Page 34 - My FlipBook

L IS A J. L A W R E N C E

She drew a deep breath, procrastinating. “Our neighbor
across the street—that guy from your English class.” She felt a
stab of anxiety at the thought of being trapped in the car with
him—a stranger—but then reminded herself that Ash would
be with her. She didn’t take back the words.
“We don’t know that guy!” Ash protested.
“No,” she said. “No, we don’t, but it seems like he’s always
trying to get to know us. And I bet he’d do it for half the

money. We could offer him fifty bucks.”
“Could you skip school to drive us—total strangers—to
Whitecourt and back for fifty bucks?”
“Well, yeah. Pretty much.”
“There’s no way he’ll say yes.”
“Then we’re right back where we are now. We have
nothing to lose.” ADVANCE READING COPY

Ash shook his head.
“I’ll do it,” Greta said. “I’m going to take a shower, get
looking human and go knock on his door in half an hour.”
She’d stand on the porch, out in the open, and say no if he
asked her inside.
“I’m not sending you by yourself.” He sighed. “Fine.”
Fifteen minutes before Ash and Greta normally left to
catch the bus, they stood on their neighbor’s porch across the
street. His house looked like a better-kept version of theirs,

with no basement suite. Their shoes left tracks in the icing-
sugar snow that had fallen overnight, revealing the brown
paint of the porch steps. Ash rang the doorbell and stepped
back behind Greta’s shoulder.

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