I completely lost track of time, and before I knew it I was out of the woods and on a road. I had no idea how far I’d walked or how long I’d been out here. I reached for the cell in my back pocket. 1:10. I’d walked for over an hour. Everyone was probably wondering where I was. I saw I had a missed call from Alex. I forgot I’d silenced my phone. I dialed him back as a car came down the road. A car I’d know anywhere. Melodie’s car!

Without even thinking, I waved my arms in the air. The car went past me, but the brake lights came on and it slowed to a stop.

I heard a faint voice and remembered I’d called Alex. I put the phone up to my ear. “Jodi? Are you there? Where are you?”

“I have to call you back.” I ended the call as Melodie stepped out of the car. I smiled. Seeing her was like seeing a room full of presents on Christmas morning. I wanted to rush up to her and give her the biggest hug, but I felt the wetness on my cheeks and stopped.

“Oh, my God! Jodi! It is you!” Melodie’s shrieky voice sounded amazing. Like home. She rushed over to me, but I backed away. I couldn’t let her touch me, not while I was crying.

“Stay back, Mel. Please.” I held my hands in front of me to stop her.

“What? Why? Jodi, what’s wrong? Are you hurt? Where have you been? Your mom’s been worried sick. We all have.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“You just left. You didn’t say a word to anyone. Your mom said you emailed her, but when she tried to email you back, she got a message saying the account had been deleted.”

I nodded and continued to back up. Melodie wouldn’t stop coming toward me. “Please, Mel. You have to stay away from me. Don’t come any closer, okay? Please. If anything happened to you, I’d—”

“What are you talking about? You’re acting crazy.”

“Look, can we go somewhere and talk? Your car, maybe?”

“Do you need a ride home?”

Home. There was nowhere I’d rather go, but I couldn’t. If I went back, I wouldn’t be able to leave again.

“No. I want to park somewhere and talk. Can we do that?”

Melodie laughed, breaking the tension. “I don’t usually park with girls, but hey, why not?”

I laughed. Good old Melodie. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her. We walked to the car, and I got in the back passenger seat, as far from Melodie as possible.

“What do I look like, a cab driver? Get in the front.”

“No, I can’t. Mel, trust me, okay?”

“Trust you? You haven’t explained a single thing to me, and you’re asking me to trust you?”

“I know, but you’re my best friend.”

“Am I? ‘Cause last time I checked, you skipped town without telling me, your best friend.”

I didn’t have a response to that. I wasn’t even sure why I was in the car with her or why I’d flagged her down. This was all so stupid of me.

Melodie drove down the road and turned into a park. I looked out the window and did a double take. “This is Emory Park.”

“Yeah.” Melodie cut the engine and turned to look at me. She wrinkled her forehead. “What’s with you? You’re acting like you don’t know where you are.”

I thought I didn’t. When Alex had taken me to the school, we’d driven for hours. He’d encouraged me to take a nap because the drive was going to take so long and it was late. Yet here I was, only a little over an hour’s walk from the school, and I was in my hometown. How was this possible?

“He lied to me.” I got out of the car and looked around.

Melodie got out and walked over to me. “Jodi, what’s going on? Please, talk to me. Or at least let me take you home.”

“No. I can’t go home.”

“Why not? Where have you been, anyway?”

I shook my head. This was all so unbelievable. Alex had lied. He’d tricked me. I could understand not telling me in the beginning, when it was the hardest to be away from home and before he really got to know me. But why hadn’t he told me the truth after we got together?

“I can’t believe he did this to me!” I was angry. Really angry. I’d been feeling so bad about the whole Chase situation, which I didn’t really have much control over. Now that I knew Alex had lied to me, that he was still lying to me, I was furious.

“Who?” Melodie’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God! You ran away with him, didn’t you?” She grabbed my arm, but I yanked it away. “The strange guy from school? The one who was stalking you?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t let her know the truth, or anything close to it. It was too dangerous. Especially now that I knew the school was so close to home. “No.” I wracked my brain for a believable excuse. “It’s my dad. I found my dad.” Technically it wasn’t a lie.

“Your dad? I didn’t even think you knew who your dad was.”

“I didn’t, but I found him. It was something I had to do. I’m staying with him.” The lies rolled off my tongue a little too easily. I hated this. I hated not being able to tell my best friend the truth about who I really was.

“I don’t get it. Why would you just leave your mom?”

“Believe me, I didn’t want to. I miss her so much. It’s killing me that I’m not with her.” My eyes burned with the threat of more tears. I had to keep them in. I breathed deeply and squeezed my eyes shut until I felt the tears subside.

“Do you know Mr. Quimby went to see her?” Melodie sat down on a bench. “He told her you were mentally unstable. I heard him. I went to your house and saw his car in the driveway. Your mom and Mr. Quimby were talking in the kitchen. I heard your name and had to know what they were saying, so I listened in through the back window.”

“What else did he say?” I sat down at a wooden table, no longer able to stand.

“He said he’d been teaching for a while and had seen this sort of thing before. Kids taking off because they weren’t thinking clearly. He said that’s what probably happened with you.”

“I’m not crazy. Please, tell my mom I’m not crazy.” I reached for her hand but stopped myself. Physical contact was too risky.

“Tell her yourself. She’s really hurting right now. Let her know you found your dad. Even if you want to live with him—though I don’t know why you’d do that—you have to at least tell her. She deserves that.”

“I can’t. I can’t see her. It’s too hard. Please, Mel, just tell her I’m staying with my dad because I need to get to know him. Tell her I’m okay and that I love her.” I stood up. I couldn’t stay any longer. This had been a mistake. A huge mistake. I ran.

“Jodi!” Melodie’s footsteps pounded the ground behind me.

She wasn’t going to let me go, and I’d never outrun her if she got in her car. I made a split-second decision. I ran around the car and got in the driver’s seat, locking the doors so she couldn’t jump in. I turned the key, which was still in the ignition, and floored the gas. The tires screeched as I pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road. Melodie ran after me, screaming my name. I rolled down the window just enough to yell out, “I’m sorry, Mel!”

I sped away, unable to believe what I’d done. I stole my best friend’s car. I left her stranded. Her cell and purse were lying on the passenger seat. Crap! She couldn’t even call someone to pick her up. She was going to have to walk home. Some best friend I was. Now she was definitely going to think I’d lost my mind. Like it wasn’t bad enough I’d killed the one guy she had feelings for. Sure, Matt had been my almost boyfriend, but Melodie was the one in love with him. I’d broken her heart and stolen her car. Yeah, I was best friend of the year.

I thought about turning around and throwing her purse and cell out the window. It was the least I could do for her now, but at this point did it really matter? She was going to hate me either way, and I deserved it. No, I couldn’t turn back. Seeing Mel had been a mistake, and I wasn’t going to make that mistake twice. I kept driving.

I didn’t really know the way back to the school. I’d walked through the woods, not taken the roads. I did my best to keep heading in the direction I thought the school was in. Turns out none of the roads actually led to the school. That was when I remembered the road to the school wasn’t really a road. It was a beat-up old driveway that looked more like an overgrown trail. I slowed down and scanned the woods for any clearings big enough to fit a car through. Nothing. Why was this place so difficult to find? Maybe because all the residents were deadly to humans? That was a pretty good reason.