Page 43 of Code Word
I stared at my phone screen, not wanting to call Becca but feeling like I had no other choice. She’d already done more than she should have, and I didn’t want her to hear me fucking cry over the phone.
So, blinking back tears, I sent her a text.
Hey. I know I have no right to ask this but have you heard from Luke? Has your mom? Is he okay? If I know he’s okay then I can stop worrying
I hit Send before I could chicken out.
I didn’t care if I sounded desperate.
I was desperate.
And if he didn’t want to speak to me or see me, knowing he was okay would be enough.
It’d have to be.
I walked to the hall, and instead of going left, back to the living area, I stood there and looked to the right.
I dunno why or what made me. No one really ever went to the room past Luke’s bedroom. The previous owners of this mansion had used it as a library and a chess room. Luke had used it as a room to put his trophies, his gold and platinum albums, and since Atrous quit the industry, the only people who went in there were the cleaners.
I stopped at the double doors, held my breath, and pushed open the doors.
NINE
The room was dark,only one curtain letting in any kind of light. The frames of platinum albums were untouched, and the trophies still lined the shelves like silent guards to the lives we no longer lived.
Or maybe tombstones was more apt.
But the floor . . .
The floor was covered in papers, folders, clippings, photographs. Archive boxes—some on their sides, the contents spilling out.
What the fucking hell?
Had someone ransacked these?
Had someone broken in?
I hit the lights and was about to call the cops when I saw what the clippings were of.
Or more to the point,who.
It was Luke and me.
Photographs and news articles, magazines, clippings, and what looked like screenshots.
What the fuck?
Most of the writing was in English, but not all. Some wereentire music magazines, pop magazines. Some were just torn-out pages.
But they were all of Luke and me.
Most all of the headings were some kind of tribute to BLUKE, the shipping name our fans had given us.
They’d always paired us together. It’d been a joke at first, but the fans loved it, and we’d played into it a lot. Just to drive them crazy, to amp up online excitement and sales.
Photographs of us together.
Sometimes with the whole group but focused on Luke and me.
