39. Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Thirty- Nine
Then
“There it is!” I shrieked. “Over there!”
“Okay, okay. I see it.” Theo flipped on his turn signal and checked over his shoulder before switching lanes. “Calm down. You’ve been to the beach before.”
“Only in Wilmington,” I said. My family used to make that trip every other year or so. Usually, we could only afford a vacation when the store was doing well. That hadn’t been the case for a while. “And not since, like, eighth grade.”
Plus, there was the added thrill of flying down the coast of Florida in Theo’s truck, windows rolled down, wind whipping my hair around my face. We had decided before we left Jacksonville that we would head to the beach, so we stopped at a supermarket to buy new clothes and swimsuits. The sun was out, the sky was bright and blue, and I could see the water glittering in the distance. It was easy to leave reality behind with this escape laid out before us.
“I see a gas station up there by the exit,” Theo said. “Let’s pull over there to change and—”
He stopped abruptly. I tore my gaze away from the ocean and glanced over at him. Immediately, I knew that something wasn’t right: his eyes were trained on the rearview mirror, and his hands had the wheel in a death grip. “What?” I demanded. “What is it?”
“Nina,” he said, his tone measured and even, “listen to me. You need to stay calm.”
I twisted around in my seat, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Just as I caught sight of the flashing red and blue lights, the sound of a siren reached my ears, and for a second, it felt like the world stopped. “Oh no. No, no, no.” I glanced wildly at the dash. “Were you speeding?”
“No,” Theo said grimly. We were still in a middle lane. He glanced over his shoulder at the stream of cars blocking us from moving to the right. “I need to get over.”
“You can’t stop!”
He looked at me, incredulous. “You want me to take a cop on a high-speed chase?”
“Maybe we can lose them,” I said desperately. It was amazing how, in just a matter of seconds, I had fallen from a giddy high into a pit of black dread. “It’s so crowded out here. Try to get in front of this van and—”
“Nina, shut up.” Theo put one hand on top of his head, clutching at hair he didn’t have. His face was positively pale. “Fuck.”
The police car was right on our tail. Whatever small shred of hope I had that they were coming after someone else was gone. Theo turned on his hazards and took advantage of a break in traffic to get to the right lane.
“Theo!” I clutched my bag to my chest, as if it would protect me from what was about to happen. “You know they’re gonna take me back home. You know my parents—”
“You’re seventeen,” he said, raising his voice to drown mine out, “and I’ve taken you across three state lines. You understand I’m about to get arrested, right? Trying to outrun the police is just going to make this worse.”
My heart was pounding so hard, I swore I could feel it beating in my toes. He had to be mistaken, didn’t he? He wasn’t going to be arrested. He’d done nothing wrong.
The seat rumbled beneath me as we pulled onto the shoulder. We slowed, and I looked ahead to the exit we were supposed to take, envious of the cars getting off the highway and turning toward the beach. I looked around for something to count, but there was nothing. No stars, no clouds.
In the rearview mirror, I saw two uniformed men climbing out of their car and made a strangled sound. Theo leaned over and put his hand on my knee. “Sass, it’s okay,” he said, speaking quickly, urgently. “You’re not in trouble. They’re just going to take you home.”
“Are you really going to get arrested?” My voice came out high-pitched and panicky, the opposite of his calm reassurance.
Theo winced. “I think so. But I’ll come home as soon as I can, okay? I’ll come for you.”
“They’ll never let you see me.” I looked back and saw the cops ambling around the car. They were almost to us. “Oh my god, oh my—”
“Nina.” Theo put his face directly in my line of sight and continued rambling, words falling out one right after another, trying to get out as many as possible in the time we had left. “Do what they say. I love you. I love you so much, and I promise I will find you. Okay? I promise, as soon as—”
One cop appeared by his window just as there was a sharp rap on mine. I whirled around to find the other cop standing there with a phone. I watched as his gaze immediately zeroed in on my birthmark. The window between us came down. Theo must have done it, because I was frozen in place.
“Nina Sullivan,” said the cop. It wasn’t a question. He turned his phone toward me, and I stared at my own junior yearbook photo. “Your parents are looking for you.”