After (Parallel Series, Book 4)

by Christine Kersey

  “Or you could just go to their house.”

  “Or I could call first.”

  “You’ll have to decide what to do.” Her face brightened. “Maybe you can invite them to come to my house and my parents can be, like, what’s that word they use in these situations?”

  I shrugged. I’d never been in this situation before, so I had no idea.

  “Facilitator,” she said. “That’s it.”

  “What does a facilitator do?”

  “Um, I guess they help things along? You know, make everything happen more smoothly.”

  I liked the idea of not having to face these people alone. Tasco didn’t seem like the best facilitator, but Morgan’s parents—if they agreed—would probably do a good job.

  “I could take Amy and my brothers to a movie or something,” she said. “So that they’re out of the house.”

  It felt like we’d already set up our first meeting, and I wasn’t sure if I was excited or terrified. “Yeah, okay.”

  “Great! Let’s get their number from Tasco. Or I’ll bet we could even just find it online.”

  My heart pounded at the concrete task we could complete that would definitely move Morgan’s plan along. “Okay.”

  “Now that we have that settled,” she said, then her smile dimmed. “I have to tell you something that happened at school today.”

  “Does it involve Hansen?”

  She shook her head. “No, but it’s still not great.”

  “What is it?”

  She told me about her new friends—Hannah and Sara—and their plan to hack into the HLO’s database and delete the weight data they’d collected so far.

  “You agreed to this?” I was kind of shocked that she was willing to do something illegal.

  “Well, I wouldn’t be involved in that part of it, but I would kind of be the spokesperson. Hannah will text me later to give me more information.” She bit her lip. “What do you think?” When I didn’t answer, she said, “You think I should have said no, don’t you?”

  “I think you should have talked to me about it before you agreed to do anything." This reminded me of when we were at Jack and Dani’s, and Morgan had gotten the idea that she had to go into Camp Willowmoss to save Amy. I’d warned her that it was a mistake and she hadn’t listened to me, and she’d nearly gotten trapped in my world. It seemed luck had played a large part in her escape from Holly. I didn’t know if she would have the same luck in this situation.

  “I guess I can tell her I changed my mind,” she said.

  “But you don’t want to, do you?” I could see from her expression that she just wanted me to endorse her decision.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, I want to change what people think about the government having so much control, but I don’t want to go to jail doing it.”

  “Exactly. And it sounds like Hannah and her group are willing to do almost anything—even break the law.” A thought came to mind—one that made me very uncomfortable. “If you’re the spokesperson, won’t that mean that you’ll be the one who could get arrested if this hack is tied back to your group? Or will this Hannah girl stand up for you? I mean, who else will be publicly known as being part of this group?”

  Chapter 53

  Morgan

  Billy’s points scared me—but only because he was right. If I was the face of the resistance, wouldn’t I be the one held responsible for anything bad that happened? Where would Hannah be then? “You’re right,” I admitted. “Just like you were right about Jack and Dani not having a clear way to help me escape Camp Willowmoss.”

  He nodded, like he knew he was right, but had no desire to rub it in my face. “You have to look out for yourself.” His voice softened with what sounded like regret. “I may not always be here to look out for you.”

  I didn’t like the way he sounded so melancholy so I tried to lighten the mood with laughter. “Why? Are you planning on going somewhere? Back to your world, maybe?”

  His eyes widened like I’d caught him doing something, then he laughed with me. “Why would you say that?”

  Stunned to know that he was actually considering it, I stared at him as my heart pounded. “When?”

  His voice went soft. “When, what?”

  “When were you planning on doing it? When were you planning on going back to your world.” The thought of not having Billy in my life devastated me, and my eyes filled with unexpected tears. “How dare you even think about leaving me, Billy?”

  He was quiet for a moment as he met my gaze. “I failed, okay? I’m still here.”

  He’d already tried to go back? My heart thumped dully in my chest. He’d tried and failed? What if he’d succeeded? Realization dawned on me and I gasped. “That’s what you were doing today, isn’t it? That’s why you weren’t at school.”

  He clenched his jaw, then he nodded.

  “How could you do that without even telling me good-bye?” How could he do that? Didn’t he care about my feelings? About me? Angry and upset, I spun around and began jogging back to my house. If he didn’t care enough about me to have the courtesy to tell me he was leaving my world and I’d never see him again, then I didn’t want to look at him just then.

  “Morgan, wait,” he called after me.

  Ignoring him, I sped up, but it didn’t take him long to catch up to me. He grabbed my arm, forcing me to slow down.

  “Stop, would you?”

  I let him slow me down—I was getting out of breath anyway. I kept walking, but I looked at his face. Sadness and regret shone from his eyes, and I decided I needed to give him a chance to explain.

  “After what happened at Tasco’s last night, I just felt . . . well, I felt like I didn’t belong here anymore. That’s when I decided to try to get back to my world.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” If he’d let me know how he was feeling I could have convinced him that he did belong here.

  He shook his head. “I’d already made up my mind and I guess I didn’t want to give you a chance to try and change it.”

  “So what happened? Did you find the hut?”

  His mouth quirked into a half-smile. “Yeah. I even went to the end of the tunnel.”

  My heart skipped a beat at his pronouncement. He’d gone through the tunnel. “But you’re still here. Did you change your mind and come back through?”

  “No. I got to the end, but I had no idea if I’d crossed over, or whatever. Evidently I failed to make it through.”

  I could hardly believe what he was telling me. But when I thought about it, maybe I could. After all, I’d crossed into his world, and then I’d been desperate to get home. Why should I be so surprised that he would feel the same way? Was I so convinced that my world was better than his that it had never occurred to me that he might feel the same way about his world? That he might prefer his own world? “I’m sorry you didn’t make it home.”

  “Don’t be.” He pulled me to a stop and turned me to face him. He placed his hands on my shoulders. “As soon as I got to your house I realized I’d made a mistake in trying to get back to my world.” He laughed. “When your mom came out and recognized me, I knew I was still here. I was so happy.” His face lit up with obvious joy. “I love you, Morgan. It was stupid of me to try to leave like that.”

  Tears filled my eyes again, but this time they were tears of happiness. “Yes, you were stupid, but I forgive you.” I gazed at him. “I love you, too.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him against me.

  He held me for a while, then he pulled away and smiled. “Your mom’s probably wondering what’s taking us so long.”

  I smiled. “Probably.” Hand in hand, we walked back to my house, and I felt happier than I’d felt in a long time.

  That evening I got a text from Hannah telling me that she had an idea for a youtube video where I could introduce our ideas. She suggested we could all post the video to our social media sites. I showed Billy her text. “What do you think?”

  “It
’s starting already?”

  “I guess so.” I stared at Hannah’s message, wondering what to tell her, finally settling on, “Great! Let me know what you need me to do.”

  Billy read over my shoulder and laughed. “So much for telling her you’re not going to do it.”

  “I know. But I’m not actually doing anything yet.”

  “‘Yet’ is the operative word.”

  I gently punched his arm. “You know, we haven’t looked up your . . . I mean, Billy’s . . . parents’ number yet.”

  “That’s true.”

  “We could do it now.” I raised my eyebrows. “Unless you don’t want to?”

  “No, I want to.” He smiled. “At least I think I want to.”

  I stood, then grabbed his hand and tugged. “Good enough. Let’s do it.”

  Chapter 54

  Billy

  I let Morgan pull me to my feet, and with a mix of reluctance and anticipation, I followed her to the computer. She did a search for James and Rebecca Foster, and after a few minutes we had their phone number in hand.

  Morgan wrote the number down on a small notepad, then held it out to me. I licked my lips as I stared at it, but I didn’t touch it.

  “It won’t bite,” Morgan said with a gentle smile.

  “I know.” I took it from her, embarrassed by my reluctance.

  Gesturing toward the kitchen, she said, “You can use the phone whenever you’re ready.”

  I glanced toward the kitchen. “Maybe we should make sure your parents are willing to be involved in this first.”

  She looked thoughtful. “Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.” She smiled. “I’m going to talk to my mom right now.”

  A few minutes later she was back, and her smile had grown. “She said yes.”

  “Your mom’s awesome.” And I meant it. First she invited me to stay at their house, and now she agreed to get into the middle of what could be a very uncomfortable situation.

  “I know,” Morgan said. “My mom said she’ll ask my dad if he’ll help, but technically she won’t need him to.”

  Her dad wasn’t home from work yet, so I knew that bought me a little time. Not that I was purposely trying to put off calling these people—I couldn’t truly think of them as my parents yet. But if I couldn’t rush right into it, that was okay with me. “I guess I’ll wait to call . . . them . . . until your mom talks to your dad so I can see when your parents want to do it.”

  As the afternoon wore on I’d been able to put my concerns aside, but when Morgan’s dad got home I immediately thought about two big concerns: One, as far as I knew, he had yet to be told that Morgan’s mom had said I could stay there. And, two, Morgan still had to talk to him about being involved with my “reunion” with Billy Foster’s parents.

  “Hi, Billy,” her dad said when he saw me.

  “Hi.” I wondered why he’d zeroed in on me.

  “Hi, Dad,” Morgan said. “How was work?”

  He frowned. “Not great, if you really want to know.”

  “What happened?” Morgan’s mom asked him as she came into the room.

  “It looks like none of us will be working on the SlenderBars campaign.”

  “Really?” Morgan asked, obviously confused.

  “Yeah. Evidently there are some side-effects from the appetite suppressant that have just come to light.” He laughed, but it sounded forced. “The FDA approval has been revoked.”

  “Oh, wow,” Morgan said.

  This was good news to us, but obviously bad news to her dad.

  “It looks like you were right,” he said to Morgan.

  “At least they figured out there’s a problem before people started buying it,” she said.

  He nodded, then looked at me. “Richard said you moved out of his house.”

  All eyes swung in my direction. “Uh, yeah.”

  “He didn’t give me any details, but that, on top of the SlenderBars thing . . .” Her dad shook his head. “He was not happy today.”

  I could imagine. Of everyone in the room, I was probably the most aware of how much time Tasco had spent on the SlenderBars campaign. “Yeah, it didn’t work out.”

  “What are you going to do now?” He laughed, but he sounded upset. “You certainly can’t stay here.”

  My gaze went to Morgan, then back to her dad.

  “Steve,” her mom said. “I need to talk to you.”

  Looking her way, he frowned.

  “Can you come upstairs?” she asked.

  My stomach churned as I watched them walk upstairs. I knew they were only going upstairs to talk about me and my problems. Problems which seemed to be becoming their problems. “Maybe we should forget this whole thing,” I said to Morgan.

  “What whole thing?”

  “You know, me staying here, your parents helping me with the other parents.” I sighed. “It’s getting too complicated.”

  She laughed. “No it’s not. You’re just starting to chicken out.”

  “You heard what your dad said. He told me right to my face that I can’t stay here. Do you really think he’ll change his mind?”

  “Uh, yeah. My mom will convince him.”

  Confidence oozed from her, so much so that I started to believe that her mother would convince her father to let me stay. Until her parents came back downstairs. One look at her mother’s face and I knew I needed to start figuring out where I could live. Any good feelings I’d developed since Morgan’s mother had invited me inside earlier vanished.

  “Let’s sit down,” Morgan’s mother said to Morgan and me. It was quiet with just the four of us—Zac and Brandon were playing soccer in the yard, and Amy was in her room.

  “You can’t make him leave,” Morgan said, obviously reading her mother’s expression.

  “Calm down,” her dad said. “You haven’t even heard what we have to say.”

  Morgan slipped her hand into mine, but when I saw her dad look at our intertwined fingers, I knew she wasn’t helping my case. She must have noticed him looking too, because she pulled her hand back into her lap.

  “Morgan’s mom and I talked about your situation,” he said as he looked at me. “She gave me a little more information, and I’ve reconsidered.”

  Shoving down any hope that wanted to manifest itself, I kept my gaze steady on Morgan’s dad. I felt Morgan’s hand slide into mine, and I was glad. Her touch anchored me, which was exactly what I needed.

  “I understand that you’re going to reach out to some people.” His forehead creased with confusion. “Your parents?”

  “Dad,” Morgan said in a tone that showed her impatience with his puzzlement. “We told you what happened. These ‘people’ are his parents in this world.” She sighed. “Don’t you get it?”

  “Yes, I get it, Morgan. It just doesn’t make sense to me.” He turned his focus back to me. “Regardless, Morgan’s mother and I have decided that you can stay here for a while, but we expect you to either make your peace with your . . .” He glanced at Morgan, then looked back at me. “Your parents in ‘this world’. Or you need to figure out another place to live.”

  I was disappointed that his invitation had strings—unlike the one from Morgan’s mother. But I couldn’t deny that it was completely fair. “Thank you, Mr. Campbell. That’s very generous of you.”

  “No it’s not,” Morgan said as she came to her feet. “What if he can’t ‘make peace’?” She did air quotes at that. “Then what? He has to live on the street?” She began pacing. “That’s not right. He’s a good person. He deserves better.” She stopped and looked at her mother. “You know he does.”

  Her impassioned plea on my behalf felt good, but I wasn’t sure it would help. “It’s okay, Morgan,”I said. “I’m sure everything will work out.” I had no clue if anything would work out, and in fact doubted that anything would—in my case things usually didn’t. But I needed her to calm down.

  “Let’s just take one step at a time,” her dad said as he looked at Morgan. “M
om also said you wanted us to be here when Billy sits down with his . . . parents . . . for the first time.” His gaze swung to me. “We’ll be happy to do that. Do you know when you’re going to meet with them?”

  My heart began to pound as the inevitability of this reunion became clear. “Uh, I need to call them.” The thought terrified me, although there was a little excitement mixed in with it. But mostly terror.

  “We’re available tomorrow night,” Morgan’s dad said. “Why don’t you give them a call and see if that would work for them?”

  He made it sound so easy—like I was just going to order a pizza. “Okay.”

  Everyone looked at me expectantly, and I realized they were waiting for me to call. Now. With suddenly sweaty hands, I stood, then turned toward the kitchen.

  “Do you want me to come with you?” Morgan asked.

  It seemed silly to have her there while I made the phone call, but I knew her presence would calm me. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  She took me by the hand and together we walked into the kitchen. “I’m sorry my dad said that you can only stay here for a little while.”

  “It’s okay. If things don’t work out with my parents, I’ll figure something out.” Again, I had no clue where I could possibly go, but thinking that far into the future just stressed me out, and I had enough to think about right that second with calling these people.

  We stopped in front of the place where the phone was mounted and I stared at it a moment, then set the slip of paper with their number on the kitchen counter. Reaching for the phone, I tried to figure out what I would say when they answered, but my mind stayed blank.

  “Are you okay?” Morgan asked, and I realized my hand was resting on the phone, but I hadn’t picked it up.

  “I’m just trying to decide what to say.”

  “Well, they know who you are, so just the fact that you’re calling will tell them a lot.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” I blew out a puff of air, then I picked up the phone and dialed the number on the paper. The phone rang several times on the other end, and for a moment I felt disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to get this over with. Then the ringing stopped.