The picture was captioned: Crystal going shopping with her daughter Ashley.

Ashley?

I stared blankly at the page, blinking a few times as if that would change what I was reading on the screen.

Ashley. Ashley Danell.

For a moment I tried to think of Noelle as Ashley, but I couldn’t align the name of a complete stranger with the girl that I felt I knew so well.

It was then I realized that maybe I didn’t know her all that well.

With a sudden sense of panic, I reached out and shut the computer screen off, the chair screeching loudly in the silence when I got to my feet and raced towards the door. I only slowed down my steps once I was outside, numbly making my way towards the entrance hall.

Here in the hallway, I could see a bit better than in the library, the high windows letting in the faint glow of the moon and—

the stars. Jasper’s voice echoed in my head again: Sometimes she spends entire evenings lying in the football field and staring at the sky. She could probably tell you every single constel ation up there.

How hadn’t I thought of this before? With my heart picking up its pace again, I spun around and sprinted back the way I’d come, past the library to the door at the very end of the hallway.

When I had been to the gym earlier to look for her, I hadn’t noticed, but now as I flew across the hall I saw that the emergency exit was propped open with a brick, just like the last time we had snuck out.

A shiver ran down my spine as I stepped outside into the crisp October night. In front of me, the football field stretched out, deserted save for the dark figure sitting in the grass close to the center mark.

The wind tore at her clothes and her hair, but she didn’t seem to care, chin tilted to look up at the sky above. When I neared her, I could see the glint of a cigarette as she lifted it to her lips, followed by delicate wisps of smoke escaping from her nostrils, rising into the night air before the wind carried them off.

Drenched in moonlight, Noelle looked like a statue. She reacted like one, too, when I sat down in the grass next to her; her eyes kept staring blindly at a spot somewhere in the sky, her features as unmoving as marble. Beautiful, but impossible to get through to.

“Hey,” I softly said.

Her answer was so quiet I almost didn’t hear it. “Hey.”

“Do you . . . do you want to talk about what happened?”

Noelle looked to the side, lifting the cigarette to her lips again.

She took her time taking a drag and exhaling. Finally, she said in a voice that was all gravel stones, “Sorry. I know you don’t like it when I smoke.”

“I don’t care whether you’re smoking right now or not. I care about whether or not you’re all right.”