Never Have I Ever

by Sara Shepard

Page 6

 

  Emma ignored him.

  Her pulse quickened. This felt so foreign, so wrong. Becky used to steal from convenience stores al the time—

  swiping a candy bar here, slipping a pack of gum into Emma’s pocket there, once even walking out with several two-liter bottles of Coke stuffed up her shirt like two freaky boobs. Emma had lived in fear that the cops would haul both of them off to jail—or, worse, take her mother away from her. But in the end, it hadn’t been the police who’d taken Becky away. Becky abandoned her daughter of her own volition.

  “Stop right there!”

  Emma froze, her hand on the doorknob. Samantha spun her around. Her eyebrows made a perfect V. “Nice try. Give it back. ”

  Sighing, she removed her hand from her midriff and shook out her shirt. The clutch clunked to the ground, the gold chain clanging on the tiled floor. A half-dressed girl poked her head out of the fitting room and gasped. Samantha scooped up the clutch with a smug grin and pul ed a BlackBerry from the pocket of her skintight jeans. She placed the cal on speaker.

  “Wait. ” Ethan scuttled around a wine-colored velvet sofa.

  “This was a misunderstanding. I can explain. ”

  “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” a voice squawked on the other line.

  Samantha’s eyes narrowed on Emma. “I’d like to report a robbery in progress. ”

  Emma shoved her shaking hands in her pockets and tried to keep the saucy, entitled, I’m-Sutton-Mercer-and-I’mthril ed-to-be-hauled-off-to-jail smirk glued to her lips. In a way, it wasn’t hard—going to the police station was exactly what she’d wanted.

  Chapter 6

  A Criminal History

  Emma sat on a plastic yel ow chair in a cinder-block room inside the police station. The room was no bigger than a chicken coop, smel ed like rotting vegetables, and, inexplicably, had two pictures of serene-looking Japanese geishas hanging on the far wal . It would be a great setting for a news story . . . if she were the writer, not the subject. The door creaked open, and Detective Quinlan stepped inside, the same cop who had refused to believe Emma when she said she was Emma Paxton and her long-lost twin, Sutton, was missing. There, hooked under his arm, was a file bearing the name SUTTON MERCER. Emma bit back a grin.

  Quinlan plunked himself down across from her and laced his fingers atop the folder. Boots thundered down the hal , shaking the whole shoddily built complex. “Shoplifting, Sutton? Honestly?”

  “I didn’t mean to,” Emma squeaked, shrinking down in her seat.

  Long ago, Emma had sat in a police station with Becky in the middle of the night after the cops had brought her in for reckless driving. At one point, a cop lifted the big black telephone and handed it to Becky, but Becky pushed it away, imploring, “Please don’t cal them. Please,” she said. At dawn, after Becky was released with a warning, Emma asked whom the policewoman had tried to cal . But Becky just lit a cigarette and pretended she had no idea what Emma was talking about.

  “You didn’t mean to get caught?” Quinlan held up Sutton’s file. “Have you forgotten you already got busted for shoplifting?” He pul ed a sheet of paper from the folder. “A pair of boots from Banana Republic, January sixth. So you’re a repeat offender. That’s serious, Sutton. ”

  Emma scuffed her feet over the linoleum, her sweaty bare legs sticking to the plastic seat.

  The handcuffs on Quinlan’s belt jingled as he sat back in the chair. “What are you trying to do, go to juvie? Or are you going to pretend you’re someone else this time, too, Sutton’s secret twin? What did you say your real name was? Emily . . . something?”

  But Emma wasn’t listening. With a jerk, she grabbed her throat. She gasped, buckled over at the waist and began to cough. She hacked until it hurt her lungs.

  Quinlan frowned. “Are you okay?”

  Emma shook her head, dredging up another series of hacks. “Water,” she croaked between breaths. “Please. ”

  Quinlan rose from the table and pushed out into the hal .

  “Don’t move,” he growled.

  Emma let out a few more coughs after he shut the door and then sprang into action, sliding the manila folder over to her seat. Her fingers trembled as she opened it and shuffled through the pages. On the top was the most recent write-up, when Emma had visited the station on the first day of school. Returned Miss Mercer to school in squad car, someone had typed. Four more forms had been fil ed out saying exactly the same thing.

  “Come on,” Emma muttered under her breath, flipping through more pages. There were reports for disturbing the peace and a claim for Sutton’s impounded car, a 1960s Volvo, for unpaid parking tickets. Next on the stack was a statement Sutton had made about Thayer Vega’s disappearance. Emma’s eyes scanned the transcript. We hung out sometimes, Sutton said to the interviewer. I guess he had a little crush on me. No, of course I haven’t seen him since he vanished. Further down the page were the interviewer’s notes: Miss Mercer was very fidgety. Evaded several questions, mostly about Mr. Vega’s . . . Emma flipped the page and rooted through the files until two words caught her eye. Train tracks. Emma yanked the paper out of the stack. It was a police report, dated July 12. Under LOCATION OF INCIDENT, it said Train tracks, corner of Orange Grove and Route 10. Under the description of the incident it said S. Mercer . . . vehicle endangerment . . . oncoming train. Sutton had been interviewed along with Charlotte, Laurel, and Madeline. Gabriel a and Lilianna Fiorel o were listed as witnesses, too.

  Gabby and Lili? Emma frowned. Why had they been there?

  I saw a flash and felt a strange tingling sensation. A faroff train whistle roared in my head. I heard screams, desperate pleas, and sirens.

  Just like that, the memory of that night whooshed back to me.

  Chapter 7

  The Ultimate Prank

  I’m behind the wheel of my British racing-green 1965

  Volvo 122. My hands squeeze the leather-wrapped steering wheel, and my foot shifts easily on and off the clutch. Madeline sits next to me, twisting the dial on the souped-up radio. Charlotte, Laurel, and the Twitter Twins squish in the back, giggling whenever the car careens around a corner and flattens all of them to one side. Gabby waves around a tube of red lipstick like a magic wand.

  “Don’t you dare get lipstick on Floyd’s leather seats,” I warn.

  Charlotte giggles. “I can’t believe you call your car Floyd. ”

  I ignore her. Saying I adore my car is putting it mildly. My dad bought it on eBay a couple of years ago, and I helped him restore it to its former glory—hammering out the dents in the body panels, replacing the rusty grille with a bright new chrome one, reupholstering the front and back seats with soft leather, and installing a new engine that purrs like a contented puma. I don’t care that it doesn’t have modern amenities like an iPod adapter or parallelparking assist—this car is unique, classy, and ahead of its time—just like I am.

  We sweep past Starbucks, the strip mall of art galleries all the retirees love, and the clay courts where I took my first tennis lesson when I was four. The moon is the exact same amber as the eyes of the coyote that nosed under our backyard fence last year. We’re on our way to a frat party at U of A, which promises to be a rager. Just because I’m with Garrett doesn’t mean I can’t ogle the hot college-boy merchandise now and then.

  Madeline stops on a station playing Katy Perry’s

  “California Gurls. ” Gabby squeals and starts to sing along.

  “Uch, I’m so sick of this song,” I moan, reaching over and twisting the volume knob down again. I usually don’t mind singing, but something irks me tonight. Or, more accurately, two someones.

  Lili pouts. “But last week you said Katy was awesome, Sutton!”

  I shrug. “Katy’s so five minutes ago. ”

  “She writes the best songs!” Gabby whines, twirling her honey-blonde highlights and pursing her extra-plump lips into a pout.

  I take my eyes off the road for a mome
nt and glare at them. “It’s not as if Katy writes the songs herself, guys. Some fat, middle-aged producer guy does. ”

  Lili looks horrified. “Really?”

  If only I could pull over and let them out. I’m so sick of Twitter Dee and Twitter Dum’s faux-ditziness. I shared a trig class with them last year, and they’re not as stupid as they look. Guys find the dumb act cute, but I’m not buying it.

  The light changes to green, and Floyd makes a satisfying roar as he guns off the line, kicking up dust and flying past the desert broom. “Well, I think it’s a good song,” Mads breaks the silence, slowly turning up the volume again.

  I shoot her a look. “What would your dad say if he knew slutty Katy was your role model, Mads?”

  “He wouldn’t care,” Madeline says, trying to sound tough. She picks at the Swan Lake Mafia ballerina sticker on the back of her cell phone. I don’t know what the sticker means—none of us do. I think Mads likes it that way.

  “He wouldn’t?” I repeat. “Let’s call Daddy and ask. Actually, let’s call him and tell him you’re hoping to score with a college guy tonight, too. ”

  “Sutton, don’t!” Madeline growls, catching my hands before I can reach for my phone. Mads is notorious for lying to her dad; she probably told him she was at a study group.

  “Relax,” I say, slipping my phone back into the center console again. Madeline slumps down in the seat, making her I’m-not-speaking-to-you face. Charlotte catches my eye in the mirror and gives me a look that says Cut it out. Teasing Madeline about her dad is a low blow, but that’s what she gets for inviting the Twitter Twins tonight. It was supposed to be just us, the real Lying Game members, but somehow Gabby and Lili found out about our plans, and Madeline was too nicey-nice to tell them they couldn’t come. I’ve felt their imploring stares the whole drive, their hopes and dreams written in thought bubbles over their heads: When are you going to let us into the Lying Game? When can we be one of you? It’s bad enough my little sister weaseled her way into our club. There’s no room for anyone else, especially not them. And more than that, I have a plan for tonight—a plan that doesn’t involve Gabby or Lili. But who says Sutton Mercer can’t be flexible?

  The northern part of Tucson goes dead after ten o’clock, and there are barely any other cars on Orange Grove. Before we can merge onto the highway, we must cross the train tracks. The X-shaped railroad crossing sign glows in the dark. Once the light turns green I edge Floyd over the bumpy rails. Just as I’m about to accelerate toward the highway entrance, the car dies.

  “Uh . . . ” I mumble. “California Gurls” falls silent. Cool air-conditioned vapors stop flowing from the vents, and the lights on the dash darken. I twist the key in the ignition, but nothing happens. “Okay, bitches. Who filled Floyd’s gas tank with sand?”

  Charlotte fakes a yawn. “This prank is so two years ago. ”

  “It wasn’t us,” Gabby chirps, probably thrilled that I’ve quasi-included her in a conversation that involves the Lying Game. “We have way better prank ideas, if you’d ever let us share them with you. ”