Forget Me

by K. A. Harrington

  Toni smiled. “I do.”

  “What?”

  “Last night, I logged in to my account at home and brought up Evan’s page. We have one mutual friend.”

  I closed my locker and held my books to my chest. “Who?”

  She grimaced like she’d just taken a bite of something bitter. “Reece Childs.”

  Ugh. I rolled my eyes. “Too Cool Reece?”

  “He’s worth talking to for five minutes if we can find out who Evan is.”

  Reece was the party king and walked the halls with an overconfident swagger, flirting with girls and calling out to his “bros.” He was one of the fakest people in our grade. A douche of the highest order. Toni and I had nicknamed him “Too Cool Reece.” Online he friended anyone he’d ever met and even some people he hadn’t. He sent me a friend request once, and I ignored it. I was picky about who I approved. Meanwhile, Reece had thousands on his list.

  But apparently one of them was Evan Murphy.

  I drew my lips tight, determined. “Fine. When are we doing this?”

  Toni motioned over my shoulder. “How about now?”

  I turned around and, sure enough, there was Too Cool Reece taking a gulp of water from the fountain. He dried his mouth with the back of his hand and started to walk away.

  “Hey, Reece, wait up,” I called.

  He looked at us over the top of his Aviator sunglasses. Seriously. It was cloudy out, not summer, and he was inside. “What’s up, ladies?” He stretched out the last syllable like it contained ten zs.

  “Do you know Evan Murphy?” I asked, getting right to the point.

  He scrunched his face up as he thought. “Sounds familiar . . .”

  “You’re friends with him on FriendShare,” I added.

  He wagged his eyebrows. “You hunting for a new boyfriend, Morgan?”

  Toni had been fiddling with her phone and now she held it up. “This guy. You know him?”

  Reece bent down to make up for the height difference. “I can’t really—”

  Toni let out an aggravated sigh. “Take the glasses off, cool guy. Come on.”

  He pulled his sunglasses off and hung them on the collar of his tight V-neck. He took Toni’s phone and stared at Evan’s profile photo. “Oh yeah. We played in the same summer baseball league a couple years back. Cool guy. Power hitter. Lives in Littlefield.”

  Flynn had an athletic frame but never mentioned any interest in sports. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, though.

  Reece started typing something into Toni’s phone.

  “Um, what are you doing?” she asked.

  “Just giving you my digits.”

  Toni grabbed the phone out of his hands.

  “So the guy’s name is really Evan?” I asked.

  Reece gave me a strange look. “What else would it be?”

  Toni and I exchanged a glance. “Did you ever meet Flynn, my boyfriend?” I asked.

  “Nah. I heard about the car thing, though. Sorry.”

  Not exactly the most delicate way to say it, but the thought was there. “Um, yeah. Thanks.”

  “Is that all?” Reece said, staring at Toni like he hoped we weren’t done with him.

  “Yeah,” I muttered.

  He looked Toni up and down. “If you ever want to hang out . . .” He made the “call me” sign with a hand up to his ear, then turned around and joined the masses.

  “Gross.” Toni crossed her arms. “What a toolbag.”

  I let out a long breath. “Well, now we know that Evan exists. He’s a real person and has been for at least two years. And he lives in Littlefield just like his profile says.”

  “But that still doesn’t rule out the chance that Flynn is him,” Toni said.

  I slid my books into the crook of my arm. “How so?”

  “You never went to Flynn’s house. Flynn didn’t go to our school. How do you know Flynn wasn’t Evan the whole time? Playing some game, telling you lies.”

  My heart sank at the thought. “Why would a guy do that? To anonymously hook up? Believe me, he didn’t get far.”

  “Maybe he wasn’t happy with his life in Littlefield. Maybe he just wanted to feel like someone else for a while. Even if it was only a few hours a week.” The way she said it made it sound like something she’d consider.

  I took a moment to play with the idea, think about how it could’ve happened. The day we met, Flynn was alone in King’s Fantasy World. I went there to take some pictures and found him hanging out around the fun house. He didn’t know me, I didn’t know him, so maybe he thought it would be fun to try out a new name, a new identity. We hit it off. We met again and again, and the lies built up. Until the night that he decided he didn’t want to be Flynn Parkman anymore. Maybe living a double life was fun at first, but then it got tiring.

  Maybe that’s why he wanted to break up with me.

  And then a car hit him. But he survived. His parents brought him home from the hospital, and all he had to do to make Flynn go away was to never step foot in River’s End again. Never see me again. And, just like that, Flynn would no longer exist. Problem solved.

  When I thought about it that way, it was pretty easy.

  I started to feel dizzy and was dimly aware of the fact that my breathing sounded like a marathon runner’s. I leaned against the wall for support. The conversations passing us in the hall blurred together.

  Toni took my books from me. “Are you okay? Do you want to go to the nurse?”

  “No,” I said, though my voice sounded far away. “I’m fine.”

  There was a small possibility that Flynn was alive. Out there. Living another life. With a jolt, my ears cleared, and the tunnel vision relaxed. The fog in my brain was replaced with a burning need for answers.

  I would not be satisfied until I knew the truth.

  Toni’s eyes were lined with concern. “What do you want to do?”

  I pushed myself off the wall and took my books back from her. “I want to find out if my ex-boyfriend was a liar.”

  CHAPTER 4

  After school, Toni and I got into my little Civic, tossing our bags into the backseat. The engine turned over with a cough, and I joined the line of cars exiting the parking lot.

  “So what’s the plan?” Toni asked.

  We hadn’t discussed it in lunch or during classes because I didn’t want to talk about the whole Evan/Flynn thing with anyone else. I had other friends, but they were surface friends. I wasn’t as close to any of them as I was to Toni. And maybe Flynn had rubbed off on me, but I was feeling private lately.

  “I guess we’ll just go to my house and try to dig up more online,” I said. I slowed the car to a stop at the red light. “I’ll just . . . start Googling and figure something out.”

  “Take a right here,” Toni said, pointing toward the center of town.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “We’ll stop by Town Hall. Cooper will know what to do.”

  Cooper was Toni’s older brother. He was a senior at our school, super smart and cute. Though—much to the dismay of every girl in town—very taken. Diana, his longtime girlfriend, was a year older and a freshman at Harvard. He would be joining her in the fall if his financial aid came through. After college they’d get married and have beautiful, valedictorian, Harvard-bound babies.

  But Toni was right. If anyone knew how to research, it was Cooper. He could write a term paper in his sleep.

  When we were little, Toni and Cooper used to hate each other. It seemed like their main mission in life was to get the other in trouble, and they fought about every single thing, down to who should hold the remote control. It made me glad I was an only child. But since Stell went out of business, their parents lost their jobs, and everything went to hell, there had been a sort of cease-fire. They never actually talked about it, but I’m gue
ssing once the family began to have real problems, Toni and Cooper started to rely on each other more and fight less.

  I parked in front of the redbrick building. We climbed the concrete stairs and opened the heavy door. The Town Hall was one of the oldest buildings in River’s End, and it felt like it—drafty walls, tall ceilings, elaborate wood moldings. I’d never visited Cooper at work, but Toni obviously had. She marched down the main hallway like she belonged there.

  “Got a sec?” she called into the second room on the right.

  I looked in. Cooper was hunched over a copier that was making grinding noises as papers flew out of the end.

  “Yeah, meet me out back by the benches. I’m due for a break.” He didn’t even look up, just knew his sister’s voice.

  I followed Toni out the back door and into a miniature courtyard. A few park benches circled a dried-up fountain. I shivered as the cold from the aluminum seat seeped through my jeans.

  A couple of minutes later the door opened and Cooper sauntered out, carrying a Styrofoam coffee cup. He had Toni’s sandy-blond hair, but was a full foot taller than her. His eyebrows rose at the sight of me. He hadn’t realized I was with her.

  “Sorry. I should’ve brought out drinks for you guys, too.” He sat between us and tipped the cup in an offer to share.

  I shook my head no.

  Toni grimaced. “You smell like a metal fish.”

  “It’s that old copy machine. It’s nasty, and the room has no ventilation.”

  “Oh, poor baby,” Toni teased.

  “Plus Mrs. Willis came in today ranting and raving again.”

  “Man.” Toni shook her head.

  “Who’s Mrs. Willis?” I asked.

  Toni stopped laughing and explained. “Mrs. Willis used to have Cooper’s job. She was a full-timer and had worked here for, like, thirty years. They laid her off, changed the job title, and made it part-time. Then they hired a high school kid for minimum wage.”

  “I jumped at the chance,” Cooper said. “You know how many of my friends can’t even find a part-time job? It’s only copying, filing, answering phones. Easy stuff. But I had no idea what they’d done to this lady, and now she comes in and yells at me that I stole her job. Like I’m personally responsible.”

  I held back a smile, picturing some little old lady pointing her finger up at Cooper’s face. “It’s better than mowing lawns,” I said, which was Cooper’s previous gig.

  He gave me a little elbow jab. “Easy for you to say. You have a cool job.”

  “You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew how much they paid me.” The local paper had cut their staff photographers a while back and hired freelancers now. I took photos at sports games and school events, and sometimes crime scenes—like when someone toppled some headstones in the cemetery. I submitted photos to my editor. For any shot they used, I got ten bucks. Terrible money, but at least I was doing something I liked. And I didn’t have a Mrs. Willis yelling at me.

  “So what are you two bums doing following me to work?” Cooper asked. Toni jutted her chin toward me, and he followed with his eyes. “Morgan?”

  I suddenly felt tongue-tied. “Um . . . you remember my boyfriend, Flynn Parkman?”

  “Yeah, of course. I met him once when you guys came to pick up Toni. Before he . . . before . . . that night,” he said with a familiar look of pity.

  “I want to find out more about him. I never got to speak to his parents after he died. I just wanted to get more details, I guess.” I knew I was barely making sense.

  Toni piped up, “She thinks he may have lied about something.”

  Cooper turned serious. “Why would that matter now?”

  Toni looked at me. She had no problem keeping secrets from her brother. They weren’t the kind of siblings who told each other everything, so I didn’t feel guilty involving her in my lie.

  “Just closure, I guess,” I said flatly. “Will you help?”

  I knew he’d say yes, but he left me hanging for a moment. The corner of his mouth lifted up. “What do I get in return?”

  “Free pizza,” I said.

  “Deal. Pick me up at five.”

  • • •

  Sal brought the large pie to our booth and wordlessly dropped it on the end of the table. I used the tips of my fingers to push the silver plate more toward the center, but it was scorching.

  “Ouch, ouch, ouch,” I muttered.

  “It’s not really the food I come for,” Cooper said from across the table. “It’s the customer service.”

  Sal’s wasn’t what you’d call fantastic, but it was the only pizza place left in town. Sal and his daughter Ronnie—who looked like a thirty-year-old version of Sal with long hair—ran the place. They worked every day, every position. They made the pizzas, served the pizzas, answered the phones, rang the register.

  The floors were black-and-white checkerboard, and the dark brown paneling had been on the walls for so long, they probably permanently smelled of pizza. No matter how much River’s End disintegrated, Sal’s stayed the same. I had the feeling that everyone could move away and Sal would stay, still making his pizzas. At least we always had that one constant.

  I slid a slice onto my paper plate and patted it with a handful of napkins. Within seconds the napkins were soaked in grease.

  Next to me in the booth, Toni had dumped a truckload of red hot pepper flakes on her slice, folded it in half, and taken a huge bite.

  “Dainty,” Cooper said.

  “Shut it,” she replied through a mouthful.

  I wasn’t hungry. I just wanted to know what Cooper had found out with the information I’d given him on Flynn.

  “So . . . ,” I began.

  He dropped his slice and rubbed his hands on a napkin. “So I found out a lot and . . . not so much.”

  I made a “go on” motion with my hand.

  “First off,” he said, “Flynn didn’t go to St. Pelagius.”

  I’d already felt this in my gut, but hearing it confirmed was like a lance to the heart. Lie number one. How many more would there be?

  “I called a friend of a friend who’s a senior there. No one by that name went to the school. So maybe he went somewhere else or was homeschooled? Or maybe he’d already graduated? He looked like he could have been about eighteen.”

  I took a moment to absorb that info. Flynn had told me he was a senior. And I saw him plenty of times with a beat-up-looking notebook. But any time I asked how school was, he’d just answer with some noncommittal “the usual” or “sucks.” No elaborate lies about classes and tests, but still. It stung just the same. Why not just tell me the truth? Whatever that was.

  After chewing another bite, Cooper said, “It gets even more interesting from there. He told you he lived on Elm, right?”

  Flynn had referred to home as “one of those little houses on Elm.” At first I thought he’d been embarrassed to have me over because my house was bigger and nicer. But then, after some pushing, he’d told me he had family issues and didn’t want me to become a part of it. From the expectant look on Cooper’s face, there was more to it than that.

  I nodded. “That’s what he said, yeah.”

  “Well, he didn’t live on Elm. Actually, I couldn’t find a record of his family living anywhere in River’s End. There’s no public listing for that last name in town. I even checked the private listings and voter registrations. No Parkmans.”

  My breath hitched. I didn’t know whether I should feel curious, sad, betrayed, angry. I settled on nauseated. I pushed my plate of grease to the side. Thinking out loud, I asked, “Then where did they live?”

  Cooper shrugged. “Maybe they were squatters.”

  “Eww,” Toni said. “That sounds gross.”

  Cooper ignored her. “Squatters are people who occupy abandoned buildings or houses. They basically live in
them for free, without permission, until they’re caught. With the number of foreclosed homes in town, we’ve had a squatter problem the last few years. The police do their best, but they can’t catch them all. Especially if they’re quiet and don’t draw attention to themselves.”

  An emptiness gnawed at me from deep inside. Flynn had been my boyfriend. He’d kissed my lips, held my hand, listened to me spill my feelings. But he was a walking lie. I didn’t know where he’d lived, where he’d gone to school, nothing.

  Even if he was dead, it was like he’d been a ghost from day one.

  Toni was staring at me, and I could practically read her mind. This development certainly fanned the flames of her theory. Evan was a dead ringer for Flynn. And if Flynn had lied about where he lived and where he went to school . . . what else had he lied about?

  CHAPTER 5

  “Do you have to head right home?” Toni asked, zipping up her hoodie. The sun was setting, and a bitter wind had taken its place. Dinner ended quickly. I’d lost my appetite after finding out that my dead(?) ex-boyfriend had been promoted from possible creep to pants-on-fire liar. Cooper opted to walk the couple of blocks back to his car at the Town Hall, but Toni stayed with me.

  Even though she usually only avoided her house when Cooper was out, she clearly wasn’t ready to go home. I mentally calculated the homework I had waiting for me.

  “I can stay out a bit longer,” I said. “Where do you want to go?”

  She flashed a wicked smile. “It’s a surprise. Can I drive?”

  I tossed her the keys. “As long as you don’t crash or dust up my new paint job.”

  Toni laughed. My car was twelve years old, and the only new thing on it was the rust that had started to grow along the wheel wells. I got in the passenger side as Toni pulled my driver’s-side seat forward a couple of inches.

  “Great,” I joked. “Now my adjustments are all off.”

  “It’s not my fault I’m height impaired. Just for that, I’m moving your mirrors, too.”