Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,92

his knees, and boosted himself up. "Okay," he said, getting up to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" I asked, frantic.

He thought about it for a moment. "Home, I suppose."

"You can stay here," I offered, gesturing randomly to my room.

"I don't know if your dad would like that," he said, smiling wryly. He looked so tired, I couldn't possibly imagine him having to walk all the way back home in the cold.

"You can sleep in here. On the floor," I added, in case I was giving off any other vibes.

I took a pillow and an extra blanket off of the foot of my bed, and propped them up on the floor.

"I know it's not fancy," I said apologetically.

"It's fine. Thank you." He took off his sweatshirt and laid it on the back of the chair. The homey gesture reminded me of when Hugh would come home from work, and toss his jacket on my parents' bed. As he propped himself up, I sat down next to him on the floor. I couldn't help myself.

His eyes registered confusion now that I was so close. I stroked the side of his cheek with the back of my hand.

"Can we finish one thing?" I asked softly. And then I kissed him, gently at first. He responded immediately, moving his lips against mine, putting his arms around me and running his hands along my back. The kiss grew in intensity, all of my feelings rushing to my mouth, searching his with my tongue. When I finally pulled away, gasping for breath, we looked at each other.

"Goodnight," he said, pressing his forehead quickly against mine, and then lying down on the pillow.

I crawled into bed and shut off the light.

Chapter 21

I took it as a cosmic sign that McPherson was absent from school the next day. Nurse Callie did the morning announcements instead, a welcome change.

At lunch, Theo and I gathered around Henry and Alex's table to make plans.

"I don't know about being a part of another one of your crazy schemes," Alex said, shaking his head.

"Okay, Ricky, you just go to the Tropicana," Theo said.

"What the hell?" Alex said, looking like he was about to sneeze.

"You never watched I Love Lucy? Why am I not surprised?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Can we please get back to the topic?" Henry asked impatiently.

"Sorry," Theo muttered.

"We need to have a distraction, so that we can get into the security office," Henry explained. "That way we can check out the tape of the day of the fire."

"How exactly are we supposed to do that?" Alex asked.

"Figure something out," Henry said. "You're both very creative." Theo and Alex exchanged a look, eyebrows raised.

Ten minutes later, we were all standing over by the administration offices, watching the office workers through the glass front as they chatted by the counter.

"I hope this works," I said softly.

"Me too," Henry replied. We stared at each other. If we got caught, we would be in too bad of trouble for even his father to get us out.

Theo fell to the hard floor and started screaming.

"I didn't mean it!" Alex shouted, all part of the scene we had rehearsed.

The two office assistants, followed by Nurse Callie, ran out to where Theo lay twitching on the ground.

Henry and I rounded the corner, walking quickly. The security officer took his lunch breaks outside, so we had the office to ourselves. We slipped inside the door, hopefully unnoticed.

I followed Henry back into the security office. A slideshow of images of different parts of the school cycled on the monitor.

There were boxes of labeled DVDs beneath the desk. We each pulled out a box and started thumbing through them. Every DVD was dated.

"What was the date of the fire?" I asked.

"November sixth. It's not here," he said, not sounding entirely surprised. "Son of a..."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"I'm completely sure. Thursday the fifth is here, Monday is ninth is here. No Friday." He pushed the box back in place.

"Then our only alternative is to go down in the basement," he continued. There was a need in his eyes I couldn't argue with. "We have to see what he's hiding."

"Why are you so sure there's something down there?" I asked, but I knew he was right. The voices I had heard there the first day, the charred black marks like a sunburst from underneath the door. All obscure evidence that the basement harbored a secret. Not to mention McPherson's creepy shed, and the fact that he was conveniently missing.

"It's something