Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
I close the journal even though I know there are more entries and set it aside.
“You were at that show?” I ask Mallory.
She nods from the other side of the couch, petting Junie who has since curled into her lap, oblivious to the drama in her little household.
Jill watches us intensely, nibbling on an Oreo from the armchair.
I swallow, my throat feeling dryer and tighter like I’d had a bite of shrimp, even though I know it’s not anaphylactic shock. “And you… knew?”
“Yeah,” Mallory says, eyes cast down onto Junie.
Was it really that obvious? “Did everyone know?”
She pauses a brief moment before answering, “No. I-I don’t think so. I was sitting next to your professor and she definitely knew something was up. Plus…” Another pause. Then a shrug. “I’m your sister,” Mallory whispers. “We may not be that close, but I still know you. I’ve been watching you act for over a decade. When it comes to you, I’ll always know what’s real and what’s… not.”
That’s strangely reassuring in a time when it feels no one knows me.
Not even me.
I’d always thought Jill was my only ally. The only person I could rely on. But maybe I was wrong.
“And for what it’s worth,” Mallory adds, “the scene looked really good. Everyone afterward was talking about how you two on stage together were fireworks. It was all chemistry this and chemistry that .” Mallory pauses, reaching forward to grab a handful of popcorn. “There was this other guy, too. He seemed to know your professor… young, looked around college age. He seemed to know something, too.”
I look up, my gaze colliding with Jill’s. “Duncan,” I whisper.
Mallory shrugs, the name seemingly meaning nothing to her. Even though to Jill and me? It means everything. “Well, it was only the three of us who seemed to know anything.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “Until everyone knew.”