Every You, Every Me (14 page)

“Sure,” I said. “After school?”

“Yeah, after school.”

And what happened during school? What changed?

Because when I met you at your locker, you were different. You handed me the camera.

“Here, take this.”

But you were distracted.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

And—yes, I remember.

You said, “Everything.”

I followed you into the woods.

I followed you.

I would have followed you anywhere.

I thought that.

And then you went somewhere I couldn’t follow.

But back up. Return to the woods. Look at the picture. There you are. Someone was watching. I have no idea who. But there I am.

I must be looking at you.

You didn’t take this photo.

I had the camera.

“Take my picture,” you said.

So I lined up the old camera.

“Is there film in this?” I asked.

“This way, you’ll have me for posterity,” you said.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I wasn’t sure there was any film.

“Evan, I can’t take it right now. I just can’t take it.”

“Take what?”

“Take the picture.”

“What?”

“I said, take the picture.”

What happened next?

What happened next was

What happened next was

Jack?

No.

Yes.

Your scream.

No.

Yes.

What happened next.

Stop.

What happened

Stop.

Next

“Stop!”

Stop.

I was tearing up the photograph.

I couldn’t stop tearing up the photograph.

I was telling myself to stop.

I was hearing you yell.
“Stop!”

I cannot stop it.

I cannot stop it.

20

I wore myself out and slept most of Sunday. On Monday, school was a full hive when I got there. I ran to the patio, hoping to find
you
Jack. Sure enough, there he was, and it even looked like he was waiting for me. When he saw me, he put out his cigarette and said something to Katie, who was standing next to him. They both came over, heading me off before I got over to where they’d been.

“Hey,” I said. “Something happened.”

Something was wrong. I could tell. Jack was looking at me strangely. Like
I
had done something wrong. Really wrong.

“Let’s talk over there,” he said, gesturing a little ways off, into the woods.

“I got another photo,” I told him. Katie, I noticed, wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“Of course you did,” he said.

“What?”

But he wouldn’t answer. Not until we were away from everyone else, in the trees. And even then, he only stared at me. It was Katie who broke the silence.

“I caught Mr. Rogers this morning,” she said. “He’s back in school.”

That’s it,
I thought.
They’ve found the girl.

“Who is she?” I asked.

“I told him I needed to contact the person who took the photo. I told him I’d damaged it and needed another print.”

“And?”

“He yelled at me for being careless. But then he gave me the name and told me to be more careful next time.”

Now she stopped.

I couldn’t stand it.

“Who is she?” I asked again.

Katie shook her head.

And Jack said, “It’s you.”

It’s you It’s you It’s you

“What?”
I don’t understand.

Now Jack was grabbing my shirt. Pushing me against a tree. Katie telling him to stop. But he was knocking me back. It hurt, but it didn’t hurt so much, because part of me wasn’t even there.

“I said, it’s you, Evan. The person who submitted that photo is YOU.”

“But it can’t be!”
it can’t be it can’t be

“Stop lying!”

He knocked my head back.
Pain.

“Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”

it can’t be it can’t be

“It wasn’t me,” I said.

He shoved me. Hard. I bent over.

“Jack—stop!” Katie was yelling at him now.

“Stop!”

He didn’t pay any attention to her, hovering over me, shouting. “So is Mr. Rogers lying? Is that what you’re saying?”

“It wasn’t me! She must have put my name on it. She’s after us, Jack!”

“Ah, yes, the mysterious ‘she.’ Only thing is, she doesn’t exist.”

Now Katie was in between us. Shielding me.

“Jack, stop.”

He pulled back for a moment, took something out of his back pocket, and threw it at the ground in front of me.

“Are you saying you didn’t leave this in my locker this morning?”

I didn’t I didn’t
I shook my head.

“Evan, what are you doing?”

I was shivering. Shaking.