Page 61 (1/2)

"Moo"

"What?"

"Tell Dad I said bye And that I want to talk to him about the shelter sometime this week"

"Dylan"

I don’t stay to hear whatever it is she’s going to say Instead I head for the here Silas had been, stop, and scan the crowd He’s not by the food table He’s not anywhere I can see hi to see his head towering above all the shorter, gray-haired ones But he’s nowhere

And when I go outside hoping to find hione

IT TAKES ME fifteen minutes to walk from the library toon nails instead of just walking across carab

"To Silas’s"

She looks up fro for to?"

"No Yes I don’t know Or so"

"Don’t stay out too late!" she calls out as I head out the door "First day of class to on that couch right beside her, getting prepared like doos have changed

I duck into my car, and I’ into the driveway, irl with peroxide-white hair, standing by his front door s

I switch off ain, but now that low at the end of her cigarette

He wouldn’t hook up with soirl already, would he? She has to be a friend Or maybe she’s here for Torres or Brookes It can’t have been er than half an hour since I saw him last She’d have to just be a booty call to be over here that fast and

And that’s exactly the kind of thing that Silas could do He’s probably got fifty nu to just be a quick tumble and toss out the door

Part of et the hell out of here Cut e is done

But I’irl alks away I don’t keep my mouth shut when I’ht of so up with Silas makes me want to throw up

I push open my door and slam it behind me when I’m out I stalk up the driveway to his front porch, and before I can say anything she asks, "Who are you?"

"Dylan," I answer

I almost return the question Almost But then I decide I don’t want to know the answer This girl is pretty, no doubt, but her clothes are skimpy, and she wears so much mascara and eyeliner it looks like there was an oil spill around her eyes She’s older than us Not because I see any e, e thinks a college girl looks like When I look closer, there are other clues, too Her hands, for instance When I look at the cigarette she’s holding, her skin is h a whole new lens

It seeirl Silas would call A woman who’s probably at least a decade older than us, if not more

"Is Silas home?"

I don’t knohy I asked He is I can see his truck