The Forgetting by Nicole Maggi Page B

who used to hang out here? The blond?”
    The girl surveyed me for a long moment. I forced myself not to look away. Despite her tight skirt and heels, she looked like she could beat me up inside a minute. She planted her hand on her hip. Her nails were bitten down to the quick.
    â€œWhy do you want to know?” she said.
    â€œI’m looking for her. That’s why.” I mirrored her stance—chest thrust out, hands on my hips.
    She smirked at my lame attempt at bravado. “Well, you’ll be looking a long time. Jules told me she’s dead.”
    â€œJules is your—um—handler?”
    â€œYeah.” She snorted. “My handler .” She tossed her head and her dark hair slithered around her shoulders. “Look, all I know is a few weeks ago, he told me I should take this spot, and it’s a better shithole than the shithole I was in, so I took it.”
    â€œDid he say what happened to her?”
    â€œNo, and I didn’t ask.” She stared over the fence at the gravestones beyond. “I know when to shut up and do what I’m told.”
    Footsteps reverberated from around the corner. The girl squared her shoulders and perched at the curb. “You better go. I don’t want you fucking up another one of my deals.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œ Go. ”
    I didn’t want to tell her I had nowhere to go. A figure appeared across the street and she backed up. “Oh, great. Here comes the knight in shining armor.” She jabbed her finger at me. “This is your fault. He probably heard you yelling your head off.”
    I backed up into the shadows of the gate. The “knight in shining armor” crossed the street. “Everything okay, Char?”
    â€œIt was before you got here.”
    â€œThought I heard someone yell.”
    â€œIt was nothing.”
    I shifted against the cold iron. From my new position, the dirty yellow light of the street lamp fell over the newcomer. My breath caught. Blond hair, blue eyes …the memory was instant. Before I could stop myself, I moved out from the shadows. “Nate?”
    The boy turned, confusion written on his face. “Yeah?”
    â€œWhat—are you—doing here?”
    He squinted at me. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?”
    I stumbled back a step. “Ye—no,” I corrected myself. My insides twisted and turned with something other than pain, other than the Catch; something I had never felt before. Something I had read about in books and dreamed of but never experienced.
    He didn’t know me. And I— Georgie —didn’t know him. But Jane Doe did. She knew everything about him, and now I did too. I could feel it all around the heart, the knowledge of him imprinted there.
    She didn’t just know him. She loved him.

Love shook my heart
    Like the wind on the mountain
    Rushing over the oak trees.
    â€”Sappho

Chapter Six
    The boy, Nate— how did I know his name? —turned to Char. “Who’s your friend?”
    She shrugged. “No one. Never seen her before.” She whipped around to face me, hands on her hips. “And I hope I never see her again.”
    â€œI–I’m sorry…” Shaking my head, I edged away from them along the iron fence. I had to get away from them, from him . I had to get someplace where I could feel myself and not her .
    Nate stepped closer to me, light from the street lamp bisecting his face. “Are you okay? Do you need some help?”
    â€œNo, I’m fine.”
    He blocked my path, his eyes narrowed at me. “Are you sure? Because I can help.”
    Char snorted. We both glanced at her. She was facing away from us, looking down the empty street. “You two are really cramping my style. Why don’t you take your little Batman-and-Robin routine someplace else?”
    â€œI just wanted to check in with you, Char.”
    â€œYeah?” Char spread her arms wide.