“There’s no point. I have no idea who he really is.”

“Can you report him through the website?”

“I did. But he can always create a new e-mail, upload some new photos, change his username.” She pulled a crumpled tissue from her sleeve and blew her nose. “You have to be really careful, Nat.”

But she didn’t, because now she had Gabe. He was officially her sponsor, her blesser. She never had to go on the site again. While she’d been eager to tell Ava about her new arrangement, it would have been unkind under these circumstances. Instead, she said, “I will be.”

Ava insisted she was fine, that she needed nothing, but eventually agreed to let Natalie run out to the deli to get her some soup and fruit. Nat hustled to the corner shop, her mind entrenched in her friend’s nightmare. It wasn’t Ava’s fault, of course, but she had been careless, reckless. It was so out of character. Ava had scolded Nat for letting Gabe know where she lived when he delivered her home in his town car. And yet, Ava had agreed to do drugs in some random daddy’s hotel room. What had possessed her friend to take such a risk?

Entering the warmth of the deli, Nat’s confusion turned to intense gratitude. She’d found Gabe. And she knew, in her heart, that he would never hurt her.

20

The Sighting

Ava returned to school on Monday, her scraped face camouflaged by makeup, her scabbed mouth covered in lipstick. While her appearance was beginning to heal, her psyche would take longer. Ava was quiet, morose, easily startled. This was not the confident, vivacious girl Natalie had grown to know. Their classmates were noticing it, too. After a sketching session, Nat’s friend Ivan approached her.

“Is Ava okay? She seems kind of . . . off.”

Nat had to cover for her friend. “It’s a family issue, back home in Ohio.”

“Anything serious?”

“A sick relative,” Nat fibbed. “She’s going home for spring break. She’ll feel better when she’s spent some time with her family.”

“I hope so.”

“I’m going to get a coffee before next class. Do you want something? My treat?”

“Aren’t you the big spender,” Ivan said, and Nat felt her face redden. He was teasing, she reminded herself. He didn’t know. “I’d love a latte.”

“Sure.”

Nat strolled toward the coffee shop at Twenty-Third and Lex (take-out coffee, a luxury her new allowance afforded), her mind drifting back to Ava. Her friend had always been dismissive of her hometown, her working-class family, their staid, boring life. So when she’d announced her travel plans, Nat had been surprised. “I need to go home,” Ava had explained that morning, tears filling her eyes. “I just want to be with my family right now.”

“I understand,” Nat had said, and she did. Sort of. It was hard to relate to what Ava had gone through in that hotel room, the damage it had done to her physically, mentally, and emotionally. Perhaps Nat would have wanted to go home, too, if she’d been abused that way. But every negative thing that had happened to Nat had happened in Blaine. It didn’t feel like a safe place to run.