The Complete Burn for Burn Trilogy: Burn for Burn; Fire With Fire; Ashes to Ashes (86 page)

I’m coming over.

Outside.

I’m not going anywhere. I’ll wait here all night if I have to.

Cho, please. I love you.

And finally . . .

You’re killing me.

No, Reeve. I’m trying to save you.

I watch him drive away. But the relief I feel is short-lived, because my phone rings again, and it’s Reeve. I hit ignore, and I get back into bed. I lie on my side and cry and cry.

Nadia comes in at one point and climbs into bed with me. I keep my back to her, and she snuggles up against me. “Just talk to him,” she says. “You guys love each other. Whatever it is, you can work it out.”

But we can’t. Not if I want him to live.

We both fall asleep, and then I hear my phone ring and I grab it and check to see if it’s Reeve. But it’s not him; it’s Kat. She must be back from Uncle Tim’s boat. I want to tell her everything so bad. She’s the one person who would understand. But I’m terrified that if I make one false move, this whole thing will come crashing down and Mary will just kill Reeve.

The phone stops ringing, and then it buzzes. A text from Kat.

Ahoy! Land ho! Did ya miss me? Call me so we can hang.

I can’t see Kat, not yet. Kat will question me, she’ll press me for details, and I’m a horrible liar. She’ll know right away that something’s not right. I’ll just have to avoid her until I figure out what I’m going to say.

T
HE FIRST DAY BACK AFTER
spring break, I go looking for Lil as soon as I get to school. I can’t wait to show her how sick my tan lines are. But before I find her, Ms. Chirazo stops me in the hallway and says, “We have a situation.”

“Huh?”

She takes me by the arm. “Come with me.”

I follow her quickly to her office with a terrible feeling in my stomach. “Is this about Oberlin?”

“Yes, I’m afraid it is,” she says, closing the door behind me. “Have you heard anything from admissions?”

“No.” It was such a bummer. Alex docked the boat, and I just had this feeling that I’d come home to news. But there was no letter, no e-mail. “I mean, I haven’t checked e-mail yet today, but—”

“Here. Use my computer.”

I sit down and check, and there’s nothing.

She bites on the arm of her glasses. “That’s good. That means they haven’t rejected you yet.”

“Yet?” I run my hands through my hair.

Then Ms. Chirazo has me log in to the Oberlin website and check the status of my application.
Incomplete.

“Incomplete? What the f—”

“Katherine,” she warns.

“I don’t get it. I sent in everything they asked for.”

“I checked your files today, just on a whim. And thank goodness I did. We never did get a hard copy of your recommendation letter. And I just had this feeling.”

“I don’t get it. Danner said she’d send it in after the benefit.”

“Did anything happen that would make her rethink giving you a recommendation?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” she asks again, all distrusting.

“I swear, I’ve been a freaking saint. A perfect volunteer.”

Ms. Chirazo leans back in her creaky chair. “Between this
and the smoking, it’s almost like you’re trying to sabotage your chances at Oberlin.”

I shake my head emphatically. “No! I want off this island more than you know.” Except, when I say the words, I know that’s not true. I mean, I’m going to college, obviously. But after spring break, I don’t know. I was actually excited to see Jar Island again, to be home with Pat and Dad, to come to school today.

It’s crazy.

“Well, you’re almost out of time, Kat.” She points at the calendar. “That letter needs to be postmarked today if you want it included in your application. They make all their final decisions by April fifteenth.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

“Okay,” I say. “I’m on it.”

W
HEN
I
DROVE INTO THE
school parking lot this morning, there he was. Waiting for me right out front by the doors. He looked for my necklace, which I wasn’t wearing. I tried to hurry past, but he stopped me and begged me to talk to him. To let him try to explain. I kept shaking my head, and by the end of it we were both crying. Alex walked by, and I could tell he was wondering what was going on, but he kept going. The bell rang and Reeve finally let me go, but then when I walk out of first period, there he is again.

“Cho, I’m begging you,” he says. “Please, for God’s sake, talk to me.”

“I already told you I don’t want to talk to you.”

He throws his head back in frustration. “Fuck! I love you, Cho. And you love me, so let’s just—let’s just go somewhere and figure it out!”

People are slowing down and looking. They’re looking at us. I grip my books harder. “There’s nothing to figure out! Just leave me alone!” I start walking away, and Reeve runs in front of me and blocks my path. “Get out of my way,” I say.

“No. Not until we talk!”

“You never want to talk, and now all of a sudden you want to talk. Well, it’s too late, okay?” I try to move around him, but he blocks my way again.

I see Alex walking in our direction, and I think he’s just going to keep going, but then he stops short. “Dude, let her go,” he says.

Reeve’s eyes practically go black. “It was you, wasn’t it? You told her. You shady piece-of-shit motherfucker.”

“What are you talking—”

And then Reeve punches Alex in the face, so hard that Alex goes stumbling backward.

I scream, and then I run over to Alex. His nose is bleeding freely, he’s holding his arm to his face, and the blood is soaking through his shirt. “Oh my God, Alex. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” I say. My hands are shaking as I fumble in my bag for a
tissue, and then I try to wipe up his face, but he moves away from me.

“You’re crazy!” he yells at Reeve.

Mr. Mayurnik is already hustling Reeve away to the principal’s office.

“I’m so sorry,” I keep saying, over and over.

F
OR THE REST OF THE
day, the fight is all anyone can talk about. I roam the halls, eavesdropping on whispered conversations, looking over the shoulders of people writing texts. Reeve sucker-punched his former best friend. Obviously Lillia was involved somehow.

But no one can figure out why.

There are plenty of guesses. Reeve cheated on Lillia. Lillia cheated on Reeve with Alex. Her father said he wasn’t good enough for her.

Every guess is bad. But not as bad as the truth.

*  *  *

Ashlin always asks to go to the bathroom near the end of her senior English class, which is the period right before her lunch. I know because I’ve been watching her for a few days. You’d think Mr. Malone, the teacher, would wise up or at least tell her no when he’s in the middle of discussing a passage, but he never does. I think he has a crush on her. Whenever he has the students read quietly at their desks, I’ve caught him peering over his newspaper at her. And one time, as he was walking up and down the aisles handing back a quiz, I swear I saw him peek down her shirt.

Gross.

Anyway, Ashlin spends a good fifteen minutes at the mirror fussing with her hair and touching up her makeup. She wants to make sure she looks her best, because the second the bell rings, she’s off to meet up with Derek at his locker so they can walk to the cafeteria together.

She’s in love with him. I know it because of the way she acts around him, nervous. I can feel her heart beating faster whenever he’s near her, fast like a hummingbird’s. And her speaking voice gets a lot higher pitched. And because her notebooks are full of his name, doodled over and over again. Ashlin is very good at bubble letters.

Unfortunately for her, Derek doesn’t feel the same way
about her. He flirts with her and holds her hand, and he’ll sometimes carry her books for her. But I also know Derek sneaks notes to other girls in school, mainly freshmen and sophomores. He gets lots of texts from other girls too, but deletes them right away. I wasn’t sure why, but then I saw Ashlin take his phone and check it once, when he went to get a drink.

Derek is shady. Just like Reeve.

Which makes Ashlin and me kindred spirits in a way.

When an emotional connection is forged with a spirit, the apparition will reveal him- or herself in his or her most vibrant state, one that is indistinguishable from the living.

I wait in the last stall until Ashlin comes in. She pulls a paper towel from the dispenser and lays it on the sink before setting her purse down, to make sure it doesn’t get wet.

I close my eyes and concentrate really hard. I focus on Ash’s insecurities until I can feel them inside myself. It’s like two notes, and I make myself in harmony with her. It reminds me of that first time I met Kat and Lillia; it feels like that. Like we are completely in harmony with each other.

Then, when I open my eyes, everything around me seems
brighter. The white porcelain of the toilet, the graffiti on the stall walls, the light coming through the frosted window.

I’m visible.

I step out of the stall, and Ashlin’s eyes move off her reflection in the mirror and onto me.

“Oh,” I say with a smile. “Hey, Ashlin.”

Ashlin smiles at me in the mirror. I can tell she’s trying to place me, trying to remember if she should know my name or not. “Hey there,” she says.

I walk up to the sink next to hers. “You don’t know me, but I’m on the yearbook committee. A bunch of us were saying the other day how your senior portrait is the prettiest one of all the senior girls.”

Ashlin turns around. “That is so sweet of you to say. I was actually choosing between that shot and another one where I’m not showing my teeth when I smile. I went back and forth for, like, weeks, but Derek said the one I picked made my hair look blonder, so.”

“It’s true.” I make like I am going to walk out, but then I stop and turn back around. I bite on my pinky, like I’m deliberating something, and then I say, “I feel so bad for Alex. But then again, Reeve’s been violent before, so maybe it’s not surprising that he’d lash out like that when someone finally stood up to his bullying.” Ashlin opens her mouth, like she’s going to say
something. But then she just nods, so I keep going. “Actually, it’s almost exactly like what happened with him and that poor girl in seventh grade. Except less tragic, obviously.” I shake my head. “No wonder Lillia doesn’t want to be with someone like that. He’s got blood on his hands.”

She frowns and says, “What are you talking about?”

I look over both my shoulders and then lower my voice. “Reeve bullied a girl so badly she killed herself.”

Ashlin’s eyes widen. “What?”

And then I give her all the gory details. I tell her everything. Ash shakes her head a few times, but I know she believes me. I can feel it.

*  *  *

After Ashlin practically sprints out of the bathroom, I spend the rest of the day watching the story spread like wildfire. Some kids say they vaguely remember hearing about that girl. Big Easy. From church, or swim lessons. But after they hear what I went through, I bet none of them will forget me.

*  *  *

When I get to Reeve’s house, he’s having a full-blown fight with his mom in the kitchen. She’s holding his fist in a bowl of ice water. I can see it’s swollen and bruised on top of the old cuts he got punching his bathroom walls.

“You could lose your acceptance to Graydon. What do you
have if you don’t get a fifth year? Nothing! All that hard work by you and Lillia will be for nothing.”

“I’m not going to lose my acceptance.”

“If they get wind of a three-day suspension, you think they’ll be happy?” She shakes her head. “I keep debating calling over to the Linds and apologizing on your behalf—”

“Mom, stop, okay? It’s not a big deal.”

She glares at him. “It is a big deal. You’ve had a rough year. Your injury, Rennie’s death, and now this,” she says, lifting his hand out of the bowl. Reeve looks away. He doesn’t want to see it. “I’m going to call Dr. Clark. I bet I still have his number.”

“Mom!” Reeve shouts.

At that, Reeve’s dad ambles in and digs around in the fridge. “Not this again. I’m not spending another couple hundred for some overeducated WASP to try to convince us that our son is depressed and possibly suicidal. Teen boys get into fistfights, just like seventh-grade boys want to climb on lighthouses and be little daredevil shits.” He pops open a can of beer, and both Reeve and his mom look up at the sound.

When his dad walks out, Reeve clenches his teeth and says, “I hate him.”

His mom puts her finger to her lips. “Reeve, please, don’t start with your father. He’s had a rough day. You know how it
is when tourist season starts and the summer people come back in demanding this and that from him.”

At that, Reeve pushes away from the table so hard the ice water bath sloshes onto the floor, and he stalks out. Mrs. Tabatsky grabs a towel and starts to cry.

Things in the Tabatsky house are falling apart, but for me it’s all coming together.

I
WISH
I
COULD GO
straight to Lillia’s house and find out what the eff happened between Alex and Reeve, but that scoop will have to wait. Instead I go to the Preservation Society immediately after school. I march right into Danner’s office. I’m so mad I’m shaking.

“Where’s my letter, Danner?”

“Excuse me?”

I sit down. “I want my damn letter of recommendation! I did everything you richy-riches asked for, including picking up your damn dry cleaning. Don’t you get that you’re screwing with my future?”

“I already wrote you one, Kat. I mailed it in a few weeks ago.” She narrows her eyes. “I told them how you were a woman of great poise and promise.”

Oh. Oh, shit. “Well, um, do you think I could possibly get another copy? Like, now?”

Danner looks like she wants to throw me out onto the street. And honestly, I’d deserve it, for the way I just spoke to her. “Please. If I don’t get this letter, I don’t have a shot. Please don’t ruin my life because I’m a freaking idiot.”