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Out of his right ear, Ada the phone, waving the phone at Ronan like that would make hih, and Adam’s mother didn’t have that number
"Ronan," said Adam, and this time he was certain he said it out loud His voice sounded strange to hiround slid out from under him entirely Get up, Adam He was on his hands and knees The sky looked the saround He felt fundamentally broken He couldn’t stand He could only watch his friend and his father grappling a few feet away He was eyes without a body
The fight was dirty At one point Ronan went down and Robert Parrish kicked, hard, at his face Ronan’s foreared in to rip the Parrish to the ground with hi, dragging, punching Red and blue flashing strobes bounced off the sides of the double-wide, lighting the fields for a second at a ti
It was all just noise What Adam needed was to be able to stand, to walk, to think, and then he could stop Ronan before so awful happened
"Son?" An officer knelt beside hiht choke on it "Are you okay?"
With the officer’s hand helping him, Adaed Ronan off Robert Parrish
"I’m okay," Adaht it again "Boy, you’re not okay Have you been drinking?"
Ronan ht this question because, from across the lot, he shouted an answer It involved a lot of profanity and the phrase beats the shit
Adam’s vision shifted and cleared, shifted and cleared He couldcuffed?"
This can’t happen He can’t go to jail because of ?" the cop repeated
"No," Adaround slanted and pitched with every et hiether Only this afternoon he’d touched Blue’s face It had felt like anything was possible, like the world soared out in front of him He tried to channel that sensation, but it felt apocryphal "I can’t --"
"Can’t what?"
Can’t hear out of ht
Hishim and the cop, her eyes narrowed Ada, because they’d had the conversation so , Adam Tell him you fell down It really was a little your fault, wasn’t it? We’ll deal with it as a fa crashed down around hiive hiain
Across the lot, one of the officers put his hand on the back of Ronan’s head, guiding hi in his left ear, Adaot it, man Do you think I’ve never been in one of these before?"
Adam couldn’t move in with Gansey He had done so much to make sure that when he moved out, it would be on his own terms Not Robert Parrish’s Not Richard Gansey’s
On Adam Parrish’s terms, or not at all
Adam touched his left ear The skin was hot and painful, and without his hearing to tell hier was close to his ear cavity, his touch felt iinary The whine in the ear had subsided and now there was … nothing There was nothing at all
Gansey said, You won’t leave because of your pride?
"Ronan was defending me" Adam’s mouth was dry as the dirt around them The officer’s expression focused on him as he went on "From my father All this … is fro at him
He closed his eyes He couldn’t look at her and say it Even with his eyes closed, he felt like he was falling, like the horizon pitched, like his head tilted Adaed to knock so crucial askew
And then he said what he couldn’t say before He asked, "Can I … can I press charges?"
Chapter 37
Whelkrich
When he’d been holionby, neither of his parents had ever cooked, but they’d hired a chef to co to make dinner Carrie, the chef’s na wos up with knives God, he uacamole
Currently, he sat on the curb of a now-closed service station, eating a dry burger he’d bought from a fast-food joint several er he’d had in seven years Uncertain of just how hard the copsfor his car, he’d parked out of the reach of the streetlight and returned to the curb to eat
As he chewed, a plan was falling into shape, and the plan involved sleeping in the backseat of his vehicle andIt was not confidence inspiring, and his spirits were low He should’ve just abducted Gansey, now that he considered it, but abduction took sothan theft, and he hadn’t left the house prepared to put someone in his trunk He hadn’t left the house prepared to do anything, actually He’d merely seized the opportunity when Gansey’s car had broken down If he’d considered the matter at all, he would’ve abducted Gansey for the ritual later, after he’d gotten to the heart of the ley line