the terminal.

The unloading zone was crowded, with skycaps pushing huge carts of baggage, people busily hauling suitcases from trunks, little kids with backpacks running in and out of the automatic doors. Cara parked and opened the trunk. She got out and helped Mom haul her bag out of the car.

“Cara.” Her mother cupped her daughter’s face in two hands. “Honey, are you sure you’re okay? You seem . . . not like yourself.”

Cara looked away. The concern in her mother’s cornflower-blue eyes was almost too much. For a moment, she wanted to rest her head on Mom’s shoulder—something she hadn’t done since fifth grade. But she shoved that thought away. Every moment was keeping her from her date with Ethan.

“I’m fine,” she said brusquely. Her mother dropped her hands.

“I hope so,” she said quietly, almost to herself. She picked up the handle of her rolling suitcase. “Cara, I love you.”

“I know. Love you, too.” Cara didn’t think she could stand the strain another minute. Finally,
finally
, Mom rolled away through the wide glass doors. Cara stood at the curb, waving until she disappeared. The lessening of pressure was intense, as if someone had freed her from binding ropes. She jumped back into the Volvo and started the car.

Ethan was waiting.

Cara accelerated blindly toward home. Her mind was already buzzing: first a shower, then flatiron her hair, then clothes. She thought of the green jersey shirt she’d worn to Sarit’s. That would be perfect. The traffic whooshed by, but her eyes were focused only on Ethan’s image, dangling tantalizingly in front of her.

Then, suddenly, another image swam into her mind’s eye. Zoe, sprawled on her bed, stroking Samson delicately. “You don’t actually think you’re going to leave me again, do you, Cara?” she purred. Cara slammed on the brakes. She’d driven right past her driveway.

Cara blinked and reversed, then pulled up in front of her house. As she turned off the car, the silence of the peaceful suburban neighborhood filled her head, stilling the frantic buzz of her thoughts. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten about Zoe. She felt a cold dread in the pit of her stomach, thinking of explaining that she was going out again.

Cara got out of the car and closed the door with a clunk that sounded loud in the quiet. She stood a moment in front of the house, her keys dangling from her fingers. All up and down the street, the mowed green lawns sat in neat squares in front of each individual house. No cars moved up and down the street. A mockingbird, perched on a telephone line, called once and then fell silent. Her own house sat patiently, as if waiting for something.

Cara opened the front door, and immediately the stench hit her fully in the face, as if she’d been smacked. She recoiled momentarily, and then moved forward, holding her sleeve over her nose. It was like stepping into a tomb. She glanced into the dark downstairs of the house. Everything was the same as when she’d left.

The stench increased as she climbed the stairs. Her own bedroom door was standing open, wide open. With a feeling halfway between dreaming and dread, Cara followed the smell past her room and into her parents’ bedroom across the hall. She was not surprised to see Zoe seated in front of her mother’s dressing table. Her back was to Cara. Cara’s mother’s red lace nightgown hung loosely on Zoe’s skeletal frame, a gray fur stole draped around her neck.

Zoe wheeled around on the little stool at the sound of Cara’s footsteps. Cara fell back a step, pressing her fist to her mouth to quell the scream that bubbled in her throat. Zoe’s face was a horror mask of makeup. Lipstick was slashed almost from ear to ear, like a sick clown mouth. Eyeliner ringed her eyes and dripped down her face in black, streaky tears. Her hair stuck out from her head at jagged, crazy angles, and stuck in it were several large, glittering brooches. In front of her on the dressing table, Cara’s mother’s jewelry box stood open, the lid partially smashed. The tiny key that usually kept it locked lay on the floor at Zoe’s feet, along with a hammer. Bracelets were stacked up Zoe’s arms, and a dozen necklaces were draped around her neck like a breastplate. When she moved her head, giant chandelier earrings clanked and swung.

Cara’s eyes traveled down from Zoe’s ruined face to the fur around her neck. Her mother didn’t own any stoles. Suddenly, sickeningly, she realized what it was.
Samson.
His front feet and head hung down on one side, his back feet on the other. His neck hung at a crazy angle. His green eyes were already clouded and sunken back in his head.

Cara screamed as Zoe watched her, playing a little with Samson’s ears, a bright, interested smile on her lips, as if she were hearing a rare bird call.

Abruptly, Cara stopped screaming. Her hand clutched her throat. Zoe waited.

“What did you do?” Cara gasped. Her throat hurt from screaming. She could hardly bear to look at Samson’s head, dangling down on Zoe’s chest, his whiskers just brushing the pale flesh of her upper arm. Cara shivered suddenly. Goosebumps rose all over her body.

“Oh, this?” Zoe looked down at Samson. A smile cracked the lipstick smeared on her face. “He did rip up your bag, didn’t he? You always hated him.
Meow!
” She leaped at Cara a little with a hiss, and Cara shrieked and cringed.

Zoe settled back on the stool. Laughing, she spun around again. “You know, most of this stuff is cheap crap.” She pawed through the jewelry box. “I was hoping for some diamonds.” She picked up Mom’s bottle of Chanel No. 5 and spritzed her neck delicately.

Cara backed away slowly. She kept her eyes fixed on the doorway. Her breath was coming in hitches. With one hand, she felt for the stair banister. Her feet twisted under her, and she stumbled backward on the stairs. She grabbed the banister and clung to it before she could fall.

Her breath whistling in her chest, Cara scrambled the rest of the way downstairs just as the doorbell rang. She ran toward it, almost clawing open the door. Ethan stood just outside, his broad chest looking very big and solid and safe. Cara hurtled herself at him, sobbing deep in her chest.