Nightstruck - Jenna Black Page 0,94
into snobs. I had been so very angry, at the bullies, at the school that couldn’t—or wouldn’t—stop them, and at my parents, who couldn’t see past their personal prejudices to realize keeping me there was a terrible idea.
If I’d stayed at that school, if the world had continued to add more fuel to the anger that had been building inside me …
“Tell yourself it’s ridiculous, if it makes you feel better,” Piper said. “It’s not my fault you don’t like the answer to your question.”
It doesn’t matter, I told myself. You are who you are now, not who you might have been. But I knew my mind would circle back to the subject again and again and again.
“Why was it so important to you that I pick up the phone?” I asked. “Just so you could have some more fun poking sticks at me?”
“I’m not poking sticks at you,” Piper said, with exasperation in her voice. “Like I said, I’m trying to help you. Trying to get you to the place where you feel better and all of this shit stops hurting so much.”
I wondered if she was aware of her own hypocrisy, then decided it wouldn’t matter if she was. She’d say anything, do anything, to get what she wanted. And apparently what she wanted was me.
“But it’s obvious you aren’t convinced yet,” Piper continued. “You seem to like Marlene. How terrible would you feel if something happened to her and it was all because you were too selfish to do the right thing and give yourself up?”
My hand clenched on the phone, and my heart gave a nasty thump. “Don’t you dare—”
“But maybe you’d be okay as long as you still had Luke. I wouldn’t want you to put too much faith in the bullshit Marlene was feeding you. Luke was all mine, and would have been mine as long as I wanted him. He’s into you now because he’s on the rebound, and because, hey, you’re available. I know you know all that, but I bet you still have hopes that you and he will, like, get married and have babies and live happily ever after or some such shit.”
“I’m hanging up now,” I said through gritted teeth, but I didn’t actually do it.
“I’m going to take out everyone you care about,” Piper said. “I’m glad you’ve met Luke’s family, because that’ll give me a nice pool of victims to choose from. One by one, I’ll take them away from you, until you have no one left. Let’s see how many losses your conscience can take before you realize you really have no choice.
“Call this number and let me know when you’re ready to give in. And try to remember that, no matter how much it hurts, everything I’m doing is for your own good. I’m still your friend, and I’ll be here for you whenever you’re ready.”
In the end, it was Piper who hung up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep after getting off the phone with Piper, so when Dr. Gilliam drove me back to my house, I practically fell asleep in the car. We had to drive most of the way across Center City to get home, and it looked nothing like any other Black Friday in my life. The sun didn’t rise till around seven these days, so there were no early-morning sales to bring people out in droves. Stores were open—most of them at least—but there were very few customers visible through their windows.
The city’s maintenance workers did their best, but there was no keeping up with the destruction and mess the Nightstruck and the constructs caused when the sun was down. Broken glass littered the streets and sidewalks, piles of litter blew in the breeze, and graffiti—much of it obscene—was everywhere.
Piper’s call, my lack of sleep, and the dismal sight of the city combined to sink my mood to an all-time low, and I couldn’t wait to get home and close myself in my room for a little alone time. There are times when you want to talk about your problems and times when you want to hide from them. This was the latter.
It wasn’t as hard to park on the streets these days as it used to be, so Dr. Gilliam was able to find a spot right in front of her house. She invited me to spend the day with her and Luke, as I usually did when she wasn’t at work, but I pleaded exhaustion and