“Then who?” He doesn’t answer, so I push it. “If not your parents, then who? The cops? Or … what?”
“What,” he answers softly, the little break in his voice so surprisingly vulnerable it catches me off guard.
But what—who—does he mean? “Does not compute.”
He shakes his head again, finally taking a step backward. “Never mind, Mack. Forget I asked.”
Like that was going to happen.
He stuffs his hands in his pockets, sighing and eyeing the parking lot, probably looking for the next female victim he can coerce to lie for him. I follow his gaze, watching the ever-widening circle of crying, singing girls.
“It’s sad, isn’t it?” I finally say.
He nods. “She was a nice girl,” he says.
“Did you know her … well?”
“Pretty well, yeah.” He almost smiles and I get the distinct feeling “pretty well” could loosely be translated into “intimately.” Which is strange, because I would never have put those two together. I can’t even imagine them talking, let alone …
“We went out last spring when I first got to Vienna.”
Dating.
“Hey, Kenzie.” At the sound of a guy’s voice, I turn and spot Josh shouldering his way through the cars, heading toward us.
“I better go,” Levi says, surprising me by touching my chin ever so softly to keep me from looking at anything but him. “See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” He still wants me to tutor him?
“Yeah, nothing’s changed. Please be there.”
I don’t answer, but I can’t look away.
“I want to see you again,” he whispers. “I need to.”
“Kenzie!” There’s more urgency in Josh’s call this time.
Before I can answer, Levi slips behind me and takes off without even acknowledging Josh.
CHAPTER IX
Josh looks like he might have been crying, and that trips my heart a little. Levi certainly wasn’t grieving Olivia’s death … just shopping for alibis with fake texts that were never sent.
And still the spot on my chin kind of burns from where he touched it.
“What are you talking to that kid for?” Josh asks as he approaches, his open varsity jacket making his shoulders look even broader. He’s so tall I have to look up to meet his gaze, and I suddenly feel very small.
I open my mouth to tell him everything, then stop myself. Some innate sense that I don’t understand tells me to stay quiet about the Levi situation right now. I don’t know why, but no one feels trustworthy at the moment.
“I was talking to him about …” I give him a simple smile. “How sad this is.”
He chokes softly, as if he doesn’t believe Levi could understand sadness. “Kid’s a problem, you know?”
“How’s that?” I ask, hoping to hear something concrete and not just another piece of Levi Sterling folklore because so far, he wasn’t exactly living up to his bad-boy rep.
“Well, look at him.”
That’s pretty much all I’ve done for the last ten minutes. “What about him?”
“He’s a fu—freak, Kenzie. He’ll be lucky if he graduates and doesn’t end up in prison.”
“Why is everyone so certain Levi Sterling is going to jail?” I demand.
His blue eyes spark. “You like him?”
“I don’t even know him.”
“Well, you shouldn’t. He’s bad news and I don’t want him …” His voice trails off and his cheeks flush.
“You don’t want him what?” I really, really want to know.
“I don’t want him near you,” he finishes.
I feel my jaw loosen, a hundred different emotions going to war inside me. Resentment, excitement, shock, and maybe just a little anger. “You don’t want him near me?” I repeat, changing the emphasis entirely.
“I don’t …” He shakes his head and tries to shrug off the topic. “Never mind.”
“So, were you friends with Olivia?” I ask, just as happy to have the subject of Levi closed for the moment.
“I knew her, sure. We had Spanish together for two years and her father’s company has done some construction work on my house.” He looks off into the distance, his eyes moist. “She was a really cool girl.”
I nod sympathetically, supposing that’s a legit enough connection for a guy like Josh to shed a few tears. Levi didn’t seem to be in mourning, and he dated the girl.
“How about you?” he says. “Good friends?”
Was he kidding? Girls like Olivia and the rest of them on that list didn’t hang out with nerds like me. But guys don’t always know that. “Just well enough to say hi,” I tell him. “We nodded to each other yesterday, after …”