My Soul to Steal
Page 13

Emma shrugged. Tod says she did her time.
Yeah. A few months in a halfway house. Id hardly call that paying for her crimes.
You dont even know what her crimes are.
Im guessing theft. She probably stole someones boyfriend.
Emma laughed, and I gave in to a grin of my own. I dont think you have anything to worry about, Kaylee. Whatever they had cant compare to what you and Nash have been through together. I mean, shes human, right? How well can she possibly know him?
I sat a little straighter. Emma was right. Sabine was a non-issue. Id faced down two hellions in the past four months, not to mention assorted Netherworld monsters. Compared to all that, what was one stupid ex-girlfriend? Right?
BY LUNCHTIME, news of Mr. Wesners death had already been chewed up and regurgitated by the masses so many times that it bore little resemblance to the story Emma originally reported. In any other school, during any other year, a teachers death would have been a headline all on its own. But wed already lost four students, and the yearbooks In Memoriam page was getting regular updates. So while some of the snippets of conversation I overheard were flavored with either disbelief or morbid curiosity, most people sounded kind of relieved that life now made a little more sense than it had the day before.
After all, Mr. Wesner was pretty old and overweight enough that hed wheezed with practically every breath. In a weird way, his death seemed to be giving people a sense of security, as if the world had somehow been shoved back into alignment with the natural order of things, wherein old, unhealthy people died, and young people talked about it over nachos and cafeteria hamburgers.
I paid for my food, then grabbed a Coke from the vending machine and made my way outside, where I found Nash sitting at a table on the far side of the quad. Alone. Again.
I felt bad for him. With the rest of the football team still reeling from their double loss, no one seemed to know what to say to the last surviving musketeer. But Nashs solitude was a definite advantage to me. I headed his way, hoping Emma would be late again and that Sabine would walk off the edge of the earth so he and I could talk.
His eyes lit up when I sat on the bench across from him, and some of my tension eased. Hey, did you hear about Mr. Wesner? he asked. Dont you have him this year?
First period. I twisted the cap off my bottle. Ems the one who broke the story.
After that, he seemed at a loss for what else to say.
I knew exactly what I wanted to saywhat I wanted to knowbut I questioned the wisdom of actually asking. Whats that they say about beating a dead horse?
But after a few sips of my soda and a lot of awkwardsilence from Nash, my curiosity overwhelmed my common sense. Sowhatd she do?
Whatd who do? Nash asked, around a mouthful of burger.
Sabine. Whatd she get arrested for?
Nash groaned and swallowed his bite. Kaylee, I dont want to talk about Sabine. Not again. Not now.
Well, you sure had plenty to say to her. And in that moment, I hated Sabine for turning me into a paranoid, desperate shrew. Even more than I already half hated her for coming between me and Nash. But that wouldnt stop me from asking what I needed to know. How late was she at your house? Id never been there past midnight when his mom wasnt home. If she was there after one, I was going to lose it. You dont stay at your exs house alone with him past one in the morning to talk.
Nash exhaled, long and low. Burglary and vandalism.
It did not escape my notice that hed answered my first question, rather than the latest one. Not a good sign.
Whatd she steal? I took the top bun off my hamburger and squirted ketchup onto the naked patty, just to have something to do with my hands.
Nothing, really. Nash hesitated, poking his limp fries with a fork. She took a baseball bat, but she didnt actually leave with it.
What does that even mean? I dropped the bun back onto my burger and tried to pin him with my glare. She took something, but she didnt really take it. What happened? She hit someone with it? The poor, defenseless girlfriend of some guy she had a crush on, maybe?
Not a person. A car. Thus, the vandalism charge.
She beat up someones car? Why?
Nash dropped his fork onto his tray, exasperated. Kaylee, thats really her business. If you want to know any more, youll have to ask her. He hesitated again, then met my gaze across the table. Only dont, okay? Thats all in her past, and shes seriously trying to make a fresh start here. You wouldnt want some stranger asking questions about your week in mental health, would you?
Damn.
Okay, fair enough. So long as she didnt assault someone. I mean, if your ex hates me and is dangerous, youd tell me that, right?
Nash flinched, and my stomach pitched.
What? I thought she just beat up a car?
He set the remaining half of his burger down. The assault charge came later, when she got picked up for violating probation.
She hit a cop? My horror knew no bounds. Why on earth would he have ever gone out with a creepy, violent thief and vandal, much less slept with her?