After Emily had endured an ex-gay program, a purify-yourself-in-the-Bible-Belt stay with her extended family in Iowa, and a road trip where Emily’s parents thought she was gone for good, they had finally accepted who she was.
“Hey, Em, we have something for you.” Beth smiled reassuringly at Emily. She skipped into the kitchen and returned with a wrapped gift. “An early Christmas present. Jake, Carolyn, and I chipped in.”
Emily slid her thumb under the tape and opened the package. Inside was a DVD box set of The L Word. Two women were kissing on the cover.
When she looked up, everyone was smiling at her eagerly, even her brother, who Emily was almost positive had never knowingly talked to anyone g*y in his life. Emily had a feeling Mrs. Fields had told all of her children to put on a happy face about Emily’s choices.
“A friend of mine at school watches the series.” Beth tucked a piece of reddish-blondish hair behind her ear. “She said it’s really good. We’ll watch it with you if you want.”
“That’s okay,” Emily said quickly, an embarrassed flush rising to her cheeks. “But thank you.”
“Speaking of which, there’s a girl at church you should meet.” Mrs. Fields paused from untangling two ornaments made out of Popsicle sticks. “She leads one of the youth groups. I’ve told her all about you. She has very short hair,” Mrs. Fields added meaningfully.
It was amusing how, according to Emily’s mother, girls with short hair must be g*y. “She sounds really nice,” Emily said, not wanting to sound ungrateful. But suddenly, all the we-accept-you-for-who-you-are attention was making her claustrophobic. “Um, I’ll be back in a minute,” she murmured, slipping out of the room.
She pulled on her coat and stepped onto the porch. The sun was at a low point in the sky, beaming straight into Emily’s eyes. Emily let out a long sigh until her lungs felt absolutely drained of air. She knew she should be happy right now. A, the evil text-messager who’d been the one to expose Emily’s relationship with Maya, was gone. Ali’s killer, Ian Thomas, was behind bars. She was hanging out again with her old friends Spencer, Aria, and Hanna—after their last group therapy session, they all had gone bowling together. There was no more danger in Rosewood, no more trouble lurking around every corner, and her family was letting her be who she wanted to be.
So why did she feel so . . . empty? Maybe it was crazy, but even after Ali’s body had been found in the concrete hole behind her old house, Emily found herself hoping against hope that her friend was still out there, alive and waiting for Emily to find her. She’d had so many dreams about Ali, and she’d even sworn she’d seen Ali the day of Ian’s arraignment in the back of a Lincoln Town Car. Even now, it felt like a presence lingered somewhere close, ghostlike, as though someone she’d known forever was watching from the cornfield.
Emily glanced through the front window of the house. Her family was still decorating the tree, looking like a Norman Rockwell tableau. It was sweet how supportive they were being about her sexuality, but the last thing she could think about right now was a relationship.
With one final look inside her living room, Emily wheeled her bike out of the garage and took off down the street. Four minutes and thirty-nine seconds later—she’d timed it years ago—she was making the turn onto the road where Ali used to live.
The house loomed at the end of the cul-de-sac, its windows dark. Lit candles, wrinkled photos, ragged stuffed animals, Santa hats, and small wrapped gifts clustered at the curb, offerings for the Ali Shrine. At the back of the property was the concrete slab where Ali had been found. Yellow police tape hung limply around the perimeter, and there was an eerie, translucent haze over the opening in the ground. It was chilling to think that Ian, whom Emily and the other girls had talked to the night of the end-of-seventh-grade sleepover, had dumped Ali’s lifeless body there just hours later.
Emily wheeled her bike up the lawn, stopped at a giant tree in the backyard, and gazed at the rickety remains of the old tree house in its tall branches. It was up there all those years ago that Ali had told Emily she had a secret boyfriend. Before Ali could reveal that it was Ian, Emily had leaned forward and kissed her.
Emily touched the tree bark with her fingers, finding the old spot where she’d carved her and Ali’s initials. Despair flooded over her like warm rain. She’d loved Ali so much. Would she ever feel like that again?
A branch cracked to her left, and she froze. A figure emerged through the trees. “Hello?” Emily said shakily, thinking of Ian. His father had all kinds of connections and had a good shot at getting him out on bail—and Ian would probably want to punish the people who tipped off the police to his crime. What if he was here right now?
“Emily?”
Aria Montgomery appeared, looking just as surprised to see Emily as Emily was to see her. She was wearing a big coat with a furry hood, fitted jeans, and fur-lined brown boots that looked like Snuffleupaguses on her feet.
“Hey.” Emily’s heart began to slow down. “W-what are you doing here?”
Aria’s blue eyes were wide. “I come here, sometimes. But I’m too afraid to go back there.”
She pointed to the dug-up concrete slab. Emily nodded, knowing exactly what Aria meant. She hadn’t looked inside the hole, either.
They stood in silence for a few beats. The sun sank lower into the trees, turning the sky an eerie purple. Christmas lights on automatic timers snapped on in the windows across the street.
Aria trudged over to a large boulder in Ali’s yard and sat down. “It’s weird, you know? That it’s all . . . over. I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”