The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,51

to the window, unlocked it, and yanked the handle up.

It wouldn’t budge.

With few more huge heave-hos, it wouldn’t move, not even a millimeter.

I cupped my hands to the window, hoping to get a better view of her. There Kate stood, a story below me, backpack on one shoulder, raincoat damp from the drizzle. Her face glowed from the light of her phone. She pointed at her screen. Then pointed at me.

It took a second to click. She was calling.

I lunged for my nightstand. My phone lit up, but there was no ringing, thanks to “do not disturb” mode.

“Hullo?” My voice rumbled with a low-pitch baritone. Better than squeaking, I guess.

“Hey,” she sniffed. “Can I come up?”

I walked to the window and saw her wipe her eyes with her rain-soaked sleeve.

“Uh, sure,” I whispered. “Let me unlock the front door.”

“Thanks.” The light from her phone flicked off. Her shadowy figure walked toward the front of the house.

A quick glance down revealed I was wearing an oversize Mariners shirt and tattered boxers. I grabbed a crumpled pair of gray sweats from the floor and pulled them on as I simultaneously walked to my bedroom door. It creaked as I opened it. Waiting for a few seconds, I made sure there was no stirring from the other bedrooms, then continued down the stairs and opened the front door.

We stood there for a second, facing each other. Me, dry with massive bedhead. Her, sopping wet with clumpy brown curls. She didn’t look physically harmed, but when Kate gave me a weak smile, even in the dark I could sense her intense pain. All I wanted to do was make her feel better. Nothing else mattered.

“Come here,” I whispered. I pulled her body forward and gave her a bear hug. One of those long ones where I worried if she could breathe after a while. Her damp hair smelled nice, like expensive shampoo.

Her shuddered breath calmed. “My dad and I had a fight. I…I couldn’t stay there.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Want to go upstairs where we can talk? We have to be quiet because, you know.”

She nodded. After taking her shoes off, Kate tiptoed behind me to my room upstairs. Once I closed my door, she said, “No offense, but your Harry Potter collection looks way creepier at night.”

I flicked on my desk lamp. “Gee, thanks. Last time I let you into my room at three a.m.”

“Thanks for taking me in.” She peeled off her backpack and jacket and plopped down on my bed.

“Why were you and your dad fighting in the middle of the night?” My brain woke up to full realization that I had Kate in my bedroom again, and I sat down in my desk chair, several arm lengths away.

Her shoulders slumped. “He called me from Japan. He wants to pull me out of school. It’s a long story.” Tears trickled down both cheeks.

I leaped over to her with a box of tissues in hand, then sat down on the floor near my bed instead of retreating back to my chair. “I’m sorry.” What else could I say? The more I said, the more danger I was in of overstepping somehow. Or worse, saying something stupid so she’d hate me forever. She was airing shit out. I needed to let her do that.

She told me about her dad’s plan to bring her to Asia just for the sake of college admissions. Wow, he was just as bad as Pete and those guys, trying to rig our GPAs. Maybe even worse.

Her life sounded so awful. No mom. A conniving dad. I stood up just so I could sit next to her and gave her a side hug. She yawned and leaned her head on my chest. We stayed like that for a while, until Kate turned her head up and looked at me. She had stopped crying, but streaks remained on her cheeks from the dried tears.

Her soft brown eyes no longer looked pained. I’d never noticed her long, dark lashes and the smattering of freckles on her nose before. With