Summer Skies

02. Abducted

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EVERY SECOND I SEE HER. Danielle Price. Her iconic freshman yearbook photo on an off-white sheaf of paper, stapled atop a mess of colored flyers pinned to a community cork board in Jay's Variety. I printed it out an hour ago, I put it up a half hour ago. I walk away. I look, I hold her gaze, I wish I knew what Danielle was saying.

Her hair was longer, curlier, a deeper red; an old septum piercing; brown eyes darkly shadowed with a look of apathy.

It's an outdated photo, yeah, but neither Robert or Leslie volunteered anything else, and Dani hadn't had a yearbook photo since three years ago.

"Hey."

My thoughts jump and skitter. "Oh, it's just—"

"Me."

Ricky.

"What's up?"

Jay says Ricky and I remind him of him and his brothers, and I don't necessarily disagree. Stories I've heard, Jay and Kevin and Len ran rampant. I should probably be insulted. Oh, well. Jay had even taken a liking to Danielle. He'd let her hang around if I was on-the-clock, but slow, bored—Danielle would sit up on my bagging area, and I'd lean back against my register, and I'd flick rubber bands, and Danielle would chew on her lip piercing, disappearing and reappearing, and count pennies left behind.

"Nothing." I shrug. No Danielle. "You?"

"Nothin, I'm off," he says, shouldering by. I didn't realize I'd stopped dead in front of her. I'm staring at Danielle. Ricky seems hesitant, glancing back. "You okay?"

No.

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"Okay," he says, uncertainly. "See ya, sis."

I'll see her again when I leave. I'll see her when I leave at a lonely pace before anybo—

"Birdie!"

I roll my eyes, wishing Ricky had been a second slower. He's gone. Nobody will defend you, Birdie. So I spin around, pissed off, but immediately drawn to a dirty smirk from Kevin Livingston. Kyle and Zac are behind him, grinning. "What?"

"What happened? You saw a light, Birdie?" he coos. My fists clench subconsciously. It hadn't stopped since I left Back Bay Police Department. Everybody from Merrimack heard; underclassmen I didn't even know had popped in tauntingly all day. Here I was, easily tracked down, unarmed, without Danielle in my corner.

I was alone again.

"You saw a UFO?" Kev snickers. "Did aliens anal probe you, Birdie?"

"Fuck off."

"Wait, but Birdie, where's your girlfriend?"

"Shut the fuck up," I hiss. Whatever he'd heard had been misconstrued. I never should've trusted Officer Livingston. "You don't know shit, Livingston."

"I know what I heard, Birdie, and I know you sound crazy. Bet Danielle ran off."

"Hey!" Jay's voice cuts in, all throaty and agitated. "C'mon, this is a business, boys, and you are harassing my employee, you understand?"

Kevin backs up, holding his hands up innocently. "Whatever." Kyle and Zac follow, but only after a mimicking mumble: "They took her."

They took Dani.

I bite my lip so hard I taste blood, and I watch, glaring as Jay strays behind. My nails cut into my palms, and I finally unfurl my fists.

Had I told Officer Livingston I saw a light?