Killer. (Book Six)

Twenty-One: Nothing But The Truth.

That same Friday night, Emily idled at the curb of Isaac's house, watching nervously as he slipped out the front door and jogged to her car. "Hey!" he cried, then looked up at the sky. "It looks like it might snow. Are you sure you want to go for a drive?"

Emily nodded quickly. Isaac had texted her after school, asking if she'd come over this evening. At first, Emily had thought it was a joke. But when he texted her again, asking why she hadn't answered him, she wondered if Mrs. Colbert hadn't told him that she'd confronted Emily at Applebee's last night—or that she knew they'd slept together. Maybe Isaac was still under the impression that everything was fine.

But there was no way Emily could set foot in the Colberts' house, even if his parents were going to be at the Radley opening run-through all evening. Emily wasn't the type of girl who disobeyed adults' orders, even if they seemed harsh and mean and unreasonable. Only, what was she supposed to do, never visit Isaac at his house again? Come up with crazy excuses every time he wanted her to stop in?

Last night, when Emily and Carolyn were settling into their beds in their shared bedroom, Carolyn asked her again why she'd run out of Applebee's crying. Emily broke down and told her what Mrs. Colbert had said. Carolyn sat up in bed, gaping in horror. "Why would she say you disrespected her home?" she asked. "Is it because of the Maya stuff?"

Emily shook her head. "I doubt it." She felt ashamed. If her parents caught Emily and Isaac doing it in Emily's bedroom, they'd probably serve him with a restraining order. "Maybe I deserved it," she mumbled.

They both fell silent, listening to the cornstalks in the field outside. "I don't know what I'd do if Topher's mom hated me," Carolyn said into the darkness. "I'm not sure we could be together."

"I know," Emily answered, a big lump in her throat.

"But you have to talk to Isaac about it," Carolyn told her. "You have to be honest."

"Emily?"

She blinked. Isaac had buckled his seat belt and was ready to go. Her whole body throbbed. Isaac's hair was pushed off his face, and he had a dark green scarf wrapped many times around his neck. When he smiled, his white teeth gleamed. He leaned forward to kiss her, but she stiffened, half-expecting a siren to go off and Mrs. Colbert to pop out from behind a bush, ready to yank him away.

She turned her head, pretending to fumble with her car keys. Isaac pulled back. Even in the dark car, Emily could see the little parentheses that formed at the corner of Isaac's right eye whenever he was worried. "You okay?" he asked.

Emily swallowed hard. She tasted peanut butter in her mouth, the sensation she always got when she was about to have a fight-or-flight reaction. There was a Wawa off to the right, and before she knew what she was doing, she was jerkily pulling into the parking lot and driving around to the back near a green Dumpster. After she shoved the car into park, she rested her head on the steering wheel and let out a pent-up sob.

"Emily?" Isaac said, concerned. "What is it?"

Tears blurred her vision. As much as she didn't want to say this, she knew she had to. She turned the blue ring he'd given her the other day around her finger. "It's...your mom."

Isaac traced figure eights on her back. "What about my mom?"

Emily ran her palms along the legs of her jeans, heaving a sigh. Just be honest, Carolyn had said. She could be honest with Isaac, couldn't she?

"She knows we...you know. Slept together," Emily moaned. "And she said all these weird things to me at dinner. Like, she kept insinuating that I was...fast. Or loose. And then when I was doing the dishes later that night, I found a photo of you and me from the Rosewood Day benefit last week. Your mom had cut my head out of the picture. Only my head." She swallowed hard, not brave enough to look up. "Still, I thought maybe I was overreacting. I didn't want to say anything. But then, last night, I was at Applebee's with Carolyn. And...your mom was there. She came up to me and said I could never come over to your house ever again." Her voice broke on the word again.