38. Macie

Chapter thirty-eight

Macie

G roup text to Melanie, Demarius, and Relic: Lev is doing okay. We went shopping for clothes and personal items this afternoon. Isaiah and Rachel are going to spend the evening with him eating dinner and watching movies. Lev's also going to meet their son, Dalton. Keep sending him texts like you have been. It makes him feel grounded.

Dalton joined Isaiah and Rachel years ago when he was fifteen. The foster arrangement eventually turned into adoption. Currently, he was in his mid-twenties, newly married, and was starting off his own life, but he was still close to Isaiah and Rachel and often came over to talk to new fosters in hopes of answering questions and helping them feel secure in their new environment.

I then sent a text to Relic knowing he was on break: Please don't join the gang until we have an opportunity to see if I can describe the tattoo. Maybe that will change everything.

Relic: I can't hold out forever. I have to think of my sisters.

Me: Give me until tomorrow. Please.

Relic: Tomorrow.

Would tomorrow be enough? It had to be. I had to find a way to describe the tattoo and save Relic. I set my cell on the patio table and relaxed on the chaise lounge to take a short nap. The sun felt splendid on my skin, a comforting touch warming my body and soul. I slept last night, but lightly, on the ready in case Lev should wake and needed a friend. It took a while for him to fall asleep, but once he did, he was out for the night.

The back door opened and I kept my eyes closed, as Seth and Oliver had been in and out multiple times. But my eyes flashed open, my mouth gaped, and I jolted upright when I heard familiar voices on my back deck. "Hey, Ms. Disappearance. How have you been?"

It was Gianna and Brayden. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

Gianna took a seat in the chair next to me. "Considering you don't come to parties anymore and one-word answer my texts when you do respond, it is shocking I'm here. It's like you don't want to be my friend anymore. And Seth let us in and told us you were back here."

I had been avoiding her because she had gossiped about me behind my back, plus she'd been a real crappy friend to me since the shooting. For so long I blamed myself, but could it all be my fault when Demarius, Melanie, Lev, and Relic found a way to be my friends, even when I was complicated?

Not sure how to respond to her thrown are-we-friends-anymore gauntlet, I said, "Work's been seriously busy, but it's good to see you. What have you two been up to this summer?" Then to Brayden, "Do you want to sit?" To both of them, "Do either of you want something to drink?"

Please say no , I thought, and please leave quickly because this is seriously awkward and I don't want you here.

"No, thank you," Gianna said as Brayden answered, "I'm good."

Brayden sat next to Gianna, and she reached over and laid her hand over his. He didn't hold her hand back. It rested there on the armrest like a dead fish. Relic always took my hand, often lacing our fingers together to hold on as tightly to me as I did to him. Was there trouble in paradise, or was this how things were between them?

Brayden Gentry, in my opinion, had always been a jerk, but I had hoped that maybe he had changed, which would explain why Gianna chose to be with him. Had he changed and maybe now he was changing back? Or maybe Gianna was blinded. By what, though?

"So," I drew out. "How are you?"

Why are you here? What can I do to make you leave without being rude?

Gianna tilted her head and put on an overly sympathetic face. "Brayden heard how you're trying to figure out who carjacked you, and that must be so hard, so we wanted to check in to see how you were. You are so brave, Macie, and I want you to know I'm here."

I froze with terror, my blood, muscles, and organs solidifying into ice. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, could barely form a coherent thought. "What did you say?"

"That we know that you're actively trying to find who carjacked you," Gianna repeated.

I scratched madly at the hive forming on my wrist. "How do you know that?"

"Marsh told me," Brayden said. "He said that Relic is marking up a yearbook or something like that. You really think that whoever carjacked you goes to our school? If so, that's messed up."

"It freaks me out," Gianna added. "That means it could happen to any of us."

My eyes widened in shock and anger as I scratched at my arm. "Because that's what is so upsetting about all of this? Not that I was carjacked and shot, but that you might have a class with them and that they might eventually carjack you? That's the priority right now?"

"Calm down, Macie," Brayden said. "She's here to help."

"Yeah, Macie," Gianna had bite to her tone. "Don't yell at me. I'm being supportive."

"Do you have an idea of who carjacked you?" Brayden pushed. "Did you see who did it, or did you see anything that can help you figure it out?"

"Because Brayden and I were thinking," Gianna said, "that maybe we could help. Between the two of us, we know a lot of people. You've been a great friend to me, and I feel like I should be doing more to help."

Brayden and Gianna knew I was searching, and Gianna told everyone everything, which meant the people who carjacked me were going to find out, and that meant they were going to come after me…after my family… Bile surged up my windpipe. "Who have you told?"

"What?" Gianna's cheeks turned red, and that told me she had already spilled the beans to more people than I even wanted to imagine. "No one."

"No one?" I challenged. "You told absolutely no one."

"Maybe a few people. Friends from the volleyball team, but they're your friends, too."

I stood. "You need to go."

"Why are you acting so rude?" Gianna spat. "I'm trying to be your friend."

"My friend?" I countered. "A friend wouldn't gossip about something so awful, and that's all you've done since this happened."

"I'm not gossiping," Gianna pleaded as she rose from her seat. "This has been hard on me, too. You don't understand my side of this situation. I need to talk to people so I can deal with my emotions. This entire situation has really stressed me out and caused me anxiety and…"

My mind reeled with her preposterous and selfish ramblings. "You're making my life worse. You both are. Stop talking about me. Stop making this about you. And stop making me feel like our failing friendship is all my fault."

"Macie," Gianna interjected with a sob in her voice.

"Go home." I stalked past them and slammed the backdoor behind me.