“Bobby!” David said. “Let my brother go.”
Bobby dropped Will’s leash and put his hands up. Will wasted no time standing and running over to them.
“Hi,” Will said. He smiled at Lucy like nothing else existed.
That smile that said fuck the world. It got her every time. This time it made her heart hurt.
“Hi,” she said. She wanted to hug him tight, but instead she shouted at everybody else: “We’re walking out of here.”
Lucy kept her elbow locked and swung the gun across the crowd.
“You heard her,” Will said. “She’ll kill you, straight up. Try her. Go ’head and try her.”
“Will, cool it,” David whispered.
The threesome were quick to fall into a triangular formation, so they could watch all sides. Even though everyone was still a good ten feet away, it felt as though someone could still grab the gun. And with her hands still wet with blood, it could have slipped right out.
“Let’s go,” David said.
They began to move in sync toward the west exit, in the direction of the quad, but a low moan drew everyone’s attention. Lucy looked over to see Hilary rising up from the floor. She was clutching her head. She looked around with fierce eyes. The fingers on her right hand moved furiously as they noticed that they were no longer in possession of the gun. They raised up and one extended to point directly at Lucy.
“You!” Hilary said. “That doesn’t belong to you! Give it back!”
“Go to hell,” Lucy said.
Hilary shook her head. “I wish you’d died when I pushed you off the stairs.”
Lucy’s feet froze. Will bumped into her.
“I think we should run,” Will said.
He didn’t know. He couldn’t comprehend what Hilary meant. Lucy could barely believe what she was hearing. But David seemed to understand.
“Lucy, forget it,” David said, and took her hand. “Come on.”
She pulled her hand out of his.
“You pushed me?” Lucy said, stepping away from David and Will.
Hilary smiled. The truth of what Hilary had done lit a fire in Lucy. Her baby. Her and Will’s baby. She hadn’t lost their child. Hilary had taken it from her.
Lucy stomped right up to Hilary and put the gun to Hilary’s head. Hilary’s attitude crumbled as the gun’s cold barrel dimpled her temple.
“Lucy!” David called out. “It’s not worth it.”
Lucy glanced over at David. He had both hands out like he was talking to a jumper on a ledge. Will looked confused.
“It is worth it! Do you know what she did?” Lucy said, then locked eyes with Hilary.
She could feel Hilary shiver. The crowd waited for what would happen next. David looked at her like she was a monster. Will shook his head back and forth fast. She put her focus back on the shivering bitch who had stolen her baby.
“Take it out,” Lucy said.
“What?” Hilary said with a tremor in her voice.
“The tooth. Take it out now.”
Hilary went pale as boiled chicken. She shook her head in a tight little movement. Lucy clicked the hammer back.
Hilary raised a shaking hand to her lips, then stopped.
“Please,” Hilary said, her eyes pleading with Lucy.
“Do it,” Lucy said.
Hilary clenched her eyes shut. She gripped her tooth between her thumb and knuckle. A tear squeezed out and ran down her cheek. She pulled. The commons gasped. Hilary covered her mouth with her hand.
“Hand down,” Lucy said.
Hilary cried more, but she did it.
“Now, smile for everyone.”
The tears poured out of Hilary. Lucy had never seen Hilary cry before. She sobbed as she spread her lips and displayed the gaping black hole in her perfect smile. A trickle of watery blood flowed down from the gum and across one of her front teeth, and then dripped onto her lower lip. Laughter rose in the room. Hurried whispers. No Pretty Ones came to her aid. Hundreds of sneaker soles squeaked across linoleum as the crowd packed in close together to get the best view. Flashes of light. At least a hundred cell phones were held in the air, freezing Hilary’s shame forever in pictures and video.
“Your prom queen, everybody,” Lucy said. “The leader of the Pretty Ones.”
Hilary hyperventilated. She dropped to her knees, one arm on the ground, red drool spilling from her mouth.
“You’re going to pay for this,” she said. “I’m going to make you—”
A red, wet chunk leapt out of her mouth. It landed on the floor with a heavy splat. The whole room gasped. Hilary straightened, and both hands went to her throat. Blood barreled out of her mouth like floodwaters out of a storm drain. It splattered heavy onto the floor. When the blood stopped gushing from her, Hilary wobbled like a slowing top, then fell face-first into the red slop that was once her lungs.
25
DAVID HAD SEEN ENOUGH.
He rushed to Lucy’s side, and so did Will. Lucy was smiling over the body of his dead ex-girlfriend, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like any of it, not her happiness at seeing Hilary die, not the drooling crowd watching death like it was a sporting event.
David placed his hands over Lucy’s. They were cold.
“Give it to me,” David said.
The shaking tension in her hands relaxed. He took the gun from her.
“Make a path!” David shouted. “We’re leaving!”
David swung the gun in a half circle at the crowd that was gaping at Hilary’s wasted body. No one moved, but their eyes settled on the steel in his hand instead.
David thrust the gun in the direction of a pack of Skaters who stood in the way of the west exit.
“You wanna die? Huh?” Will said. “ ’Cause he’ll make it happen!”
Shut up, Will. The crowd closed in on the trio.
“Get back!” Lucy shouted.
Kids crept forward, a mad hunger in their eyes. The circle closed tighter. They were never getting to the quad.
David realized what he had to do. Sam’s dad had shared a plan with him, a final solution, he called it. It was only to be used as a last resort, and David hadn’t told Will or Lucy about it, because he hadn’t wanted anything to do with it. He didn’t want to be responsible for more lives lost.
He cocked the hammer back.
Three kids ran at him.
David raised the gun and emptied it into the ceiling.