the suitcase on the floor and plopped onto her tiny twin bed covered in Frozen sheets. Bree was a bit of a Disney fan, to say the least. I thought it was because she liked to imagine that she was a princess, though one of the ones who saved the day for themselves, not the kind who needed rescuing.
No, it seemed that I was the kind who needed rescuing. I wished it weren’t so.
I must have fallen asleep like that because the next thing I knew, the overhead light was shining right in my eyes and Bree’s face hovered in front of me. A hand reached out, gently, and shook me.
“Norah, what the hell is going on?” Her face blurred in before me as I blinked the sleep out of my eyes. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to see you, but you have to admit it’s kind of strange that you’re in my bed.”
“Sorry.” I pushed up onto my elbows and gave her a look, one that spoke far more than any words ever could. Realization immediately dawned on her face.
“It’s the asshole,” she said, matter-of-factly. “He finally snapped.”
I blew out a heavy sigh. “It was like he’d transformed into a beast. He punched a hole in the wall and then threatened to do the same to my face.”
She let out a low whistle. “So you left.”
“So I left.” I gave her a sad smile. “Though it was my mom’s idea. I saw a flicker of something in her tonight. It gives me hope that maybe she’s finally seeing him for who he really is, but that’s scary in its own way. I don’t want him to hurt her.”
“Maybe we should call the police and tell them what’s happened,” Bree said. “They might be able to charge him with something.”
I groaned, closed my eyes, and flopped back onto the bed. “Oh, god. The police. For two precious seconds there, I’d forgotten about the police.”
“What are you talking about?”
With my eyes still shut tight, I said, “It’s a long, long, long story that is going to sound absolutely insane. Like, even more insane than the time I told you that a stranger who cornered me in the bathroom held all the answers to my panic attacks.”
“You mean that time that was last night.”
“That’s the one.”
“Alright. Scooch over. Sounds like I’m going to need to be sitting down for this one.”
With a laugh, I moved over and the two of us packed tight into her bed. It reminded me of when we’d been younger, and Bree would stay over at my apartment every Friday night without fail. We grabbed pizza from the corner shop and settled in for a movie marathon. There’d be talk of boys and crushes, but mostly we liked to talk about our dreams, about where we wanted our lives to take us. Bree had always wanted to leave Manhattan while I’d always wanted to stay. To her, this wasn’t the concrete jungle made of dreams. She’d always thought there was more to the world than this tiny island. Sometimes, I thought she might be right.
So, I told her my story. I started out slow, unsure of myself at first. I was more than a little worried what her reaction might be. I was basically admitting to imagining a beastly monster killing people in alleys. The police thought of me as a suspect. My step-dad (and maybe my mom) thought of me as a suspect, too.
Would Bree think of me that way? I didn’t know what I would do if the only person I had left in the world turned her back on me.
But when I was done telling my crazy tale, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close, the scent of lavender and roses swirling around us.
“Well, that is one shit-tastic day. I think this calls for a pizza from Tony’s and some Ben & Jerry’s Rocky Road.”
“Wait a minute.” I pulled back to meet her eyes. “You believe me? You don’t think I’m a killer?”
She snorted. “Norah, you’re pretty much the opposite of a killer. Remember that I’ve seen you save spiders from your step-dad. Sneaking them out the window so he doesn’t have the chance to squash them.”
“Okay, but there’s still the whole wolf monster in an alley thing.”
“I’m not going to lie. I have no idea what to think about that.” She plopped back onto the pillows and shrugged. “It doesn’t make much sense. People don’t go around seeing wolf monsters