Chapter 34
Maple
Dylan raises his eyebrows. ‘She couldn’t take it anymore – that’s what they say. And now she’s missing.’
‘But Ella went to England,’ I say. ‘Her mom made a short about it, how she’d been selected by some fancy dance school.’
‘Yeah, the Royal Ballet School in London,’ Dylan says, nodding. ‘That’s the official line. Except apparently, it’s complete bullshit.’
‘What? No.’ I shake my head. ‘I remember her mom talking about how proud she was of her beautiful firstborn, blah blah blah.’
‘Yeah, but the rumor is her mom made the whole thing up. To cover up the truth.’
‘Why? What is the truth?’
‘They had a huge fight, and Ella ran away. Lots of screaming and shouting, then Ella spun off in her car and no one has heard from her since. At least, none of her friends have, and no one believes anything her family says. Loads of people think she’s dead and her mom’s covering that up too.’
‘What people? Where are you getting this from?’
Dylan shrugs, dips his head, ruffles his hair. ‘A couple of gaming groups I’m in.’
‘Gamers? What the hell would they know about it?’
‘Ella’s neighbor in Austin is this guy called Tommy G.
He’s big into Grand Theft Auto and livestreams on Twitch the whole time.
Rumor goes that he heard the argument, then watched Ella drive away super-fast through his bedroom window.
He says her mom made up the ballet story as a way of explaining why Ella had gone AWOL on her socials. ’
‘And you know Tommy G?’
Dylan shakes his head. ‘Not personally, but some of the guys I game with do.’
I give him a skeptical look. ‘Sounds like bullshit to me. I mean, yeah, Selena Hart does come across pretty fake. But no mom would make up a story that wild about their own daughter.’
‘Your mom told the world that we kissed, and that’s pretty fucking wild.’
A mix of shame and embarrassment and, for some weird reason, guilt, blurs my vision. Shit. I need to bring the conversation back to Ella. ‘Well, it must be easy enough to find out,’ I say. ‘I mean, if Ella’s in London, people will have seen her there.’
‘Yeah, I guess.’
I expect him to say more, so when he doesn’t, I try again. ‘So have they? Have people seen her in London?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You haven’t checked?’
‘Sorry, but why would I check?’ Dylan asks, looking genuinely confused. ‘I don’t know her.’
‘So you’re happy to spread rumors about her, but not find out if they’re true?
Listen, if she’s run away, and no one’s seen her for eighteen months, and her parents don’t care, then it could be bad.
Especially if no one’s looking for her. Your friends are gossiping about her being dead, but what if she really is? Or what if she’s alive and in trouble?’
‘I guess I haven’t given it much thought.’
He looks embarrassed now, and I feel an unfamiliar sense of power for causing it. I’ve listened to Coco talk about getting justice for Sophie Lyle loads of times and have felt really proud of her. But what’s stopping me from doing something similar?
‘So we should check, right?’ I press. ‘Because if she is in London, we have nothing to worry about.’
‘I guess, but how? I don’t know anyone in England.’
I sigh. ‘Me neither. Farthest I’ve traveled is Nevada.
’ I twist my heel against the trunk’s bole and try not to think about the camping trips to Colorado and Montana that my dad’s taken the twins on.
And whether social media might one day break me like Tommy G said it did to Ella.
And if it did, whether my mom would be cruel enough to cover it up.
‘But I do have nearly two million followers on YouTube.’
Dylan’s face lights up, but slowly, like it’s on a dimmer switch. ‘Maybe some of them live in London,’ he says.
‘Yeah. And Austin. Maybe someone who even knew Ella.’
‘Her mom’s gonna get mad if we start asking questions.’
‘Only if she’s got something to hide.’
Dylan nods slowly. ‘You think we can find Ella?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admit. ‘But wouldn’t it be wild to use social media to get to the truth, rather than to tell a bunch of lies?’