Carly looked at the clock in the dashboard. It wasn’t even four o’clock yet. But her mother would be worried soon, if not already. “I have to go home. I have to act normal. Like I don’t know. Marcelline will be gone. You’ll be gone. It’ll be like it never happened.”

“No. In some weird way, we’ll still be here. Nothing is ever over. It’s always happening. Out there in infinity. That’s the good news and the bad news and the only useful thing I have for you.”

“All this stuff that happened. It’ll make me a freak.”

“You might very well be. But I suspect not. I said you’ll be okay. I didn’t say it would be easy. A wise person once told me that sometimes it sucks to be a unicorn.”

Owen pulled his phone from the cup holder and tapped away at the screen. “Okay. When you get your phone back, you’ll have a text from a restricted caller. I am the original restricted caller.” He cut his eyes at her, and it seemed impossible that she felt a smile well up in her face. “It’ll tell you how to spoof a number. You can use it to help your mother get through this. I’m sure our friend Samantha will get you started. They’ll help you with a story to finish out what happened today. But you’re the only one who will know what to make John say in his goodbye messages to help her.”

Carly’s eyes flooded again.

Owen shook his head. “He’s not worth it.”

“Are you?”

“I have no idea. But don’t let that stop you. I don’t think you’re going to be able to turn off the waterworks, so you need to find a way to add that into your story, too. Don’t try to hide it from Marcelline and Samantha. They’ll know what to do with it.”

Of all the un-Owen things that Carly could imagine, he swiped his curled fingers over her cheek, taking most of the tears with the stroke. “But be careful with the texts, okay? I don’t actually think you’ll be an unstoppable menace. It doesn’t seem very you. But you’re . . . People will be watching you, wanting to connect with you, because of the way you are, because of how you carry it all. If you’re not paying attention, you could create an army of unstoppable menaces.”

Carly wiped her face the rest of the way dry with her palms and nodded.

“Goodbye, Carly.”

“Goodbye, Owen.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE