Hollowed (30 page)

"
I have more of a right to be involved than you do,
"
Noah hisses.
"
She
'
s my—
"

"
Girlfriend?
"
Oliver scoffs.
"
Please
. You tried to kill her. Where were you when she needed you? Who found her by the river? Who took care of her after she turned? Sure as hell wasn
'
t
you
.
And it
should
have been.
"

I
catch a flicker of something—
guilt?
—
flash across Noah
'
s face. Satisfaction and sympathy fight for dominance in my head. On one hand, Oliver is right; Noah
should
have been the one there for me, not a couple of strangers. On the other hand, it isn
'
t Oliver
'
s place to pick on Noah. That
'
s my job.

I want to say something, but the words won
'
t come out. My entire body has
suddenly
gone numb, like the freezing ocean tide has swept in and over my head. My skin prickles. Heart-rate kicks up. The boys go silent and still, and I have to follow their gazes to realize where this immense sensation of fear building in my chest is coming from.

Cole.

This is his presence, with him not holding anything back. It makes Oliver and Noah
'
s presences look like tiny flames struggling to keep lit in the wind. I have to grip hold of Oliver
'
s shoulder to keep my balance as my legs morph into pudding
.

His stare is leveled on the boys. A warning. But when he speaks, his voice is still the epitome of calm school-teacher.
"
That
'
s enough, children.
"

Just like that, the overwhelming fear subsides, out like the tide. If this is the kind of feeling Cole can give off, I don
'
t think I want to know what the elders are like. I gulp down air, finally able to breathe again.

"
He started it,
"
Oliver mutters.

I plant my hands against his chest and shove.
"
No, you did, jackass. Leave him alone.
"
Behind me, Noah snickers and I whip around
to
shove him, too.
"
And
you
have made it perfectly clear I
'
m not your girlfriend anymore. I
'
m pretty sure wanting to kill me ranks high up there on the domestic violence chart.
"

Noah
'
s shoulders tense and a bit of color rushes up to his face. He doesn
'
t like talking about this in front of the others? Too bad. He should have stayed in the car. I swallow hard.
"
Thank you for your help today. But I
'
m not going to stand back while you two
go
at each other like five-year-olds.
"

The boys shoot each other glares over my head. Cole sighs.
"
Please don
'
t forget we are on the same side in all of this.
"

Noah takes a calculated step back, trying to make it look natural
,
but I can tell he
'
s itching for distance between him and Cole. Hell,
I
want distance between me and Cole and he
'
s not even looking at me.
"
Just because we have a similar goal doesn
'
t put us on the same side.
"
He shoves his hands into his pockets, gaze dropping to me.
"
I
'
ll see you around or something.
"

As much as I don
'
t like the tension in the air between him and Oliver, I don
'
t want him to go, either. For at least a little while tonight, there was a trace of the Noah I used to know. The one who wanted to ke
ep me safe and cheered me up when I was
sad.
The Noah who gave
me hope. What reason does he have to stick around? If he knew what happened before he picked me up, he would do nothing more than put a bullet through my heart.

Circling back around to the driver
'
s side, Noah casts me one last look. I want to know what he
'
s thinking, what is behind this cold exterior he
'
s trying so hard to project to the world.

And what would he say if I jumped in the car and said I wanted to go with him?

But he buckles in and drives away without a word, and all I can think are the things I wish I could say just to make him stay. Beside me Oliver mutters,
"
Good riddance.
"

I elbow him as hard as I can.

Cole tells me Ruby did show up at the hotel, but they never actually saw her. She left a note with the lady at the front desk telling them I was in trouble. Why she took off, I don
'
t know, other than that it
'
s obvious she doesn
'
t trust the boys any farther than she can throw them.

But
for something this important, for my well-being?
How could she not have stuck around to tell them?
It doesn’t make sense. Even so, I shrug it off and refuse to acknowledge the sympathetic looks Cole gives me. Try not to think about the gnawing sensation in my gut.

The next twenty-four hours I spend looking for some sign of my parents. I watch the news, flip through the paper, browse the internet in search of stories on the fire, and nada. Guess it wasn
'
t important enough for the media to care.

Then I turn to the hospitals, calling any local one to ask about injuries or deaths that might have come their way. The receptionist on the other end tried not to sound amused as she said,
"
Honey, do you have any idea how many house fires happen every night in this city?
"
Obviously more than I would have guessed. Thanks for the help, lady.

What I need is their phone number. If I could only call and hear one of their voices pick up, just to know they were alive and safe... They never need to know
it
'
s me on the other end
.

I run my thumb over the cracks
in
the
screen
of my old phone
. This phone was a pricy graduation gift from my dad. I
'
m surprised he picked out one I wanted. As I unwrapped it, still in my cobalt blue cap and gown from the ceremony, he tried listing off the features that a salesman undoubtedly sold him on.

"
It has a touch-screen,
"
he said proudly.
"
And a camera. Oh, and it
'
ll play all that cool music
you like and has one of those map thingies that tells you directions while you drive...
"

My dad, the epitome of cool and trendy. This was the last gift he gave me, and thinking about that leaves me pissed off that I was so careless and broke it. Popping open the back to slip out the battery, I squint at the SIM card tucked into its slot, unscathed from the fall.

Light-bulb!

I burst into Oliver
'
s room not a minute later.
"
I need to go to the nearest cell phone store.
"
  Obviously I
'
ve interrupted some conversation between him and Cole, but I can
'
t be bothered to care. This is
important.

Cole
'
s eyebrows lift.
"
Cell phone store...?
"

I hold up mine to show off the ruined display.
"Mine broke at the river, right? But the
SIM card is still good. If I have them move it to another phone, I should have all my contacts and I can try
to get
ahold of my parents.
"

"
We
'
re not dropping everything just to take you to the store for a new phone,
"
Oliver snaps. Ever since I got back this morning, he
'
s been short with me. I don
'
t really blame him but he should talk to me about it. His petty sniping is getting old quick.

"
I need to know what happened to my parents, Oliver.
"
I shove the phone into my back pocket.
"
I
'
m not going to sit around wondering whether or not they
'
re dead. It
'
ll take thirty minutes, tops.
"
And I
'
m trying to do the right thing by asking someone to go with me instead of running off. Again. But
—
"
I
'
ll go by myself if no one wants to come along.
"

"
So you can get yourself attacked again? Right.
"
Oliver rises to standing, casting a glance to Cole, who sighs.

"
Enough, Oliver.
"
He looks at me, patient.
"
As I believe I told you back when you were still turning, it isn
'
t wise to keep using that phone. The police by now either
think
you have been murdered, kidnapped, or are a suspect in your friend
'
s death. They can and will track you if they realize you
'
ve been making calls.
"

Just like that, my hopes sink. Even if all I need are my contacts, going into a store to replace my busted phone probably isn
'
t a bright idea. I
'
ve caused enough problems without getting the cops on our trail.

Cole lets out another breathy sigh and extends a hand.
"
Let me see it.
"

"
Are you a phone repair-man now?
"
I mumble, but hand it over without complaint.

He turns it over in his hands, pops out
the battery like I did earlier
,
and slides out the SIM card. I open my mouth to ask him what he
'
s doing, but realize a second later when he takes out his own phone and slides off the back cover.

Oh.
Oh.
Why didn
'
t I think of that?

He replaces his SIM card with mine, turns the phone on and offers it to me.
"
Don
'
t make any calls. Write down the information you need, then we need to destroy yours for good so there is no chance it can be traced.
"

Throat d
ry, I grab up a pen and paper—
standard hotel stationary
—
from the nearby table and sink down. All the important numbers are right there on Cole
'
s unfamiliar screen. Mom
'
s cell, Dad
'
s cell. I even write down the extended family I haven
'
t spoken to in like two years, just in case. I won
'
t have access to any of this after today and I never know when I might need any of it.

As soon as I
'
m done, I let Cole swap out the cards again. I try to reach for his phone and he shakes his head.
"
Pay phone, dear one.
"

It takes all I have not to growl at him.
"
What about the phone you got me? It still sort of works."

"No. Pay phone. If they're looking for you, it's possible for them to track inbound calls from your parents'."

"
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a pay phone these days? They
'
re extinct.
"