BooksBarbecue
Back Parachutes
Chapters (93)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Forty-Six
  49. Forty-Seven
  50. Forty-Eight
  51. Forty-Nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-One
  54. Fifty-Two
  55. Fifty-Three
  56. Fifty-Four
  57. Fifty-Five
  58. Fifty-Six
  59. Fifty-Seven
  60. Fifty-Eight
  61. Fifty-Nine
  62. Sixty
  63. Sixty-One
  64. Sixty-Two
  65. Sixty-Three
  66. Sixty-Four
  67. Sixty-Five
  68. Sixty-Six
  69. Sixty-Seven
  70. Sixty-Eight
  71. Sixty-Nine
  72. Seventy
  73. Seventy-One
  74. Seventy-Two
  75. Seventy-Three
  76. Seventy-Four
  77. Seventy-Five
  78. Seventy-Six
  79. Seventy-Seven
  80. Seventy-Eight
  81. Seventy-Nine
  82. Eighty
  83. Eighty-One
  84. Eighty-Two
  85. Eighty-Three
  86. Eighty-Four
  87. Eighty-Five
  88. Author’s Note
  89. Acknowledgments
  90. About the Author
  91. Books by Kelly Yang
  92. Back Ad
  93. About the Publisher

Bree Johnson meets me outside the police station the next day. She’s a senior at UCLA now. We ended up staying on the phone until 5:00 a.m., until our eyes were empty and our throats were raw. Like me, she admired Mr. Connelly. He told her she was special, that she had a talent for debate he’d never seen in any of his other students. He used that to build trust with her, which he then violated during a tournament in San Diego, when he came up to her hotel room. She let him in, thinking he just wanted to run motions, but instead he cornered her and kissed her.

We hold each other in the police parking lot, clinging to the flesh-and-blood confirmation that we weren’t alone in what we went through, that it wasn’t our fault. I look down at my watch. I was hoping Claire would be here too. I told her we would be here at 5:00 p.m. Where is she?

“You ready to do this?” Bree asks.

I smile at her. I can’t believe I did this with my words. I brought us together.

I try Claire once again on my phone. I have been texting her all day to see if she wanted to come with us, but she hasn’t replied. A car pulls up, and I think it’s her but instead, it’s Ming and Florence.

“I couldn’t let you do this alone,” Ming says.

I turn to Florence. “Is Claire coming?” I ask.

Florence shakes her head. “I don’t know,” she says.

I scan the parking lot one last time, at all the cars and the hot sun reflecting off the windshields.

C’mon, Claire, where are you?

Eighty-Five

Claire

I hug Jess as we leave from the yogurt shop.

“Trust me, the private solution is always the best,” Jess says. Her phone rings. It’s her dad calling—the first time all semester. She greets him with a big smile on her face. “Hi, Daddy! I miss you too! What? You were just in LA?” Jess’s face falls. She quickly hides her disappointment. “Oh no, it’s okay, next time. I was busy studying anyway.”

The crushed look on her face, as well as her chirpy words, stay with me as I get inside my Uber. I think about the torrent of emotions going through Jess, all the things she wants to say to him now but can’t. It’s like looking into a mirror. How many times have I chosen the path that saves the most face? Pretended along and swallowed? The private solution may work, but it feels like shards of glass, cutting you up inside.

“Wait, can I change where I’m going?” I ask my Uber driver.

I get to the police station just as Dani and the girls are walking toward the main entrance.