15. Pandora
PANDORA
I pull up in front of the dorm building, where it says no parking, and park my SUV. River parks his car behind mine.
I get out at the same time as Samantha. “I’ll head into the building with you,” I say. “I need to grab my mail anyway.”
“The sign says…” Samantha begins, only to cut herself off with a disgusted scoff. “Never mind.”
“Yeah, that’s never stopped Pandora before,” River says, walking up to my SUV. He’s wearing the scarf Mama gave him, and it makes my chest warm to see him in it.
Samantha is wearing the beanie and gloves Mama gave her, too. I hope that means she actually likes them and isn’t simply wearing them to be polite. She’d had them on all day yesterday when we’d done our last tourist-y stuff in NB.
Just like old times, except Samantha isn’t Rachel. She isn’t anything like Rachel at all. Rachel wouldn’t have been excited by the tourist traps, and she would have had much more to say about the art galleries we stopped in.
“It’s only going to be five seconds,” I say. “I really just want to grab my mail.”
“I’ll take care of Ra—” River blanches. “Samantha.”
I’d laugh, if the mix-up were actually funny.
I glance at Samantha, and for a split second, I see long hair, bright makeup, and piercings all up her ear.
I blink, and it’s Samantha again, her lips pursed in discomfort.
“Do you need an escort up to the room?” I ask.
“No,” Samantha says shortly. “I appreciate it, but I can go upstairs to our room by myself without a problem.” She grabs her bag from the back of the SUV, then heads for the door to the dorms.
River glances at me. “Sorry,” he says in a low voice. “I don’t even know where that came from, Pandora.”
“You don’t know why you slipped up when talking to the third person in our group who happens to be female?” I ask, forcing myself to grin. “You’re kind of slow, River.”
“I am,” he agrees. “I’ll walk up with her anyway.” He trots off after her, even though we both know that Samantha’s not going to thank him for it.
I head into the building and go to the mailboxes. Mine’s got the package I was waiting for, as well as a bunch of junk. I grab it all and go back to the SUV, dropping the mail onto the passenger seat while I wait.
I tear the packing envelope open and pull out the t-shirt. It has a repeating snake pattern in neon colors, and the moment I’d seen it I’d known I had to have it.
Speaking of packages, though.
I still have Papa’s present sitting unopened underneath my seat.
I don’t know why I’m afraid to open it.
He wouldn’t give me anything bad.
But he hadn’t wanted to see my reaction, and he hadn’t wanted me to open it in front of anyone, so whatever it is, Mama wouldn’t approve. Daddy wouldn’t approve.
Maybe I won’t approve.
I drop the t-shirt onto the passenger seat and pull the present out. It’s heavy, but rattling it doesn’t produce any sounds. For all his joking, I don’t think Papa would have given me a sex toy.
Also, if he had, he probably would have wanted me to open it in front of Mama to scandalize both of us.
I place my neon pink nail against the tape.
Before I can make a decision, River returns. I place the present in the passenger seat with my new t-shirt and open the door so I can talk to him.
“She’s seriously okay?” I ask him. “Nobody trashed our dorms while we were gone?”
River shakes his head. “She barely let me look inside, but it didn’t seem to be disturbed or anything. I don’t know how she’s doing beyond that, though. She went straight to her room.”
“I’ll talk to her later,” I say. “She probably wants a break from all the Pavone craziness.”
Yes, I do know that my family is a lot for people who didn’t grow up with them.
“She wouldn’t be the only one,” River deadpans, though he offers me a crooked smile. “But it wasn’t so bad. Only your uncle went out of his way to try to intimidate me after the first day, but since he also said he’d help with my mom… I won’t complain.”
“I think you did just complain,” I point out. “Anyway. Asch and Blaze probably miss us. Or me. You think they miss you? Are you going to be making out with them as soon as you get back to the house?”
“I don’t think they missed me, and I don’t think either of them wants to kiss me,” River says. He glances at the pile of mail. “What’s that?”
“Papa’s present to me,” I answer. “No, I don’t know what’s inside. I’m saving it for a surprising occasion.”
He shakes his head. “I meant the letter.” He gestures to the letter on the top, which has the official university seal on it.
I hadn’t even noticed it earlier. I wasn’t expecting anything from the school. I take the envelope and score my nail along the top to open it.
Dear Ms. Pandora Pavone,
It has come to our attention that…
Huh. This looks really boring. So boring that the letters and words are melding together into one amorphous blob.
“I think it’s junk mail,” I declare. I pass it to River. “Throw this in the trash for me.”
“I don’t think it’s junk mail,” he says. “I’m reading it.” After the half-assed warning, he starts to read it, then his eyebrows shoot up. “The dean wants to see you, Pandora. That’s not junk mail.”
“It has to be a scam,” I respond glibly.
“Why would the dean want to see me? There’s no reason I’d be on his radar.
I bet if I call, I’ll be told I need to transfer another two hundred thousand in tuition, but only payable via prepaid cards, and I have to do it immediately so the people in India or Nigeria can get their ill-gotten gains faster. ”
River doesn’t smile. “There’s a meeting request in two days at eleven a.m.,” he says, not handing the letter back to me. “I’ll go with you.”
“No!” I snap. “Leave it alone, River. This isn’t important.” I rip the letter up, each strip of paper slicing into the palms of my hands and leaving long, red lines behind.
It’s going to be a pain driving with my hands all bloody like this.
“Actually, y’know what, I’m going to stay here after all,” I say. “Samantha needs my company more than you or Asch or Blaze.”
“But you need our company more than hers,” he retorts. He doesn’t seem concerned about my hands. Or maybe he doesn’t notice them. How unobservant of him. “Come back to the house with me, Pandora. We’ll distract you.”
“Distract me from what?” I shake my head. “Echo will want to be fed, anyway. It’s been two whole weeks! She’ll be skin and bones, if a blood python can even get skinny.”
I drag my bloody palm along the steering wheel, and yeah, that’s a lot of blood. I wonder if I’d be able to taste it, if I licked the steering wheel.
“Pandora,” River says, his voice softening into something pleading. “What if I said I need you? Because I do.”
That’s cute and manipulative, but my chest tightens anyway. I stare at River’s handsome face. I remind myself that he can’t fix any of this, that he might be perfect but he isn’t perfect, and what good would it do to rely on somebody who tricked me and led to all this in the first place?
Wow, I never thought I’d be the kind to have trust issues.
I tighten my hands on the steering wheel, wanting the pain, only it doesn’t hurt at all. Papercuts aren’t exactly deadly.
“I’ll help you carry your shit into the house,” I say. “But that’s it. I’m not some kind of slut, River. You can’t hypnotize me with sex.” Hopefully that sounds like a joke, and not like my voice is on the verge of breaking.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he says, but his voice still has that soft quality to it.
“Okay.” We stare at each other, and after a few seconds, I add, “You have to actually drive your car to your house, River.”
He straightens. “Right. Okay. I’ll see you there in a few.” He seems like he’s about to say something, but then he shakes his head. “See you soon, Pandora,” he repeats.
He jogs over to his car and gets inside.
I don’t wait for him to get going, putting my own car into gear.
I’m sure Asch and Blaze will be happy to see me. They’d gotten home last night and had texted how they missed me, like good boyfriends did.
My car takes a wrong turn though, and another, until I’m halfway to downtown Harmony.
As if Harmony even has a downtown.
Shit.
I find a parking spot on the side of the street and stop there.
…evidence of a break-in at the science labs…
…serious consequences…
…potential expulsion…
Nope, there was nothing in the letter. It was all a scam. It’s somebody trying to rattle me. Don’t they know who I am, who my family is? Dyschord wouldn’t risk pissing off my family. We have ties to all the right people and could make their lives a living hell.
I turn my head, my gaze landing on Papa’s present.
Well, now would be a very surprising moment to open it.
I grab it and tear the paper off without any thought to keeping it pristine.
The box is an unassuming brown cardboard, but it has a pull tab so I can easily open it up.
Nestled at the top of a pile of packing peanuts is a business card.
Ulrike Rehard, M.D.
Doctor of Psychiatry.
What.
What the fuck?
My hands shake as I stare at the business card. Why the fuck would Papa give me this? This isn’t a present.
This is poison.
I blink, and the wetness gathers in my eyes. I lift the box, ready to toss it out onto the street.
It’s heavy. Far too heavy for a single business card inside a cardboard box. I push all of the packing peanuts aside and find a gun underneath.
I stare at it. It’s a beautiful revolver in gleaming silver. No decorative elements on it, no engraving. Daddy taught me how to shoot one of these. We’ve done family outings out to a shooting range so we all maintain our aim.
I wipe the wetness from my eyes and search the box for anything else.
At the very bottom is a folded card. The outside is a generic Christmas motif, Santa and his reindeer in the snow.
Merry Christmas, the printed text inside says.
Papa wrote a message underneath it, his handwriting messy and borderline illegible.
This doctor is good, discreet, and owes us. She’ll give you what you need, and the rest of the fam will never know. Not even me.
Or you could shoot your enemies. That’s cool too. The gun is unregistered and untraceable.