We Know It Was You (27 page)

“Deep,” Virginia said.

Min-Jun laughed. “I like you, Vir-gin-iaaa,” he said, stretching out her name as he stretched himself out too, leaning back even farther in the driver's seat. “You're a cool girl. So let's take a look at Choi's final chef d'oeuvre, shall we?”

“Well, I don't have it on me,” Virginia said.

“Oh, where is it?”

“Um . . .”

“Listen, if this is about the price, we can negotiate. I can go as high as three hundred. Three-fifty. Four hundred.”

“Can we open a window?” Virginia asked.

Min-Jun shook his head. “Not a good idea. The smell. So where's the video?”

Virginia took a deep breath. “I really need some air.” She reached for the door handle and pulled it. It was locked. She yanked on it. Still locked.

“Girl, chill.” Min-Jun laughed.

“Just let me open the door a crack.”

“Chiiiiill . . .”

Virginia looked at him. He was staring at her, that weird grin still on his face. He licked his lip, his tongue flicking out like a lizard. Suddenly he didn't seem very attractive
anymore. His thin lips and his expressionless eyes made Virginia want to throw up. She looked down. But what she saw at her feet made it even worse. It was a pair of girl's underwear, blue spandex with a white
W
sewn into the side. It was the kind all the cheerleaders wore under their little skirts, flashing when they did flips and cartwheels.

“Oops,” Min-Jun said.

Virginia looked up, terrified that Min-Jun had noticed her noticing. But he didn't seem to care. His indifference disturbed Virginia more than anything. It was almost as if he'd put the panties there on purpose, so he could enjoy watching her reaction. He took another hit of the joint, his eyes never leaving her face.

“Wanna try 'em on?” he asked, nodding toward the panties, sounding half serious.

“I'm not a cheerleader,” Virginia said.

“I know. That's what I like about you,” he said back.

Virginia glanced at the door. In the darkness it was hard to see where the lock was, and she didn't want to reach for it again until she knew exactly what she was doing.

“I thought you said you were voyeur-only,” she said. Then it hit her. “Oh my God. Did you go through my room? Was that you?” She shouldn't have said it. Now he knew that she knew. Min-Jun just laughed, seeming really stoned.

Get out of here,
she told herself, eyeing the door again. Where was the lock? And where was the cop car? If only it
would just cruise past again, she could bang on the window and scream for help.

“Just try 'em on,” Min-Jun said. “They'll look good on you.”

In the midst of her panic, it occurred to Virginia how hypocritical he was being. If he liked that she wasn't a cheerleader, why was he pushing her to put cheerleader underwear on?
Make up your mind!
she wanted to scream at him.
Make up your mind and let me out of this car!

She felt a hand on her thigh. She screamed.

“Whoa, whoa!” Min-Jun said.

“GET OFF ME! GET THE HELL OFF ME!” Virginia barely recognized the sound of her own voice, it was so shrill and hysterical. Her hand flew to the door and she hit it over and over, looking for the lock.

“Jesus, I thought you were cool!” Min-Jun said, snapping out of his daze.

Finally her fingers found the lock, and she yanked the door open. Smoke spilled out. She tried to lunge, but realized she was still wearing her seat belt. Frantically she fumbled with the buckle and flung it off. Min-Jun's hand had found her thigh again and was squeezing it hard.

“Girl, be cool! It's cool! Get back here!”

Virginia screamed in his face and wriggled out of his grip. Then she hurled herself from the car, tripping over herself and tumbling onto the concrete. She felt her knees and palms scraping as she skidded. Half stumbling, she
got back to her feet and started running. She didn't know where she was going. She didn't know if he was following her. She didn't look back. She just ran from the darkness into further darkness, her feet pounding on the concrete as her heart pounded in her ears.

Then she had to stop. She wasn't in good shape like Benny. She slipped into a shadow next to the closed dollar store to catch her breath. She scanned the parking lot for Min-Jun. The dingy Ford Fiesta was sitting by itself at the far end. And Min-Jun was still inside—she could just barely make out his round, white face though the windshield. She thanked God he hadn't chased her, but her relief was short-lived; it was scarier, somehow, that he was just
sitting
there. He must have known she was there. He must have seen her ducking into the shadow. And maybe the second she tried to run, he'd start the car and mow her down.

Can he see me?
Virginia looked down at her hands. She was pretty sure she was completely shrouded in blackness. It was safe in the darkness, but she was trapped in it. There was another patch of shadow next to the deserted bank, but how could she get there without exposing herself to the parking lot's floodlights? It was like that game everyone played as kids—lava—where you die if you touch the floor. Except in this version, you die if you touch the light.

Virginia had only meant to stay there long enough to catch her breath. But the longer she stood still, the more
impossible it became to make herself run again. She was frozen. She just stared at the car, and felt it staring back.

The Boarders, 11:00 p.m.

“Hello?”

Benny stood on the front porch, deciding whether to go in. The door to the Boarders was wide open. Moths were fluttering toward the light. Benny had been walking back and forth in front of the school entrance for an hour, hoping that every car he saw magically contained Virginia. Then he'd remembered there was a back entrance that wound around the campus. Maybe he'd missed her. He'd run to the Boarders and found the front door hanging open like the saloon of a ghost town.

He called again. “Virginia? Hello?” Nothing. He took a tentative step through the doorway. In one hand was his flute, and in the other the paper bag from Home Depot. It was a little pathetic, coming over to put a lock on her door when she was already off somewhere with a dangerous pervert. What good was a lock going to do now?

Stop freaking out,
Benny told himself. Installing the lock was less about Virginia and more about keeping himself calm. He'd decided that if he didn't hear from Virginia by midnight, he would call Detective Disco and ask him to put an APB on the guy's blue Ford Fiesta. So it was just a matter of keeping himself together until then.

The house was empty. Everyone was probably at the OK Café,
which was where Winship kids went after games to drink milkshakes and hang out. Benny was walking down the girls' hall toward Virginia's room when he saw that her door was wide open, just like the front door. And there were sounds coming from inside.

“Virginia?” Benny called hopefully. He ran the last couple of steps to her room. The first thing he saw was a pile of clothes flying through the air. Then he saw who was throwing them, and it wasn't Virginia.

“You?”

For a second Gerard froze.

“Get out of here!” Benny shouted at him. “What do you think you're doing?”

Then Gerard immediately started yelling, “Where is that video? Tell me! Where is that video? I'm giving it to the police! You won't humiliate me again!”

“Get out!” Benny repeated. “This is a private room, for Christ's sake. What do you think you're doing?”

Gerard's face was red. He opened a drawer, threw its contents on the floor, then slammed it shut. “Where is it? Tell me!”

“She doesn't even have it anymore. It's gone. Now get out of here, you creep!”

Gerard's mouth gaped open. “Me, a creep? ME, A CREEP? I'm the only guy at this school who ISN'T a creep! If I were a disgusting rapist like Trevor, I'd have all the girls I wanted. But what do I get for being a nice guy?”
He swiped his arm across Virginia's desk, sending all her stuff crashing to the floor.

“Get out of her room,” Benny said firmly. “Now.”

“Get out of my face!” Gerard said back, tossing more of Virginia's stuff on the floor.

“GET OUT OF HER ROOM, YOU FUCKING CREEP!” Benny screamed. “GET OUT OF HER ROOM OR I'LL KILL YOU!”

Gerard stopped. All the redness in his face suddenly went white.

Benny realized how hard he was breathing. He'd never screamed at anyone like that in his entire life. He stared at Gerard, not backing down.

“Kike,”
Gerard hissed under his breath, which Benny pretended not to hear. Gerard stormed past him into the hall. Benny watched to make sure he left. Then he sat down on the bare mattress of Virginia's bed, the sheets tangled in a pile at his feet. He dropped his flute and his Home Depot bag and put his head in his hands. He was so tired all of a sudden. He wished he could go to sleep and not wake up for twenty hours. He checked his watch. Forty-five minutes until midnight.

Benny was having a hard time getting his breathing to normalize. He felt a huge lump in his throat. Was he about to cry? He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this upset. Virginia was probably dead. Or raped. And even if she wasn't one of those things, she probably would be
sooner or later, because the Boarders had no security, and she was so stupid she'd get in a car with anyone. He should have done a better job looking after her. It was his club, after all!

He checked his watch again, but he could barely read it because his hand was shaking. Forty minutes until midnight.

“You okay, man?”

Benny looked up. Gottfried was standing in the doorway.

“I hear da shouting . . . ,” Gottfried said, his eyes flickering around Virginia's trashed room.

“It's okay,” Benny said, more to himself than to Gottfried. “It's okay.”

“You are very stressed?” Gottfried asked. “Sometimes I feel dis way. I feel so . . . I don't know. I feel so disconnected. Like I'm running away. Like my mind isn't real. Like my mind is a small dog dat lives inside me, you know?”

Benny looked at him. “Not really.”

Gottfried leaned into the doorway. He chewed his thumbnail. “When I feel dis way, Zaire helps me. Shall I find her for you? She does her hypnotism, and I calm right down and go to sleep.”

“You let Zaire hypnotize you?” Benny asked.

“Oh
ja
,” Gottfried said. “Many nights a week. She will do da same for you if you wish. You will go right to sleep.”

Benny searched Gottfried's blank smile for a sign that he was trying to trick him or something.

“Thank you, but I'm fine,” he said finally. “Actually, I need to call the police.” Benny pulled out his cell phone. The midnight deadline was stupid. If Virginia was in trouble, he needed to call Detective Disco now. He started dialing.

“Da police? Dat is my cue to leave!” Gottfried exclaimed. “I am underage drinking!”

“Bye,” Benny said. Then he heard the sound of crunching gravel coming from outside. He looked up from his phone. It was a police car coming slowly down the road.

Oh my God,
he thought. The phone dropped from his hand.
She's gone. She's gone.

11:25 p.m.

“I hope you've learned your lesson,” the officer said as they turned down the road to Winship. He was a big man with a mustache. Big in a husky way—only slightly fat. He was nice, or at least had nothing better to do than take Virginia back to school. She must have stood in the shadow of the dollar store for an hour, just staring at Min-Jun's car and praying that he would give up and leave. But the car just sat there and sat there, as if daring her to try to get past it. Then finally, mercifully, the police cruiser had circled back on its patrol route. Virginia had flung herself from the shadows and frantically waved it down. Within seconds, Min-Jun's car had screeched away.

“No more gettin' in cars with strangers,” the officer was
saying. “You kids got no idea how dangerous it is out there. Take it from me.”

Virginia rolled her eyes. She hated it when adults acted like they were so great. You know what pretty much every bad guy in the world was? An adult.
They
were the reason the world was so dangerous.

“How come cops always eat donuts?” she asked.

The officer gave an irritated shrug. “You shouldn't stereotype people. I don't eat that crap.” He gestured toward a protein shake that was sitting in the cup holder.

Virginia picked it up and examined the nutrition facts. “You may as well. There's forty-five grams of sugar in this.”

“The hell there is!” He grabbed the protein shake and squinted at the label. “Daaamn!”

The car pulled up to the Boarders. It looked quiet and empty, but the front door was hanging wide open.

“This is where you live?” the officer asked dubiously. “Looks like a haunted house.”

“It is,” Virginia said. She opened the door. “Thanks for the ride.”

He leaned over and called, “No more getting in cars with strangers! Unless they're me. And I'm not a stranger anymore—I'm Officer Good Guy! You call me any time.”

He waved. Virginia loitered for a minute, waiting for him to give her a personal number or something. But he didn't. How was she supposed to call him if she didn't have his number? Dial 911 and ask for Officer Good Guy?

Whatever,
Virginia thought. Adults were such liars. They said they wanted to help, but really they just wanted to dump you at the curb of your haunted house and get back to their business.

She slammed the car door and started trudging away. Her bloody shins and knees stung from skidding on the cement. She hoped there were some Band-Aids or Neosporin in the house.