Page 89 of Even in the Dark

“Agreed. We’ve got the best seats in the house up here.”

I text Phil back.

Dylan

Gonna pass

Phil

Everything ok?

Dylan

Yeah

Phil

Where are you?

Shit. Don’t want to tell him where we are, so I just say:

Dylan

With Scarlett

There’s a short delay before Phil texts back.

Phil

Ok. Meet us in the lobby at 9

Dylan

K

I do the whole thing using voice to text, so Scarlett hears everything. A couple minutes later, her phone buzzes again.

“Probably Phil again,” I scoff. Only when I see the expression on Scarlett’s face when she looks at her phone, I know it isn’t.

“Fuck,” she mutters. Doesn’t look up, though. Keeps staring at the screen, like she’s not even here right now. More like she just saw a ghost.

“Gavin?” I assume, out loud.

“No.” She lets her head fall back against the surface behind her, hard enough that it makes a thunking noise. “Fuck,” she says again. Then doesn’t talk after that for a while. Never seen her like this, looking upset. Almost scared or sick or something.

“Everything okay?”

“No,” she says, her eyes closed now. “Everything’s not okay.”

Which is nowhere near the sort of thing I ever expected to hear from Scarlett Thiels. Beautiful, badass, popular Scarlett Thiels.

“Sorry. That was dramatic.” She kind of laughs. “It’s just this guy… This asshole I knew a couple years ago.”

I watch her, trying to tell if she’s mad or upset, or something else. Trying to figure out what sort of asshole she’s talking about. Hard to read anything, because her eyes are closed. “Did he do something?”

“Yeah… He did.”

Shit. Don’t like the sound of that. But I don’t say anything.

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