hallucinating and will never see them again once they’re out the door. The tiny bell over the entrance rings as they slide out, one by one. Silas is last and he tips his hat to me as he crosses the threshold.
My heart is hammering in my chest and I’m not sure what to do, but I know I’ve got to go with them. I know it’s risky. I don’t know them, and they could have bad intentions, but something tells me … no, something inside me knows that they don’t. That they’re exactly who I think they are and they came because I called them and I’m meant to go with them if I ever want to be truly safe again.
“Cook,” I yell, rushing around the corner of the counter and pulling off my apron. “My ride’s here,” I shout, hoping he won’t remember I drive myself. “I gotta go.”
“What about cleanup?” he asks, sounding outraged.
“Not tonight,” I say, grinning. “I’ll owe you one.”
“You owe me about five,” he mutters, but I know he’ll do it. Despite his protests, I never ask him for favors.
“Thanks!”
I take a minute to rush to the bathroom, check my face in the mirror, wish desperately for another face, less brown, less skinny, less acne-prone, but then I remember what Silas said, that he came because my heart asked him to. I turn on the faucet, douse my face, and run a wet hand through my hair, trying to make it behave, and then I’m out the door …
… where I run smack into Jason Winters.
“Whoa,” he says with his fake laugh, grabbing me by the shoulders. “What’s the rush, Lukas?”
I freeze. I can feel his hands, too warm, the pressure of his fingers. I look around the parking lot, frantic. Where are Silas and the others? Where did they go?
“Did you see…,” I start to ask, and then remember who I’m talking to and snap my mouth shut.
Jason looks over his shoulder, and now I see he’s not alone. The Toad Twins are getting out of the back seat of his blue Chevy truck, laughing and heading our direction. Something catches in my throat. No, no, no. Not now.
“Look,” I say, the memory of Silas waiting for me somewhere out there, making me bold. “You can pound on my face another time. Right now, I’ve got to go.”
Jason points over my shoulder, back at the diner. “Says Landry’s is open another twenty minutes. Me and my boys just want to grab a quick bite. Surely you can help us with that. I mean, isn’t that your job?”
The twins have joined us, Tyler and Trey, and they laugh, that same automatic guffaw they always laugh for Jason. Like having a job is a joke.
“Cook’s still there. He can help you.”
His hands tighten on my shoulders. “I want you to help me.”
The way he says it stops me in my tracks even more than the heavy dig of his fingers into my flesh. His eyes meet mine, clear blue like the summer sky, and he smiles.
“I…”
“Oh my God,” one of the twins says, Tyler or Trey, “he’s gonna try to kiss you.”
I’m not. Of course I’m not, but my face still burns like it’s on fire. I open my mouth to protest, but I don’t get the chance.
The punch to my stomach is so swift I don’t realize he’s hit me until I’m bent over double, gasping for air. The second one comes a moment after, a fist to the side of my face just below where my eye’s still healing that leaves my ears ringing. I hit the gravel with a thud, the tiny gray pebbles digging into my cheek.
More laughter, and I brace myself for the kick that’s coming.
“Is there a problem here?”
I’m so wrapped up in my humiliation that it takes me a moment to recognize that voice. I roll my head to the side and look up. Silas is there, black boots and jacket and hat and that easy smile.
Jason sneers. “Mind your own business, cowboy,” he says.
“This here is my business. Lukas is my friend.”
The three high school boys laugh. “Lukas Loser? Well, I know you’re lying, because he doesn’t have any friends.”
Now the kick comes, right to my gut. It’s not as bad as it could have been, as it’s been before, but it’s enough to make me suck in a breath.
“I thought I asked you to stop,” Silas says, low and quiet.
“Or else what?” Jason puffs himself up, broad