Burn by Monica Hesse Read Free Book Online

have it, honestly, except video files take up so little space, I guess there was no need to throw them away.”
    A herd of footsteps sounded from behind. Lona was vaguely aware of bodies pressing around her. The track team, a dozen girls in matching colors. One of them turned to give Lona an irritated look. She was still sitting on the ground, blocking the entire path.
    â€œIt’s probably nothing,” Talia said again. “It’s old, and probably too dark to see much. Lona?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œTell me you understand.”
    Probably nothing still meant possibly something.
    â€œLona, tell me you understand.”
    It was more than she’d had five minutes ago.

9
    Lona leaned her forehead against the cool of the glass, watching the trees outside speed into a blur of green. She’d barely made the train, sprinting onto the last car just before it pulled out of the campus’s station.
    â€œYour card didn’t go through. Miss?”
    She looked up. A man with a mustache and a blue uniform was standing in the aisle. “When you went through the turnstile,” he explained. “You went too fast – the machine couldn’t deduct payment from your card.”
    â€œOh. I’m sorry.” She dug her train pass out of her pocket and handed it to the conductor, who swiped it with his mobile reader.
    â€œYou should never run to catch a moving train,” he reprimanded her. “Take my mother’s advice – if she ever saw someone do that, she’d say, ‘Well, he must be late for his accident.’”
    â€œAre we almost to the Forest Glen stop?”
    He shook his head in irritation. “Half an hour. Be more careful.”
    She watched him stride into the next car, and the realization of what she’d done began to sink in. Talia had told her not to come, but she’d insisted on it anyway, leaving the pond and running straight to the train. And Fenn – she cringed with guilt when she thought of Fenn. He was probably standing at the duck pond entrance, alone, waiting to hear about her interview. She’d left without even telling him – how could she have done that?
    She pulled out her phone to remedy at least that small thing.
Something came up with Talia
, she typed, feeling like the apology deserved full sentences.
I caught an earlier train. I’m sorry.
    How many truths was she omitting now? That she’d started looking for her mother again? That she went to visit Warren when she said she was running errands for school? That she was having bad dreams, of a man she’d never met? Fenn would never lie to her this way. She thought of him again, waiting for her under the pine trees, holding his binder full of transcripts.
I’m sorry
, she typed again.
    â€œI told you not to come,” Talia said when she opened the door. Lona was worried she was annoyed, but after a second she sighed and beckoned Lona into the living room, where Gabriel was playing with blocks on the floor.
    â€œLona!” He pointed proudly to the tower in front of him. “I made a castle!”
    â€œHi, Gabriel,” she said mechanically. She was too jittery to summon the right excitement.
    â€œHelp me?”
    â€œHey, dude.” Talia crouched to his level. “Let’s relocate this building project upstairs, okay? Lona can’t play right now.” Lona knew she should offer to help move the toys, but all she could do was stare at the television mounted on a stand across from the couch. Next to it was an antiquated machine, the type Lona hadn’t seen since Julian was little. Talia must have requested it in order to play the footage. Inside the machine would be a disc. On the disc would be her mother.
    â€œIt’s all set up?”
    Halfway up the stairs, Talia stopped. “I’ll be down in just a minute, after I get him situated. If you want to wait—”
    â€œI just press play, right?”
    â€œAre you