No Easy Way Out

  “You didn’t tell anyone where you went,” Preeti said, somewhat quieter. “Kris was even a little freaked out.”

  His name made Shay want to puke. “I’ll say something to him tomorrow. I’m okay now.”

  Preeti glared at her for a moment longer, then threw her arms around her. “Don’t leave me again,” she whispered.

  Shay made herself hug Preeti back, forced her hand to stroke her long hair. “I promise,” she said. “Let’s put this rat’s nest in a braid. It’s a mess.”

  Preeti nodded and let Shay sit her on the cot. Once settled, Preeti rambled on about her day, the hurt of being abandoned blinked out of existence. Shay ran her fingers through the long black hair, twisted the strands into a fishtail, that most complicated of braids. And though she looked calm and mm-hmm-ed along with Preeti’s stories, the words of Preeti’s hurt echoed around inside her like bats in a cave. You abandoned me. You left me. You promised.

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  OUT

  Maddie and Ginger dragged Lexi into the stockroom office.

  “Let’s get you gorgeous,” Ginger said, her smiling face unhindered by the mask—they were breaking all the rules tonight.

  First, it was makeup. They must have stolen it from the abandoned stockpiles on the first floor. There were three sets of everything.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Lexi asked, holding the three mascaras in a fan.

  Maddie snatched them from her hands. “Don’t fondle the merch,” she said. “And maybe you aren’t the only one with a date tonight.”

  “This girl we know who works on the food prep team said she heard there’s a party.” Ginger was trying to comb Lexi’s hair into something other than its usual lank bob.

  This did not sound like a Mom-sanctioned event. How much was going on behind her mother’s back? How many rules could be broken before the whole structure fell apart?

  Maddie took off her shirt to reveal a trio of colorful lace bras running up her torso. “One for each,” she said, beginning to unhook one.

  Lexi held up her hands. “No way,” she said, pointing at her chest. “These are not meant for stringy things like that.”

  “Oh, ye of little faith.” Maddie sighed, handing a strapless blue bra to her. “Like I don’t know you have huge tits. Just try it.”

  As she had asked for Maddie and Ginger’s help with this whole date fiasco—and really, could this be anything other than a fiasco?—she decided to play along. Worst case, after they left, she could put back on her own stuff.

  Miracle of miracles, the bra fit. Lexi had to admit, it was a hell of a lot nicer than the plain underwires she bought with her mom at the old-lady lingerie store.

  “Our ugly duckling will be a swan yet!” Maddie chirped, slipping a hot pink demi over her normal-sized chest. She reached into the pocket of her shorts. “Undies to match.”

  Did they actually think Marco was going to see her underwear? WAIT. Does MARCO think he is going to see my underwear? It was everything Lexi could do to keep from hyperventilating.

  She gave herself over to their ministrations. Eyebrows were plucked (PAINFUL!), eyelids were painted, cheeks were blushed. Comb was raked across scalp and decorative flower jammed in over right ear.

  “Is all this really necessary for a date in a windowless office?” Lexi whimpered.

  “A date is a date is a date,” Maddie said. “Now pucker.” She smashed lipstick on Lexi’s mouth.

  Ginger pulled the coral strapless dress from a drawer. “Hid this away before dinner,” she said.

  “The lengths we have gone to make this date a success!” Maddie cried, hand to chest in mock distress.

  Lexi unzipped the thing and stepped into the pink sleeve of fabric. It felt silky. It looked expensive. The label was handmade and had a funky-sounding name on it. Definitely designer. This was probably the nicest item of clothing she’d ever touched.

  Ginger and Maddie had their makeup on in what seemed like seconds, their clothes on in less. They were done with their whole look by the time Lexi had zipped the dress and fastened the belt.

  “Whoa.” Ginger’s black-lined eyes bugged.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Maddie said, a smile curling her shimmering lips.

  “What?” Lexi said, fidgeting with the hemline on her bust. “Can you see the bra?”

  “Get a mirror,” Maddie said, nodding her head toward the door. Ginger bolted out of the room.

  “Here,” Maddie said, pulling a pair of black heels from another drawer.

  Lexi would break her legs if she fell in those, which was more likely than not. Still, she was entranced. Did she look that good? At all like Maddie and Ginger? Like a real girl?

  The shoes changed her view of the world. Four inches did that to you.

  Maddie sucked her teeth and nodded. “I knew you had it in you.”

  Ginger shoved through the door dragging a standing mirror. “A little help,” she groaned.

  Maddie helped her pull it into the room and turned it toward Lexi. In the glass was a tall girl—no, a hottie, with streamlined hair and an actual waist and long legs that curved like in the magazines. Lexi was afraid to move and discover the mirror was showing someone else, though she knew that was crazy.

  “Well?” Maddie asked, hand displaying the mirror as if Lexi weren’t staring.

  “You win,” Lexi said.

  Ginger and Maddie fist bumped.

  “Our work here is done,” Ginger said. They pulled on their own stiletto shoes and left Lexi alone with the girl in the mirror. They couldn’t take their eyes off each other.

  • • •

  Ryan was surprised when the first person knocked on the storage room door. Mike and Drew, however, were not.

  “Let’s get this party started!” Drew whooped, cracking the vodka.

  Mike had found some mixers in the freezer they’d busted earlier, but they were not your standard high school party fare, which were generally soda or pink lemonade. Tonight, people had the choice of vodka and pineapple juice or vodka and olives. This party was going to get messy fast.

  Marco had not listened to him at all. The asshole would learn soon enough. Ryan gave it an hour before security showed up, with the way people were streaming into the room. Mike would do something stupid and get himself Tasered five minutes after that. Then it was all over.

  Ryan decided to throw in the towel on worrying. If his world was coming to an end that night, so freaking be it. He grabbed a glass and poured himself a straight vodka. If he was getting hammered, he was doing it right.

  • • •

  It didn’t matter if Shay closed her eyes or left them open. Her brain scurried from one horrible thought to the next: Ba worrying alone in the house, Nani’s dead face, the hand grabbing her in the dark of the hallway, Preeti screaming for her. Why even bother trying to sleep? She wondered if anyone would care if she took to jogging around the corridors.

  Standing, she felt dizzy. Was it the dark? Was it not eating? She sat back down.

  So there would be no running.

  She lay back on the cot. Her brain began its race against itself. She had to find a way out. The kiss. Ryan’s lips on hers. The fire burning her from the inside out. Her fingers tangled in his hair, his hands on her skin, running under her shirt.

  She caught her breath. She’d found the perfect escape from her terrible thoughts. She could kiss him without him even being there. She closed her eyes and dreamed.

  • • •

  It was after Lights Out when Marco finally got the damn IMAX sound system to work. He plugged an iPod into the audio input and heard a chorus of cries from below. Had people already arrived at the theater?

  He stood
and looked down from the projection booth. He wished he hadn’t. The place was crowded and it was only ten thirty. How had so many people made it there? How was he supposed to leave without being seen?

  No, this was good. Lots of people, no one would notice him. Everything was still fine.

  He left the booth and crept down the stairs.

  “There you are.” The pendejo Ryan had pointed out, the guy for whom this whole party was planned, had him cornered. “We tapped the keg, but where are the cups?”

  AGAIN! Cups were his freaking Achilles’ heel.

  “I’ll find some.”

  “And food,” the guy said. “Find some chips or something.”

  Was this guy insane? What, did he think Marco was running a freaking 7-Eleven? Why not request a Slurpee? Why not a steak dinner?

  Marco found some cups in a nearby restaurant, but no food. He handed the stack of paper cups to the dirtbag, and the guy grabbed his shirt.

  “This song sucks,” he said. “Put on some better music.”

  “It’s music,” Marco said, tugging his shirt free. “Just deal.”

  The guy took a step toward Marco. “I’m not going to just deal.” He placed the toe of his boot on Marco’s sneaker. “You can either change the music,” he said, pinching Marco’s toes, “or I rearrange your teeth.”

  This was going down as his worst idea ever. Idea, day, everything.

  • • •

  Ryan had no idea how much time had passed, but he was seeing three of everything, so it had to be a while. He tried to walk to a chair, but was suddenly on the floor, so he decided to crawl. A girl fell over him and started laughing even though she’d smashed her head on the concrete. Some guy stepped on his hand. He just had to get to the chair. The chair would fix everything.

  The chair did not fix anything. The room began to spin. The music was really loud. Then it was off.

  “Where’s Taco?” Mike’s voice. Somewhere over there. Right? Which was right?

  “How can there be no more vodka?” Drew bellowed like a wounded dog.

  A couple of girls next to Ryan were still dancing, singing their own song to move with. A guy to Ryan’s left—the opposite side that Mike was on—threw his cup down.

  “This sucks,” he said. “I’m heading to the other party.”

  Mike snapped his head. “What other party?”

  “There’snother party?” Drew asked, words slurring together.

  Mike grabbed the guy’s arm. “I asked you a question.”

  The guy shoved Mike off. “This place sucks anyway.”

  Even in this state, Ryan understood that things were about to get bad.

  Mike punched the guy. People screamed. Began pushing and shoving. Someone knocked Ryan off his chair.

  “Mike!” he cried, feet kicking his body. The floor felt like it was made of Jell-O. “MIKE!”

  Someone pulled him upright. “Shrimp?” It was Mike.

  “I don’t feel good,” Ryan mumbled, then threw up all over Mike.

  “Drew!” Mike shoved a shoulder under Ryan and dragged him over to a pile of something.

  Drew swam into Ryan’s field of vision. “Whoa,” he said. “Shrimp’s done.”

  “Get some water.” Mike pulled his shirt off.

  “You going to leave me here?” Ryan felt like he might cry if Mike said yes.

  “Never leave a man behind,” Mike said, fake punching Ryan’s arm.

  “Ow,” Ryan said, rubbing his head.

  “I punched your arm.”

  “Which one?”

  Drew came back with the water. “People cleared out.”

  Ryan was so relieved to hear it, he might have actually started crying.

  “Whatever,” Mike said. “I’ll have a word with Taco in the morning.”

  Ryan let the black swim up over his eyes. He was with Mike and Drew. Mike and Drew would take care of him. They always took care of him.

  “Drink some water, J.S.”

  He curled into the black, then felt water stream over his skin like a baptism.

  • • •

  Lexi had kicked off the shoes first. A half hour later, she now dug the comb from her head, letting her hair spring back into its usual snarl. How much longer should she wait? Wasn’t an hour long enough to convince herself that he wasn’t coming? She unzipped the dress and took off the lingerie. If she was going to wallow in disappointment, she could do it in her own clothes.

  Checking that the coast was clear, she snuck to the bathroom and washed the makeup from her face. There. The usual Lexi stared back at her in the dirty mirror. She wasn’t pretty, but at least she recognized the face.

  As she walked toward her cot, she passed the permanent shelving in what used to be the pillow department. Was it still there? She snuck between two cots, bent down past the snoring heads, and patted around under the bottom shelf. Amazingly enough, her hand wrapped around the CB she’d left there what seemed like years ago.

  She tucked the thing under her shirt and crept back to her office. The radio was still tuned to Darren’s channel. Was there any possibility he was out there?

  Lexi flicked the machine on. “DMaster?” she asked.

  “You’re alive!” Darren answered, way too loudly. Lexi wound down the volume.

  “Duh, I called you,” she said, smiling, giddy. “I heard you got busted.”

  “Some dudes in suits asked me about my online activities.” He sounded bored. “They had nothing, not even the CB channel we used—obviously. I switched the dial right after we talked just in case. They searched my computer, but it’s not like they cared about my torrent files.”

  “Piracy wasn’t their first order of business?”

  “I think they took one look at my room and reasoned any self-respecting terrorist would have fewer posters featuring screen shots from video games.”

  If relief could be measured, Lexi had just buried the needle. “At least now I know you’re not rotting in some skank jail cell because of me.”

  “I should be so lucky,” Darren said. “I’m still just trapped in sucktown, attending crap school with a bunch of losers.”

  “At least you can go outside.” Had he forgotten she was the one in the real sucktown?

  “Oh, yeah,” he said. “So are people, like, dying in there? The news keeps saying that you’re all dead.”

  News. Lexi hadn’t even thought about news. “Obviously, I’m calling you from the Great Beyond. What else is the news saying?”

  Darren gave her a quick rundown—there’d been lots of coverage of the mall after the government lockdown, but this morning some guy had shot his whole family before killing himself and now that plus some celebrity divorce were the main stories.

  “We’ve been upstaged by a celebrity divorce?”

  “I blame the twenty-four-hour news cycle.”

  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “What’s a couple thousand people trapped in a mall to a divorce worth potentially millions of dollars?”

  “Plus, there’s a kid.”

  “Two kids.”

  “Whoa, now it’s all making sense.” Lexi hadn’t felt so comfortable in days. Why hadn’t she thought to call Darren earlier?

  “I miss you,” he said. His voice was different, like he was closer to the mic. “I mean, talking to you. And gaming. This is the longest we’ve gone without a game in forever.”

  She would have said she missed him too, but she wasn’t sure she could get the words out without crying. “I haven’t played in forever. Probably end up dead in the first five minutes.”

  “Yeah.” He sounded disappointed.

  There was a noise outside. A door rattling. Had Marco finally decided to show up? “Crap, D, I have to go.?
??

  “Oh, sure,” he said. “Can you call again?”

  “Yeah,” she said, feeling a little weird. Darren was sounding more earnest than usual. It was unnerving. “Sure.”

  “Well,” he said. “Until then, I guess.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Later.”

  “Later.”

  She turned the CB off, tossed it in a drawer, and ran out of the room. Marco hadn’t forgotten! The banging was coming from the stockroom door. So he hadn’t gotten around to unscrewing the door panel. That was why he was late. “Shut up before a guard comes!” she whispered through the door.

  She pushed the handle and not Marco, but Maddie and Ginger fell into her.

  “You’re a life saver!” Ginger gasped.

  “Security busted the party just as we were about to walk in,” Maddie said, brushing herself off. “What happened to you?”

  Lexi tried not to cry. “Marco never showed.”

  “Oh, crap.” Maddie gave her a squeeze on the shoulder.

  “Maybe he got busted at the party?” Ginger, always trying to be helpful.

  “Yeah,” she said. “You’d better get changed before security busts you in here.”

  “No joke,” Maddie said, and pushed past her into the office.

  Lexi didn’t bother joining them. She slunk back to her cot, hugged her arms around her body, and tried not to feel the loneliness that crushed down on her.

  DAY

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  ON

  Marco was shaken from sleep by fists gripping his arms. He cracked open his eyes and saw the end of a long black stun baton. “Let me guess,” he slurred.

  “The senator,” said the guard.

  Marco nodded and crawled out of his cot.

  It felt like he’d just crawled into it. The pendejo in the IMAX hadn’t let him leave—every time he tried to get away, the guy threatened some breed of violence. Broken limb, broken nose, broken fingers. Marco nearly kissed the security team when they busted the place.

  It had been the same as the night before: Everyone was lined up, temperatures were checked, any fever cases were weeded out and the rest returned to their dorms. Marco appreciated the regularity of the business. It was nice when things worked out exactly as you expected. Even this being shaken awake felt like business as usual. And at least the senator wouldn’t break his arm.