Chapter 19
Adam took the bag of clothes and walked away. He disappeared down the alley without a backward glance.
Sophia watched him go. A profound sense of worry bloomed in her chest. He was a puzzle she couldn’t solve.
A classmate she barely knew was now entwined in her deepest and most private pain.
How did he know what was happening in my life? she wondered. And why does he want to help me? He seemed to carry his own darkness a weight far heavier than hers.
Then another thought surfaced. It made her cheeks burn with embarrassment. And why did I cry like that right in front of him?
The memory of her complete breakdown of clinging to him while she sobbed was mortifying. She felt exposed and weak.
She turned and ran back into her house. She closed the door quietly and slid the lock into place. Her mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner.
She went straight to her room closed the door and leaned against it.
She hoped that by burying herself in the familiar quiet of her own space she could erase the shameful scene from her mind.
But the feeling of his hand on her head and the sound of his low voice promising to handle it lingered. It was a terrifying and strangely comforting memory.
Meanwhile Adam reached the end of the alley. He slipped into a small vacant lot next to it. It was an empty patch of dirt where construction had stalled.
The area was deserted. It was littered with silent rusting machinery and skeletal frames of unfinished buildings.