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"What?" I ask finally

She bends over, setting down the sain, she reaches for my hands "She isn’t mad at you, you know She just , but I don’t pull away "She told you that?" Aunt Jackie nods "You--you talk to her?"

"Al "I spoke with her for a long ti a step backward, nearly tripping on Aunt Jackie’s bag, which is slumped, body-like, in the middle of the hall Dara used to an concoctions and endless chatter about meditation and reincarnation And now they’re besties? "She won’t talk tolook "Have you really tried?"

I don’t answer I brush past Aunt Jackie, take the stairs two at a tihts to Dara’s room, which is also dark, also e on her pillow, exactly where it was this ht? Where could she have gone? To Ariana’s, maybe Or maybe--suddenly the answer is so obvious I can’t believe it didn’t occur to ether on so to make it to North Carolina and back in twenty-four hours, or ca potato chips to the gulls from their

I pull out oing to voice mail So either she’s busy--if she is with Parker, I don’t want to think about what she’s busy with--or ignoring me

I text her instead

Meet me in front of the GatewayFanLand 10 pm

I hit send

There I’ve asked, just like Aunt Jackie said I should

Downstairs, Aunt Jackie has retreated to the den I root around in the kitchen for a key to Dara’s car Finally I find a spare nestled in the back of the junk drawer, behind a bunch of highlighters and half a dozensomewhere?" Aunt Jackie calls as I head for the door

"Work," I call back, and don’t wait for her reply