S. Bodeen - The Fallout

Stunned, all I could do was sit there. Then I said what I was thinking. “Is that why you sneak out with Tony?”

Lexie’s brow furrowed. “You’ve been sneaking out?”

Eddy asked me, “How do you know?”

“I saw you. The night of Quinn’s birthday party, I saw you guys go over the fence.” I left out the part about listening to him and Tony talk about me. Given that he’d basically just repeated everything he’d said that night, I didn’t see the point.

Eddy leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and then he dropped his head back down. He averted his eyes. “Yeah. I just want to get out and have fun.” He shrugged.

Lexie said, “I don’t want to sit around and be sad.”

I glanced at Eddy. “I don’t want to hide here forever.” I didn’t. It just seemed… easier. And safer. But maybe it was time to stop playing things safe. Maybe it was time to live. Get back to normal. Whatever normal was.

I got to my feet.

“Where you going?” Eddy asked.

“Bathroom. I’ll be right back.” I started to leave, then turned back and told Eddy, “I think we should invite Lexie to go with us.”

“Where?” asked Lexie.

Eddy slowly began to nod. “Yeah.”

“The Colorado house,” I said.

“Why are you going there? Does Mom know?” Lexie asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “She’s good with it. And it’s just a visit.” I didn’t think it would help anything to tell her Mom was thinking about selling it.

Lexie said, “I’ll go.” She glanced at Eddy. “Wait. Are you sure you want me to go?”

“Yes,” he said. “Maybe…”

“Maybe what?” I asked.

He offered up a half smile. “Maybe it’ll help us get a fresh start. The three of us, I mean.”

Lexie’s eyes were still red from crying, but she smiled, too.

Eddy said, “Let’s go tomorrow.”

I frowned. That was when I was meeting up with Verity. But as I looked at my brother and sister, I knew I had to put them first. There was no way I could think about letting in someone else, starting a new relationship, until I had fixed the ones I already had.

I went to my room and picked up my phone.

Verity answered on the first ring. “Hey, EJ.”

I wanted so much to tell her that wasn’t my name. I wanted to spit out who I truly was, and everything else she needed to know. But I didn’t. “Hi.”

She said, “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me too, um…” I took a deep breath. “Listen, that’s why I called. I can’t make it and—”

“Why am I not surprised?” She sighed. “Why did you even bother to set it up if you knew you weren’t gonna make it?”

“But I planned to! Something just came up and I can’t.”

“What is it this time? Another paper? Something with your family?”

“You don’t understand.”

“No, I guess I don’t. Care to fill me in?”

Filling her in would mean letting her in. And even though I thought I had been ready, I knew I wasn’t. Especially after talking with Eddy and Lexie. Even though Eddy had let Tony in without telling us, I felt like I owed it to my brother and sister to be in on the decision to tell Verity everything. Because it wasn’t just me anymore. It wasn’t that simple. So I said, “I will. I promise. Just not now.” That sounded so lame.

“Oh, okay. Let me clear my schedule and we’ll set a date for you to let me know all your deep dark secrets. How about that?” Her voice had a rough edge to it, and had gotten louder as she went on.

I couldn’t blame her for being mad. Why would she even waste time on me? “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Okay. Me too.” The click of her disconnecting was loud in my ear. I just sat there, wondering if I should call her back. And I did. The call went straight to voice mail.

I didn’t want to face Eddy and Lexie right away, so I turned on the television to something mindless for a while, and ended up dozing off. It was daylight when I woke up.

I went into Eddy’s room. He was in the shower, so I stared out the window until he came out with a towel around his waist.

“Hey,” he said. “You never came back last night.”

“I fell asleep,” I said. “I just wanted to check and make sure you were okay with Lexie going. I know I kind of made it so you couldn’t exactly say no…”

“Yeah, I am.”

Was he being honest? “Really?”

Eddy sat down on the edge of his bed. “I know I haven’t been the best brother since you guys came back. Especially not to her. But when you showed me that stuff about her birth mother…” He trailed off.

“That was pretty bad.”

He nodded.

I said, “Even though she wouldn’t admit it in a million years, she needs us.”

Eddy said, “I do want to be there for her. I want her to know I’m her brother, too.”

“Cool.” I smiled. “I had one other idea.”

His eyebrows raised.

“You should ask Tony.”

“To go with us?”

“Yeah. I think he would be a good distraction for Lexie.”

He frowned. “I thought you didn’t like him?”

“I was jealous that you seemed to have more fun with him than me.”

Eddy started to say something, but I stopped him. “And that’s fine. I haven’t been very fun. But I’m really gonna try to get back to normal. And I think this trip would be really fun with the four of us.”

“Okay,” said Eddy. “But what about Mom? She barely went along with Tony going to the baseball game with us.”

“She won’t be at the jet when we leave. She won’t ever have to know.”

Eddy grinned. “You are bad . Okay, I’ll call him.”

Eddy picked up his cell phone. “I’ll call YK first, make sure the jet is ready.”

“I’d better pack.” I went back to my room and threw on some jeans and a black T-shirt, then quickly packed a bag. My phone beeped. A text from Eddy. We’d be leaving at twelve thirty. And Tony would be there.

My phone beeped again. The battery was low, so I opened my drawer to pull out the charger. The cord was tangled with something else that dropped on the floor. I leaned over to pick it up.

Phil’s flash drive.

I had time, so I inserted the flash drive into the computer and went down the list of files.

Hadn’t I seen it all before? I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. I just felt like looking. Then I noticed one of the files was named Barkley.

Dr. Barkley from the Progeria Institute?

The last time I looked at the file, the name would have meant nothing to me, because it was before I visited the Progeria Institute. The thought of which reminded me of Verity.

My heart beat faster. Would she ever speak to me again? Probably not.

I clicked on the file. A bunch of lab reports popped up, all with PDL Project at the top of them. I didn’t really understand any of them, but I wanted to. I wanted to know what the PDL Project was. I looked up Dr. Barkley’s number and called.

A woman answered.

“Hello,” I said. “This is EJ Smith for Dr. Barkley. I’m with the YK internship program.”

“Is he expecting your call?” she asked, not unkindly.

“No,” I admitted. “I just had a couple of questions.”

“Of course,” she said. “I’m sorry he’s not available right at this moment, but he should be able to return your call sometime before noon. Will that work for you?”

That would be cutting it close, with the jet leaving at twelve thirty. “Sure,” I said. “Have him call my cell.” I gave her the number, thanked her, and hung up.

I went to close my drawer, but saw the printout I’d made the day of Phil’s disappearance. I started to read.