Immortal City (25 page)

“It’s a beautiful house,” Maddy said as she gazed up at the vaulted wood-beam ceiling.

“Thanks. Still feels kind of new to me. I keep waiting for my mom to decide how she wants to decorate, but . . .” He trailed off and sat on the couch. Maddy took a seat next to him.

“So, your mom’s out of town?”

Ethan nodded, looking downcast for a moment. “Yeah, she’s out of town a lot for business. Her job keeps her pretty busy.”

“What kind of work does she do?”

“Marketing,” he replied. Maddy thought of Uncle Kevin. Despite being old-fashioned and set in his ways, he was always there for her. Other people sometimes weren’t as lucky.

“So,” Ethan said, changing the subject, “college apps driving you crazy yet?”

“Oh, crazy is an understatement,” Maddy admitted with a sip of her soda. “I’m
way
behind.”

“I know, me too,” Ethan said. “Have you gotten that essay prompt yet,
‘Please describe what you consider to be the most difficult moment in your life’
?”

“Yes!” Maddy exclaimed. “God, I hate that one.”

Ethan shook his head. “I wanted to respond,
‘Trying to figure out what to write for this essay.’
” Ethan laughed, and Maddy joined in. She was feeling much more at ease.

“Wow, I had no idea you cared about college, Ethan,” Maddy said.

“You assumed I wasn’t smart?” Ethan looked mock-insulted.

Maddy blanched and backpedaled. “I’ve never seen you in the school library is all.” Ethan’s eyes flashed, mischievous.

“Well, can you keep a secret?”

He pulled out his key chain and jingled it.

“I kind of wanted to study on my own hours, and besides, I prefer being in there by myself without Mr. Rankin to pester me.”

Maddy’s mouth fell open.

“You have
keys
to the school?”

“Sure. Mrs. Neilson left them lying on her desk one day, so I . . . borrowed them.”

“You stole them,” Maddy said in disbelief. Ethan shrugged, and Maddy was surprised to find herself smiling.

“I
copied
them. I gave them back, promise. If you ever need to use them, just let me know.”

Of course it was wrong to steal the keys . . . but it was also resourceful. And bold. There was something about it she liked. It felt like a New Maddy thing to do.

“Careful what you say,” she said at last. “I might actually take you up on that.”

Maddy watched Ethan as he laughed. A part of her had always found him attractive, but maybe not as attractive as she was finding him now. Her eyes searched his full lips, his high cheekbones, his hazel eyes. A silent moment passed between them. Almost intuitively, he reached over and took her hand. His felt rough and calloused, but also warm.

As much as she tried to block it, the memory came. The memory of Jacks’s touch in the back office of the diner, and the electricity that had passed between them. She pushed the thought desperately away as Ethan turned toward her. They were face-to-face on the couch now. His eyes were doing that thing again. Asking a question. A question she thought she knew the answer to.

“Actually, can I use your bathroom?” Maddy blurted suddenly. “I just need to . . . I’ll be back in a second.”

“Yeah, of course,” Ethan said, looking a little surprised. He pointed. “Go down the hall and make two rights.”

Maddy got up, set her soda on the glass table, and nearly ran. After a couple wrong turns she found the bathroom. It smelled pleasantly of coconut. Maddy stood there, breathing hard, looking at her reflection in the mirror. At this point, she nearly despised that face.

“You’re such a coward, Maddy,” she mumbled as she turned on the faucet and splashed some water on her face. If she was being honest with herself, though, she knew it had nothing to do with courage. Or even with Ethan. She grabbed a hand towel and dried off. Her heart was still pounding, and she rubbed a hand on her chest to calm it. She had made a promise to herself—a promise to start fresh. Her fingers inched up and touched her mother’s necklace. The past was the past. She looked at herself again with renewed determination. “You can do this, Maddy,” she whispered. She switched off the light and headed out.

The house was large and easy to get turned around in, and soon Maddy was sure she was lost. She went down a long, bare hallway and ended up at the back of the house, facing two doors she thought were probably bedrooms.
Great,
she thought, and was just turning around when something caught her eye. The door on her right stood slightly ajar, and inside, she could just make out something in the middle of the floor.

“Hello?” she asked.

No response. Her curiosity piqued, she went to the door and pushed it open a little farther. It was a bedroom, but clearly not the master. Maybe it was a guest room. A cardboard moving box sat in the center of the floor. The box was open, and she could just make out the glint of light off a stack of picture frames.

So that’s where all the pictures are, she thought, a little amused. She stepped inside the room and went to the box.

The photos were crowded together and stacked on top of each other. Maddy picked one up. It was a picture of a man in his early forties, standing with a young boy who looked like Ethan. The man must be Ethan’s father, she thought. They were in a backyard, next to a smoking barbecue. The man had a spatula in his hand. Maddy picked up another picture. A slightly older Ethan playing football with his dad at the beach. She fingered through the rest of the photos. They were all of Ethan and his father, until she reached the last frame, which was blank.

“Maddy?” a questioning voice asked from just over her shoulder. Maddy nearly shrieked as she swiveled and saw Ethan standing right behind her. He looked down at the photo in her hand.

“You scared me, I—” Maddy could feel the hot blood rushing into her cheeks. She had been snooping around and got caught. “I got lost coming back from the bathroom and thought you might be in here. Then I saw the pictures . . . I’m really sorry.” She had started to put the picture back in the box when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Here,” Ethan said, reaching forward. He didn’t seem angry or upset at all. Maddy turned slowly to face him and handed him the picture. His eyes grew distant as he looked at it. A sad smile passed across his face as though he were witnessing a fleeting memory. Finally, he spoke.

“My dad.”

Maddy nodded, understanding.

“He’s not—” Ethan broke off when his voice shook. “He’s not with us anymore.”

“I’m so sorry.” Maddy didn’t know what else to say.

“It still just gets to me sometimes. Especially when I think about how he died.”

Maddy’s heart thudded in her chest. She felt terrible. “Ethan, I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” he said. Maddy watched him as he ran a finger over the picture. She didn’t dare speak.

“There was time to save them both, Maddy,” he said. “It would have been
easy
. It’s effortless for them, you know. But my father, well—” He looked up from the photo and met Maddy’s gaze. His eyes were full of unshed tears. “He didn’t have coverage.”

Maddy’s heart was in her throat. She ached with sympathy. No wonder Ethan disliked the Angels. It was a wonder he wasn’t as aggressively anti-Angel as Tyler. Ethan set the photo back in the box along with the others.

“That’s what they told my mother. That’s what they told us both.” He gestured around them at the empty house. “No amount of insurance money can buy my dad back. They
could
have saved him, but they didn’t.”

Maddy thought about their conversation in the stairwell at school, and at the diner before that. She thought about what Ethan must have read about her online. And how he had supported her and been a friend to her anyway.

Almost without being aware of it, Maddy took a step toward him.

“Ethan . . .” Her voice was almost a whisper. “I’m so sorry.” She placed a hand on his chest and felt his heart pounding furiously under his shirt. They were face-to-face again, inches apart now.

“I’m glad you told me about him.”

Ethan swiped at his eyes with his hand and let out a pent-up breath. He looked down at his feet. “I really know how to set the mood, don’t I?” he said, smiling. “Going on about dead people. Real smooth.” He laughed, but it was shaky.

Maddy smiled and looked into his eyes. She felt his hand on the small of her back and let him pull her close.

She held his gaze. For the third time, it was as if his eyes were asking a question. This time, she nodded. Letting her mind go blank, she tilted her mouth up toward him and closed her eyes.

She
needed
this. She
wanted
this. She felt his breath on her cheeks and then, ever so gently, the brush of his lips.

It happened in that instant. An image exploding in the blackness of her mind so vivid and clear it could not have come from her thoughts.

It was Jacks’s face.

Suddenly, it was as if Jacks was there in the room with her. She could touch him. Smell him. Feel his presence. Maddy pulled herself away from Ethan.

“I’m so sorry, Ethan . . . I can’t do this,” she gasped, her face twisted and confused. She ran out of the room and rushed down the hallway blindly, fighting tears, Jacks’s presence still lingering in her ears, in her nose, and on her tongue. She could hear Ethan’s footsteps behind her after a moment, hustling to catch up.

“Maddy, wait!” he called after her.

She found the living room and pushed through the crowd. People glared at her as she shoved past, but she didn’t care. She needed to get out of the party before anything else happened, before she embarrassed herself any further. She reached the front door and fumbled with the knob.

“Wait, Maddy, I’m sorry, did I do something?” Ethan panted, finally catching up to her. “You don’t have to go!”

“Yes, I do,” she said as she threw the door open. “It’s not your fault, Ethan, I just need to go.” She grabbed her hoodie off the rack and stuck her arms in the sleeves.

Ethan sighed. “Okay, if you say so. I’m really sorry if I rushed things. At least let me drive you home? It’s getting dark out.”

“No, honestly, it’s all right,” she said, zipping up her sweatshirt. “Besides, you can’t leave your own party.

“Bro, she’s right,” a drunk voice called. “You can’t leave your own
parrrry
!”

It was Simon again. He came over and threw his arm sloppily around Ethan’s shoulders. “We’ll drive the famous Maddy Montgomery home, right, Jordan?”

The boy with the buzz cut sat up from where he had passed out on the couch.

“What? No!” Maddy said, alarmed. “I’m going to walk.”

“
No no no,
we totally got you,” Jordan slurred. “There’s a killer on the loose; we can’t let you just walk around.” He laughed, as if he had made a joke.

“I think she’s right, man,” Ethan said diplomatically. “And besides, should you two really be driving? I’ll drive her.”

“Dude, I told you we got this!” Simon said. “Just let me get my keys.” He stumbled into the kitchen. Jordan tried to follow and tripped over something. Maddy turned back to Ethan.

“Look, I’m going to go before this gets any messier,” she said. “Really, I’ll be fine walking home. Thanks, Ethan, for having me, and again, I’m—”

“No more apologies,” he said, and pulled her into a quick hug, speaking into her hair. “I’ll see you soon.” Maddy hugged him back, then hurried out the door, passing Tyler coming up the walk. He gave her a dirty look, but she ignored him.

The cool ocean wind had turned blustery and biting now that the sun was down, and Maddy thought it might start raining soon. She pulled her hood up. The streetlights blinked on one by one as the night fell. She had almost made it to the end of the block when she heard the laughing and hollering behind her. It carried down the street in the otherwise quiet evening.

“Maddy? Maddy? Where’d you go?!”
a voice called out. It sounded like Simon. Maddy paused to listen.

“
I told you I saw her leave,”
another voice said. She heard a question being asked but couldn’t make out the words. She thought it was,
Where are you going?

“Picking up the Montgomery girl!”
Simon yelled.

Then the other voice— Jordan—answered.
“Not if I find her first! Good luck keeping up!”
Drunken laughter rolled down the street as car doors slammed and two sets of headlights cut into the dark. Maddy started walking again, more quickly this time. Her head throbbed. She wanted nothing more than to put as much distance between her and the party—between her and this night—as possible. If she could get around the corner of the block, they probably wouldn’t see her.

Tires squealed behind her and light from the headlights danced down the street.
What are they doing?
Maddy thought. She hazarded a glance over her shoulder and saw the vehicles swerving back and froth, barely missing each other as they rocketed toward her.

They’re
racing
, she realized with a spike of nausea in her stomach. She had to get around the corner. Breaking into a run, she headed for the corner and the light post she could safely hide behind. She could hear the snarl of the car engines gaining on her. Kevin’s warning echoed in her mind, about how high school parties were dangerous, about how they were
“just dumb kids and alcohol.”
What had she been thinking in coming tonight?