BooksBarbecue
Back Verona Comics
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  20. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  21. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  42. CHAPTER FORTY
  43. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  52. CHAPTER FIFTY
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  55. RESOURCES
  56. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  57. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  58. What’s next onyour reading list?

THIS IS BAD. I’m 99 percent sure that we just stole his sister’s car, which is extremely illegal. Even more illegal when you don’t have a driver’s license, which neither of us do. I fight the urge to call my mom. She’d probably just call the police or something, not to be mean, but just to have them find me and give me a ride back home. But that would probably be worse in the end. The way Ridley is white-knuckling the steering wheel is already freaking me out. I don’t know what he would do if we got pulled over. I don’t want to find out.

Suddenly, I feel very small. Very small and unprepared. Running away seemed like a good idea when I thought it meant crashing in Jayla’s basement for a day or two, or hiding out at Frankie’s apartment and still texting my mom good night even though she was definitely going to ground me.

But this, this is completely different. This is so much bigger than me. Bigger than us. These are real problems, with real consequences, and I am not equipped to handle this. A few weeks ago, I thought if I didn’t nail my audition, it would be the end of the world, but this night feels like it could actually be the end of my world, and that’s scaring the crap out of me.

“Ridley,” I say when I notice he’s heading toward the freeway. He’s been driving carefully until now, keeping to back roads and not going over thirty miles per hour. I can tell by the way he swerves and slows that we definitely shouldn’t be going freeway fast. Not to mention it will have actual traffic, even late on a weeknight like this. I need to stop this; this is a mistake.

“What?” he asks.

“Watch the road,” I say when he looks at me, but he stares at me for a beat too long anyway, and I feel like I’m going to throw up. “I was just going to say, don’t get on the freeway.”

“Why? It’s the fastest.”

Because we’ll probably die, I think, but instead I say, “We can go the back way, take Route 9 all the way out. We’ll see the coast and be low profile. What if your dad already called the police or something?” It bothers me, the ease with which I lie now. I’ve had a lot of practice since I met Ridley. I kind of hate that.

“Smart.” He flicks on his turn signal and follows the Route 9 sign. I wait until we’re a little farther out of town, driving through the woods on some back roads, to try again.