Payback Read online

  And then Juliet said, “Oh my god! Henry?”

  Juliet’s boyfriend, Henry, appeared at the top of the ladder with a bouquet of pink roses in his hand. He was even wearing a period costume, which he’d probably snagged from the drama department. In a second Juliet had the window flung open to let Henry climb inside.

  “How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?” she said. Clearly into Shakespeare. Unfortunately, I had no clue what that meant. Monica must have figured it out, because she was watching the scene unfold with her mouth half open. She might even have been drooling.

  Then Henry did it. He actually got down on one knee and held out the bouquet.

  “Say yes, fair Juliet. Say yes, my lady, my love. Tell me you’ll accompany me to prom!”

  Juliet flung her arms around Henry and rubbed her cheek dramatically against the roses. She kissed his lips lightly. “Oh yes, of course yes, Henry, my sweet, sweet love!”

  And right that second every girl in the class was slack-jawed and swooning and so wishing that it could be happening to her. My phone vibrated in my hand. I looked down.

  A one-word text from Cory—puke.

  Chapter Three

  I couldn’t have said it better myself. Because I knew at that instant that Cory and I, and every other guy in the class who had plans to invite a girl to prom, were doomed. Not one single “promposal” I’d witnessed so far this year had come even close to this one. Every guy in the room looked as if he’d just stepped in dog crap. The teacher included.

  “Okay, we’re done here,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Exit via the door, Romeo. And head straight for the principal’s office. You could have broken your neck. We’re putting a stop to these ridiculous stunts right now.”

  Henry kissed his lady love once again, bowed with a flourish and walked out grinning.

  After school a bunch of us headed over to Main Street to hang out for a bit before my shift. When you live in a small town like Bridgewood, there’s not much else for kids to do on Fridays. After a long deep freeze, it felt great to be out in the sun again. There were still some leftover crusty black snowbanks along the curbs, but the last of winter was finally starting to disappear.

  All the way there, Monica and Ivy and some of their girlfriends would not shut up about the “so romantic” proposal. Cory and I walked along behind, quietly cursing Henry and the vile task he’d just egged us with. Already our classmates had been trying to out-propose each other at school, just like every other year in the months leading up to prom season.

  This was the first year I’d started to feel the pressure to compete myself. Last year at prom time, Monica and I were sort of on and off in our relationship, and I didn’t bother to invite her. That didn’t go over very well either. This year, though, it was definitely happening. And I figured she was waiting for me to spring something cool on her. So far, though, I was brain-dead for a good plan.

  One guy in art class had chalk sketched a huge caricature of himself and his girlfriend on the wall of the school, along with his prom invitation, which included a word puzzle. And, of course, his girl said yes!

  Last week another guy, who lives on a nearby farm, actually rode a horse right through the cafeteria doors at lunchtime. The horse was draped in some sort of banner that said Don’t horse around. Say yes! He’d picked up his girlfriend at her table and ridden right back outside again. But not before the horse dropped some major muffins on the floor. That guy got in crap big-time and had to clean it up himself too. But at least she said yes.

  “I’m thinking that after Henry’s, promposals will definitely be banned from school property,” I told Cory.

  “Probably. Unless it’s something lame. Like the guy who had the pizza delivered at lunchtime,” Cory reminded me. The pizza was heart shaped, with SAY YES spelled out in pepperoni.

  “And pizza guy got a no,” I said. “It was a stretch from the start though. He really didn’t stand a chance.” With the girls out of earshot, I quickly asked, “So have you come up with anything yet?”

  “Nope,” he said. “I have no clue how to do this. But pretty much every girl expects it.”

  I glanced sideways at him. “You’re not holding out on me, are you?”

  “Honestly, I’ve got nothing, Dylan. Zippo. Nada.”

  “Maybe we can figure something out and do it together. That way we’d only need to come up with one good idea. Monica and Ivy would love it, right?” I said.

  Cory’s eyebrows flew up. “Now that’s a good plan,” he said. “We need to brainstorm.”

  “Not till later though,” I said. “I work for a living now, remember?”

  “How could I ever forget? You remind me every chance you get.”

  I’d started working at the ice cream and snack shop when it reopened for the season. Jobs weren’t so easy to find in town. The summer before, I’d nailed a job at a local inn. But once vacation season ended I was unemployed again. Luckily my boss had given me a good reference letter, which I’d handed to the owner of the Scoop Coupe as soon as the employment notice appeared in her window. She’d read it and hired me on the spot.

  My shift was about to start. Outside the store, Monica hugged my arm and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Text me after work, okay?” she said. “I think Ivy’s having some people over later tonight.”

  “Cool,” I said. “Tonight I’m definitely testing out that ‘flexible’ curfew thing.” I wanted to find out as soon as possible how far I could stretch Mom’s “ballpark” figure.

  “Hey, dude. How’s it going?”

  Whoa. I spun around when I heard that voice.

  Eliot Barnes, a skinny, scrappy senior who’d recently been expelled for fighting, was standing on the corner, talking to another kid from our school. I had a flashback from the night before. It was him. That was the voice.

  Monica nudged me and grinned. “Check it out, Dylan,” she said.

  “Oh crap. Seriously?” I glanced at Cory. He was frowning, just like me.

  Because it was clearly about to happen again, right in front of all of us. Some guy wearing a top hat was riding a unicycle along the side of the road, juggling three balls over his head. And there could only be one reason for someone to do something so bizarre.

  All the girls were chirping like birds now. I scanned the excited faces, wondering which one was going to wind up with a cool promposal story to brag about to all her friends. There were plenty of girls to choose from.

  The bike wobbled along. The rider, a senior name Aiden, didn’t seem too sure of himself, even though he was smiling. As he got closer to the crowd, he threw one of the balls straight at a girl named Chloe. And she caught it. But then suddenly a black pickup whipped around the corner. Someone yelled, “Look out!” But it was too late. The truck practically sideswiped Aiden, and he veered toward the side of the road. When his tire rammed the curb, he flew off the unicycle and hit the sidewalk with a dull, hard thud.

  Everyone crowded around Aiden. I could hear him groaning and see his legs moving, so I was pretty sure he was okay. And a few kids were already calling 9-1-1 on their phones. Which was why I focused on the pickup truck speeding off in a cloud of leftover winter salt and sand. Because the driver hadn’t even stopped for a second to see if Aiden was okay. He’d just kept right on driving as if nothing had happened at all.

  One thing stood out about that truck. The license plate was smeared with dirt. But the rest of the truck looked as if it had been recently washed. Yep, the same truck, and the same guy driving it. And now Eliot was gone.

  “Did you see who it was?” Cory asked.

  “Nope, and I didn’t catch his license number either. And how many black pickup trucks are there in town? This one’s gonna make Nicole go crazy!”

  Right on cue, we heard the sirens. Two minutes later an ambulance pulled up. And Nicole’s police cruiser. Yet again something had gone wrong in town, and I was there when it happened. And without a doubt Nicole would have a hundred questions for me. It wasn’t
easy keeping a low profile in Bridgewood when my mom’s best friend was always on high alert. Her eyes seemed to be everywhere at once.

  As the paramedics moved Aiden carefully onto a backboard, he kept reassuring them that he was okay and just wanted to go home. But they told him he had to go to the hospital and get checked out in case of concussion or a neck or spinal injury. As the ambulance drove off, Nicole began her interrogation.

  “Stick around, kids,” she said to my schoolmates. “I have a few questions.”

  Nobody enjoyed getting the third degree from Nicole. She seemed to know a little bit about just about everyone in town. She also had a way of prying information out of you that you didn’t even know you had. Which was why a few kids had slipped away as soon as they heard the sirens.

  Chloe was holding the three juggling balls. She looked like she was really trying not to cry. She held them out to Nicole.

  “It was supposed to be a promposal,” she told her. “It was so sweet. Look. He wrote one word on each ball. Please. Say. Yes. And I was so freaked when he wiped out that I forgot to say yes before the ambulance took off.” Then she burst into tears and couldn’t speak anymore. All the other girls swarmed around and wrapped her in hugs.

  Nicole stood there shaking her head. “Promposals. Worst idea ever. There’s so much that could go wrong. And this is a perfect example. So what have you got for me, Dylan?”

  “Not a lot,” I told her. “And anyway, everyone saw the exact same thing as I did. So why don’t you just ask them?”

  “You saw something else though, didn’t you? I can tell by the look on your face.”

  Nicole’s eyes were boring into mine like a couple of laser beams. I tried not to blink, but it didn’t work. My poker face sucked. Crap! Why did I always manage to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time?

  “Come on, Dylan. Spill it,” she said.

  I tried to put on a deadpan expression and took a deep breath.

  Chapter Four

  “Okay. It was a black Ford pickup truck, right, Cory?” I said. “With tinted windows.”

  “Guess so,” Cory said, wide-eyed. As usual he was rattled by Officer Nicole. He once told me that just being near her made him feel as if he’d done something wrong. “I can’t believe you actually noticed all that. Good eye, dude. ” Then he slid over to Ivy and Monica like he was trying to get as far away from Nicole as possible.

  “Oh, that truck again, right?” Nicole narrowed her eyes. “What else about the truck?”

  “I’m not sure if it’s the same one. I didn’t see much,” I told her. “I was more worried about Aiden. Obviously.” I gritted my teeth. I didn’t want her to know I wasn’t quite telling the truth. So far everything I’d said was almost true.

  “Come on, Dylan.” She was grinning now. “You are such a bad liar. What else?”

  So much for deadpan. “Yeah. The license plate was covered in dirt. The rest of the truck was clean.” No way was I about to rat out Eliot for no good reason either.

  “See. I knew you had something. That’s important—and extremely helpful.” Nicole was nodding. “Now we can finally pick this guy up.” She squeezed my shoulder. A bit too hard.

  “But he didn’t actually do anything,” I said. “Aiden just lost his balance when the truck went whipping past.”

  “He left an accident scene,” Nicole said. “Without checking to see if the victim was okay. So he’s actually a witness. And we need to talk to him. I’m going over to the hospital to check on Aiden. Then I’m looking for Jeff Walker.”

  She finally said it out loud. The guy’s name. She knew exactly who she was looking for.

  Nicole clapped her hands. “All right, everyone, time to get home for dinner, isn’t it? And you’re late for work, aren’t you, Dylan?”

  The rest of the kids didn’t waste any time following her instructions. Monica gave my hand a squeeze, then wandered off with some of them. The rest headed inside the ice cream shop. By then the owner, Robbie, was standing in the doorway, looking worried.

  “I hope that guy’s okay,” she said. “I saw all the commotion out here. You’re up, Dylan.” And she threw a striped apron at me. Robbie was short and sweet and feisty. We got along great.

  I tied on the apron and got to work behind the counter. Lots of kids were hanging around, crowded into the booths. Some ordered fries or burgers or sundaes, and others the specialty waffle cones. I didn’t mind scooping ice cream or working the grill on weekends. At least it got me out of the house for a while. Living with my mom and grandmother was getting harder the older I got. And with my mom working long hours managing the local pub, Rocky’s Roadhouse, Gran was mostly in charge. Luckily, since they both had boyfriends now, they were less focused on me.

  They’d finally let me get a phone now that I had a steady job. The money I’d made working the previous summer hadn’t lasted long enough for me to buy one and pay for a monthly phone plan. But I’d managed to save my Christmas money and the bit of allowance Mom had handed me from her tips now and then. So when I was hired at the Scoop Coupe, I bought that phone ASAP. I was paying for the plan myself too.

  The Scoop Coupe was set up like an old-fashioned ice cream parlor, with vinyl booths and a soda fountain and even a jukebox and retro arcade machines. It was almost like that soda-shop scene in Back to the Future. I was already getting to know everyone’s favorite flavors of cones and shakes. Even Gran wandered in now and then with Buddy. She always ordered Strawberry with one scoop, and he stuck with Butterscotch Ripple, two scoops.

  The shop was only open on weekends, Friday through Sunday, until the busy season, which would start in a couple of months. Robbie already knew that come June and vacation season, I’d be heading back to Granitewood Lodge to run the front desk. There would be plenty of other kids desperate for jobs by then.

  By eight PM the place had pretty much cleared out, and Robbie was counting the money in the till. I’d texted Monica, and she said we were meeting at Ivy’s place at eight thirty. She also told me she’d heard that Aiden was going to be okay. I wandered over to the window to check out the street. Deserted as usual, the odd car driving by in what looked like slow motion. Then suddenly a face was right smack in front of mine on the other side of the glass. Eliot stood there, staring straight at me. He opened the door and stuck his head in.

  “Hey, dude. How’s it going? You still open? Got a mad milkshake craving right now.”

  I glanced at Robbie. She shrugged. “Sure. Four bucks cash and it’s yours. But make it quick, Dylan. I’ve got a party happening as soon as I lock this place up.”

  Eliot picked Peanut Butter Cup with Smarties thrown in. Then we both stood there in silence, staring at the blender as the mess got all mixed up into a frozen rainbow massacre. I dumped it into the cup, snapped the lid on and stuck a straw inside. He dropped two loonies into my hand. The whole time he was staring at me with his brows furrowed like he wanted to say something. But he kept glancing over at Robbie, as if he didn’t want her overhearing. It was starting to make me a bit nervous.

  “Great. Thanks, dude,” he said, then took a noisy sip as I walked him to the door. “So what happened with Aiden today? You heard anything? Talk to the cops?”

  “Officer Vance said she was going over to check on him,” I told Eliot. Maybe name-dropping would scare the guy off. “I heard they’re keeping him in overnight for observation. But he’s probably fine. Bump on the head. A few bruises. Nothing busted though.”

  He almost looked relieved. “That’s good,” he said. “Got anything on tonight?”

  I shrugged, not wanting to give away too much. “Just heading somewhere to chill. Maybe play some video games. Why?” I had to ask. Because this was probably the first time that Eliot had ever asked me anything.

  He paused for a bit too long before answering. “I don’t know,” he said. “Later, Dylan.”

  Then he was gone, disappearing into the settling dusk. Very weird. I didn’t know much about Eliot. I knew he
lived with his dad in a run-down rented house. And he never seemed to “play well with others,” so everyone tried to avoid him. Just like Jeff Walker, I’d always found Eliot a bit sketchy, and made sure I kept my distance.

  I locked the door behind Eliot. A few minutes later Robbie and I stepped out into the cool April evening. She offered me a ride to Ivy’s, but I decided to walk since it was only a couple of blocks. In Bridgewood everything was pretty much nearby.

  I rambled along the main street, then cut through the side streets, totally focused on my phone screen, texting Monica and Cory that I was nearly there. So I didn’t notice right away that a pickup truck was rolling along right beside me, hip-hop music thumping from the stereo. I turned my head slowly. The window slid down.

  “Hey, dude. How’s it going? Need a lift?” It was Eliot, and Jeff was driving. Not good.

  “Nah, I’m okay.” I picked up my pace, realizing it was already dark out. How had that happened so fast? And why were the streets so freaking empty? Eliot took a loud last slurp from the milkshake cup, then dropped it on the road.

  “Stash it, don’t trash it,” I said, trying to be funny. Neither of them laughed.

  “So Jeff wanted to ask you something.” Eliot smirked at me through the window.

  I could see Jeff’s stony face staring straight ahead through the windshield. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to hear anything Jeff Walker had to say right now.

  “Kind of in a rush,” I said, then veered onto a pathway that cut between two properties and led over to the next street.

  That was when I started running. It was even darker along the path, but at least there wasn’t room for a truck to drive. I’d almost reached the next street when I heard thumping footsteps coming up behind me. Someone yanked on my arm and spun me around. Jeff. He had a really tight grip. I was glad it wasn’t on my neck. He pushed me against a tree.

  “So what did you tell that cop today?” he said, too close to my face.

  So much for the name-dropping plan. His stale, cigarette-butt breath reeked. I tried to squirm away, but he wouldn’t let go. Then he squeezed even harder.