Book Five, Chapter 61: Strike!
Ramona was the first to notice that something was wrong.
"Riley, are you OK?" she asked, or something like that—I wasn’t paying attention.
I just needed to get a closer look at the poster because there was a block of text at the bottom of the poster, and I needed to read what was in that text. I walked forward without thinking about it, just trying to get close enough to make out what those letters said.
That was all.
I wasn’t going to follow Gus up the stairs. I just needed to read what it said because it did say something, and I could tell that the first word was "you."
I pulled forward, and I could feel the rope tugging at my belt loop because the others were not nearly as interested in following me. They even started making a commotion about it.
I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying and didn’t notice them, particularly until Antoine grabbed my arm.
“What is wrong with you?” he screamed because the back of the store, with its barren shelves and flickering lights, had scared them.
I didn’t respond to him.