“I showed him,” she said. “I thought it was cute. I thought he had a girlfriend who was sick.”
By three a.m., neither of us had said anything for an hour.
Ezoic
By four, we were about to call the police again. Denise had her phone in her hand. Her thumb was over the nine.
“If we call them again,” she said, “they’ll have to take it seriously. Thirty-six hours. Two minors. No contact.”
“Call them,” I said.
She pressed the nine.
Then, at 4:37, a key turned in my front door.
Ezoic
I knew the sound. I’d know it anywhere. The way the lock sticks a little. The way you have to jiggle it.
I jumped up so fast my chair fell over backward.
Denise dropped her phone.
I ran down the hall.
The front door opened.
Nathan.
“Where have you been?!”
I was screaming. I couldn’t stop. Thirty-six hours of terror came out of me all at once.
