Chapter 32 The Photo Spreads

Chapter 32 The Photo Spreads

Wren

Westbrook won by fourteen.

The moment the final whistle went the bleachers went up like a single thing and Mia threw both arms in the air and Jake waved his foam fingers with the kind of commitment usually reserved for people who had paid significantly more for their tickets. I stood up with everyone else and clapped because clapping was the correct response and also because I was genuinely glad they had won.

I started gathering our things.

"We should wait for Cole," Mia said.

"He will be with the team for a while." I picked up my bag. "We can say congratulations at dinner."

She considered this and accepted it and stood up to collect her sign, which had survived the game intact except for one corner.

"You sat on it," Mia said.

"I sat near it," Jake said. "The wind moved it under me."

"There was no wind."

"There was a very small localised breeze."

"You weigh sixty-two pounds. The sign weighs less than a pound."

"Nature is strange," Jake said.

Jake was still examining his foam fingers.

"We should probably return these," I said.

"The original owner has left the stadium. Both of them have." He looked at the fingers. "I think they want me to keep them."

"I think you are deciding that on their behalf."

"I am reading the situation."

We started moving toward the exit with the rest of the crowd and the crowd was thick and loud and pressing in from all sides and I was focused on keeping both of them in sight and getting us to the car park.

That was when I noticed it.

A girl two rows ahead of us who looked at her phone and then looked at me and looked back at her phone. A group of boys near the exit ramp who went quiet when I walked past. A girl I vaguely recognised from English class who caught my eye and then looked away too fast.

I kept moving.

More of that specific way people looked at their screens and then at you when what they were looking at was connected to you.

"Wren," Jake said quietly. He had fallen into step beside me.

"I know," I said. "Keep moving."

He tucked the foam fingers under one arm.

"What is happening," he said.

"Someone posted a photo," I said. "It is of Cole looking at the stands. The angle is strange."

"Is that bad."

"I do not know yet." I unlocked the car. "Get in."

We got in. I sat with both hands on the wheel.

Through the rear window people were still moving through the car park and some of them were looking at their phones.

"Wren," Mia said from the back seat.

"One second."

"Is this about the photo," she said.

I turned around. "You have seen it."

"It came up while we were walking." She looked at her phone and then at me. "Cole is going to be upset about this."

"Why."

"Because he does not like things happening to you when he is not there." She said it simply, like she was just reporting a fact. "He has not liked it the whole time you have been with us."

I looked at her.

"Get us home," Jake said. "We can think at home."

I started the car.

My name was moving through the crowd behind us. By morning it was going to be everywhere.

By the time we pulled into the driveway I had decided something. I did not have the full plan yet. But I knew the direction. I knew what I was building toward and I knew it was going to require me to do something I had never done before.

I was okay with that.

More phones up as we moved through the crowd.

Jake was right beside me, foam fingers tucked under his arm, walking at the same pace and angle I was walking. Mia was slightly ahead, moving with purpose the way she always moved when she had decided something needed to be done.

"Wren," Jake said again.

"I know," I said. "Keep moving."

"Should I do something."

"No. Just walk."

"I can do things," he said. "I am not just a child with foam fingers."

"I know."

"I have capabilities."

"Jake."

"I am saying if there is something to be done I can help."

I looked at him. He was ten years old with foam fingers and absolute seriousness in his eyes.

"I know you can," I said. "Right now walking is the right thing."

He nodded and walked.

We reached the car and got in.

I sat with both hands on the wheel and looked through the windshield at the car park which was still full of people some of whom were looking at their phones.

"Wren," Mia said.

"One second."

"Is this about the photo," she said.

I turned around. "You have seen it."

"It came up while we were walking." She looked at her phone and then at me. "Cole is going to be upset."

"Why."

"Because he does not like things happening to you when he is not there." She said it like a fact she had documented. "He has not liked it the whole time you have been with us. He notices things and then he gets the face and then he does something about it later when he thinks no one is watching."

I looked at her for a moment.

"What face," I said.

"The one where something happened and he is deciding what to do about it." She tilted her head. "You have the same face actually. Right now."

"Get us home," Jake said. "We can figure it out at home."

I started the car.

My name was moving through the crowd behind us. By morning it would be everywhere. The photo was already in multiple stories and the caption attached to it was the kind of caption that spread because it gave people something to decide about and people liked deciding things.

I knew what I was building toward.

I just needed to be ready.