Mr. Hall looked suspicious. “Bailey, are you sure that’s what you saw?”
“Uh-huh,” she said solemnly, nodding her head and wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Summer Collins? Attacked Jason and…and…”
“Dragged him off,” she supplied.
“Dragged him off?”
“Right.”
“Could it have been a prank, Bailey? Are you sure what you saw was real?”
Onlookers started murmuring, looking at one another. A prank like that would be epic. But Summer? That just didn’t sound like her at all. Not the Summer I knew anyway. Of course, I hadn’t seen that Summer, the one I did know, in a while.
“Ok,” Mr. Hall sighed, resigned. “Let me call the police and then I’ll call your parents, alright?”
Bailey nodded, sniffling, as Mr. Hall pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.
“I want everyone to stay inside until the police get here,” he announced as he waited for someone to come on the line.
Hushed whispers broke out among the masqueraders and the horde started to disburse a bit now that the spectacle was over. Bo took my hand and pulled me away from everyone else.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’m going to see if I can find them.”
“Do you think Summer’s a…a…” I said, looking at him meaningfully.
His brow furrowed. “That’s the thing. It doesn’t sound like it. A new one of us would’ve gone straight for the throat, not the face.”
“Then what are you thinking?”
“I don’t know,” he said vaguely. “Just stay here with Savannah. I’ll be back.”
And then, with a peck on my lips, Bo was gone. Just as quickly and mysteriously as he’d appeared at the dance, he left it. It was at least a full minute before something he’d said finally registered—Savannah.
I’d forgotten all about Savannah.
Frantically, I whirled about, searching the crowd for her vivid hair. I didn’t see her anywhere. Fear swelled in my throat like a suffocating balloon.
I started asking everyone I passed, “Have you seen Savannah?” All shook their heads. No one had seen her.
I found the dead cowboy she’d danced with and I asked him. He was marginally more helpful.
“She went to the bathroom right before Bailey came in freaking out. I haven’t seen her since.”
The knot in my throat grew and my chest squeezed in impending panic.
Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Ohmigod!
I flew from the gym, out the door and down the hall toward the first set of bathrooms I came to. Surely she would’ve used the closest ones since she was no longer able to see her way around.
Guilt rose up inside me, mingling with the fear, threatening to choke me.
What if she’d tried to find me and I was off making out with Bo? What if something had happened to her because I’d been so wrapped up in my own selfish world that I’d completely forgotten about her?
I hit the bathroom door at a run. It slammed back against the wall and rocked on its hinges.
“Savannah! Savannah, are you in here?”
I listened, praying I would hear her delicate voice. When nothing but silence greeted me, I turned to leave. If need be, I’d search every square inch of the school until I found her.
Just as the door was closing behind me, I heard a soft whisper. I caught the door with my foot and whirled back around. I heard the other door, the one on the opposite side of the bathroom that opened onto the back hall, creak as it closed.
“Savannah!” I called again.
“Ridley?”
A relief so profound, so draining washed through me that I thought my legs might fold. I couldn’t bear it if something else happened to Savannah, especially on my watch. I felt like I’d already let her down enough by keeping things from her, important things. I couldn’t hurt her any more.
“Ohmigod, Savannah, you scared me to death!” I was literally clutching my chest. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” she murmured from one of the stalls.
“Where are you?”
“In this one,” she said, tapping at the third door with her knuckles.
I walked to stand in front of it. “Can I open the door?”
“Sure.”
I pushed the squeaky metal door back and there was Savannah, sitting on top of the closed toilet lid, holding her silver sunglasses between her fingers, smiling like she’d just won a million bucks.
“What are you doing?”
She giggled with delight. “Ridley, I saw him. I saw him!” she exclaimed, her eyes filling with tears. “He’s alive.”
“Who?”
“Devon.”
CHAPTER SIX
My heart tripped over itself for a few beats. “Devon? What? He’s alive?”
“Yes!”
“But- but- how do you know?”
“I told you I just saw him.”
“You saw him? You mean you talked to him? Tonight? Here?”
“Yes, I talked to him, but Ridley, I saw him.”
It had been a very emotionally tumultuous night and I wasn’t the quickest at that moment, but I felt inordinately confused by what she was saying.
“What do you mean you ‘saw him’?”
She laughed out right this time. “I mean exactly that. I saw him.”
I hated to be the one to point out the obvious, but…
“But Savannah, you’re blind. You can’t see anything.”
“You think I don’t know that, Ridley? I know I’m blind, but I saw him. I can see him.”
Then something scary occurred to me. What if she was hurt? Delusional?
“Savannah, are you hurt? Did you fall in here? Hit your head or something?”
I bent forward and started gently probing her head, checking for cuts or blood. Savannah grabbed my wrists in a firm grip and tugged my hands away from her. I stopped and looked down into her beautiful, sparkling chocolate eyes. They were clear and lucid, though they stared right through me, unseeing.
“Ridley, I’m fine. I’m telling you, I saw Devon.”
“But, I don’t—”
“I don’t know how either,” she interrupted. “But I did. It happened. And it was real. I saw him. I heard his voice and saw his lips move. I even felt him, Ridley. He held my hand and touched my face. He even kissed me, right before he left. Right before you came in.”
“But, how—”
“I don’t know, Ridley, but you can’t tell anyone. He made me promise.