Lucy takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. I’m worried that she’s going to start screaming at me again, but when she opens them back up, some of the anger has drained from her face. “Okay. I get that it wasn’t intentional—you weren’t trying to fuck her entire world up. Fine. Fine. Whatever.” She sighs. “Let’s move on to more important matters, like where in god’s name is she?”

My heart sinks. “I haven’t been able to get ahold of her. Maybe we should go by her house?” I thought about doing that last night, late, but I talked myself out of it. I didn’t want to be pushy, overbearing, too in-her-face. Now I regret it.

Lucy holds up a finger as she rummages through her bag. “Her parents still have a landline….” She pulls out her phone and taps the screen. Holds it to her ear. “It’s ringing.” A few seconds later, she shakes her head. “No answer. Just the machine. Shit.”

I feel sick, deep in my guts. If anything happened to May, it’s all my fault.

I look at Lucy. Her eyes are rimmed red. “Let’s leave right now, go to her house. We can take my car. She has to be there. Where else could she be?” I say.

Lucy gives a limp, weary shrug. All the fight has drained out of her. Her eyes are lifeless. “Sure. Whatever. I guess it can’t hurt. Let’s go.”

We’re almost at the doors to the school when a voice calls from behind: “Hey, guys. Are you on the way to the auditorium for the memorial?” We glance at each other and then slowly turn around.

Mr. Ames stands in the middle of the hallway, arms folded across his chest, eyebrows raised. He definitely knows we were not headed to the assembly. Fuck. The assembly. Where May is supposed to talk. She’s going to get kicked out of school again if she doesn’t show.

“Mr.—” I’m searching for an excuse for why we have to leave school, but he cuts me off.

“I know, guys. I know this is a rough day for us all.” He gives Lucy and Chim a sad smile. “Let’s all walk together?”

I look at Lucy and I know we’re thinking the same thing: there’s no way May would want us to tell the school if there was something wrong.

So I nod to Mr. Ames, and we all trail behind him as he walks toward the auditorium.

—

When we get into the room, we shuffle into a row of seats halfway to the front.