Chapter 21
“He doesn’t talk to me anymore, remember?
” I’d told Victoria about my Grayson-bashing texts after they came out.
My parents knew, too, of course; they’d known Knight’s identity longer than I had.
But thankfully, they didn’t pester me about it.
They seemed to sense it was just too painful, and that discussions about it were best left to my sister.
And … I couldn’t believe I was even thinking this … but I was glad that Victoria also seemed to believe my problems with Grayson were sister stuff. Her, I could talk to about them. Mom and Dad? Never.
“Yeah, but why was he looking at you like that?” She stopped at one of Deer Hill’s two stoplights and looked over at me, making her face utterly wretched and confused. Then she went back to normal. “Like that.”
“I only noticed the panic,” I admitted. “So I don’t know. But I did find out Mary Heather and Kat are banned from Scrollr. And that account is gone.”
“Gone gone?” Victoria grinned. “About freaking time. I was putting in bullying reports every day.”
“I think other people were doing it—probably on Grayson’s behalf. Those first few days were brutal.” He mentioned it sometimes on the phone, even now. Not a lot, but … enough to know he was still hurting from the whole thing.
“Good,” Victoria said. “I bet that got Scrollr’s attention fast.”
Grayson:
Going to the library to pick up a new book for us to read!
Any requests?
Me:
Something with magic! And maybe murder. And also the end of the world.
Grayson:
Uhhhh I will ask
Being a loyal library volunteer, I could have given him a handful of books that would have fit that description. But he didn’t come to the library on Mondays or Wednesdays anymore.
The light turned green and Victoria started forward again. “Are you ready to go shopping?”
“Definitely!” I twisted and moved a mountain of scarves and umbrellas until I found my purse. Was it really late to be shopping? Yes. Was it tradition? Also yes.
Victoria and I had been doing all our holiday shopping at the last minute for four years, because one year, our whole family had caught the plague of the season—even Zooms!
We’d holed up in the house until everyone was better, then ventured out into the world to find gifts.
It had turned into the best holiday, so Victoria and I made it a tradition, even though Mom and Dad had gone back to their normal method of stressing out months ahead.
They clearly didn’t understand the secret: Don’t give yourself time to second-guess.
Victoria pulled into the lot and found a spot.
The air smelled sweet as she beeped the car and we walked away.
For the first time in weeks, I finally felt like I’d entered the holidays along with everyone else.
Window displays showed pastries, chocolates, flower arrangements, and handmade everything.
(Deer Hill was a very crafty town.) Twinkling lights glittered, candles shone in windows.
A few families braved the drizzle, bright umbrellas flashing in the long, golden light.
And across the street, a boy and girl bundled in knit hats and scarves held hands and laughed.
Perfect.
“We don’t have to get everything tonight,” Victoria reminded me as we headed to our first stop: an antique shop. “We have Jolly-Days tomorrow.”
“I know, but I’ll be at the library booth in the morning.” Ugh, I did not want to think about the booth right now. “Come on, I don’t want to miss the good stuff.”
“Oh, we won’t.” She popped open one of our umbrellas. “All right. What should we get for Dad?”
“A dollhouse with a very serious foundation problem for him to obsess over.”
Victoria snorted as she looped her arm through mine. “Perfect. No notes.”
The sky was dark by the time we finished, but Deer Hill was lit with ribbon-decorated lampposts.
A few cars rolled down the street, the faint drizzle glittering in their headlights.
I shoved my shopping bags into Victoria’s arms and knelt as a truck approached, swiping to my camera as fast as I could.
I hit the shutter button just in time to capture yellow lights glaring off the rain-glazed street.
Victoria was untangling herself from the bags and umbrella when I stood. “Was that worth it?”
“We’ll find out when I edit.” I grinned and took a bag from her.
A few minutes later, we were sitting in the car with the heater blasting.
As Victoria pulled out of the lot, I peeled away my layers until I found a dry middle shirt so I could wipe the fog off my glasses.
Seeing was great and all, but shouldn’t we have the technology to automatically defog glasses?
I put my glasses back on. More fog. But this fog wasn’t on my glasses and it looked more like smoke. Outside smoke.
“Uh,” I said calmly, “is your car on fire?”
“Oh crap!” Victoria stopped the car in the middle of the road.
It was, in fact, her car. Smoke poured out of the hood.
“What do I do?” She glanced around wildly. “I don’t remember the rules for this.”
“I don’t know.” I couldn’t stop staring at the smoke. “Maybe pull over. One of those spots? Do you know how to parallel park?”
“Technically.” Thank goodness she didn’t actually have to try it. There were three spots open in a row, and she was able to pull right into one. She turned off the car.
Smoke continued billowing from the hood.
“We should get out in case it blows up,” I said.
She shot me a panicked look. “Do you think that might happen?”
“It does in movies.” And as much as I loved my sister, I didn’t wait for her. I opened the passenger door, barely missing the curb, and jumped out.
Victoria chose survival, too. She rushed out and joined me on the sidewalk, jabbing at her phone. “I’m calling Mom.”
Oh good. That was the obvious solution to our problem. Mom fixed things. She would know what to do.
“She isn’t answering.” Victoria hit the end button. We huddled together, watching the smoke rise under the streetlights. “I think the basement guys were finishing up tonight. She’s probably inspecting every inch of their work. How am I going to explain my car blowing up?”
“Along with all our umbrellas.” The drizzle from earlier fell a little harder now and I was starting to shiver. “Maybe I should try to get one. How much time do you think we have?” The back door was right there. I could be in and out.
Victoria grabbed my arm. “You have terrible luck. Don’t risk it.”
“I bet you were supposed to turn the hazard lights on,” I said, using my scarf to wipe rain off my glasses. How I longed for the halcyon days when my glasses were merely foggy!
“It won’t matter in a minute. Once the car explodes, everyone will know there’s a hazard.”
Which reminded me …
I looked up and down the now-empty street. Where was everyone? Had Deer Hill just gone to sleep in the last ten minutes? Sure, there were cars parked here and there, and a few stores were still lit up, but shouldn’t there be people?
Footsteps sounded on the sidewalk, making both Victoria and me jump. But the figure coming through the rain (it definitely classified as rain now) had an umbrella and a freakishly long scarf. My umbrella and freakishly long scarf.
“Are you okay?” Grayson asked, hurrying closer. Then he paused, realizing who we were. “Oh hey.”
“The car’s about to blow up,” I explained. “And our mom isn’t answering her phone.”
Grayson glanced at the car. There was still smoke coming out of the hood, but I didn’t actually see a fire, which was probably a good sign. “It smells like antifreeze,” he said after a second. “I don’t think it’s going to blow up.”
“Not even a little bit?” I asked, mostly relieved, but a little disappointed. This was such a boring problem suddenly.
“I doubt it.” He handed me the umbrella, the scarf, and his backpack, then went around to the driver’s-side door and opened it.
A moment later, the hood popped up. More smoke poured out of the narrow opening, smelling sickly sweet, and he pulled his hands inside his sleeves and felt around under the hood for the release to open it the rest of the way.
Predictably: more smoke.
Grayson coughed and came back onto the sidewalk. “I don’t know why, but your radiator cap is off. It’s just sitting on the battery.”
Victoria’s eyes widened in slowly dawning horror. “I added antifreeze to it earlier since we’re officially hitting winter. I guess—I guess I forgot to cap it?”
“Well,” Grayson said, “you’re going to need more. That’s what all that smoke is. Try not to breathe it.” He dug through his pocket and produced his phone. “I’ll text my dad to come help. He’s a mechanic. He’ll know what to do.”
And while Grayson was bent over his phone, my phone buzzed with notifications.
Grayson:
Late tonight, but I’ll be there, promise.
I picked out the perfect book for us to read.
Can’t wait to talk to you.