Cartwheel by Jennifer Dubois Read Free Book Online

said Lily, and did. She stayed there for thirty seconds, then carefully brought her head back up. “There was also some blood on the floor.”
    “Some blood?” said Andrew casually. “Like, how much?” He wanted to stop with the questions, but he could not. At any rate, Lily seemed to be used to them.
    “Like, not very much,” said Lily. “I thought maybe she’d cut herself. Or had her period and bled coming out of the shower or something. It wasn’t like her not to notice, though.”
    “But you didn’t see her?”
    “The door was closed. I thought she was still asleep. I went and got some cheese from the fridge and sat on the couch for a few hours watching some game show. I was pretty hungover, to be honest. I fell asleep for a while. When I woke up, it was much later—like maybe almost four. Excuse me.” She put her head down again. Andrew went to her and tried to wrap his arm awkwardly around her shoulder, but she shook him off. Anna tried, and Lily accepted this.
    “I just keep thinking about her lying there, while I was napping on the couch.”
    “Don’t think about it,” said Anna.
    “You try it,” said Lily. She sounded like herself, almost. She sat up. “So I got up. I felt really weird. Like, massively thirsty, but also weirdly emotionally, like, fragile. It wasn’t getting dark at all yet, but I just felt this kind of permanent emptiness in the house. I don’t know. I went down to the bedroom. I wanted to find Katy. I wanted to see if she wanted to go for a walk or something. Get out of that house. The door was still closed. And outside the door, there was a blood footprint. It seemed enormous, like it was from some kind of monster. And it was so detailed on the white carpet. Like, you could see each ridge on thesole of the sneaker. I screamed and ran into the room. She was lying in the middle of the floor with a towel over her head. I think I knew she was dead. I went over to her and pulled the towel off. Her face was turned to the side. Her lips were blue. I tried to give her CPR for like one second and her lips were so cold and I got her blood on my face.”
    Lily was shaking so hard that she was moving Anna’s arm along with her shoulders. Andrew tried putting his arm around her again, and this time, she allowed it.
    “I was totally bawling by this point. I ran out of there and over to Sebastien’s and then we called the police. Then the cops came and we were locked out of the house. The Carrizos couldn’t get a flight until the next day. I called Mom. Sebastien took me to buy a toothbrush. He was going to let me stay with him. I spent the whole night puking, I don’t know why. And then the next day they came for me and brought me here.”
    Outside the door, the guard was telling them two minutes, which was unbelievable. Andrew hadn’t done anything yet, and he especially hadn’t done the most crucial thing.
    “Lily.” He grabbed her hands so hard that he could feel the slight accordioning of her bones. What he wanted to say was
Wait a minute. Just wait one goddamn minute here
. As though the issue was only that things were going too fast. As though he could manage it, no problem, if he just had thirty seconds to sit still and really think about it. “How are they treating you?”
    “I don’t know if I should say.”
    “Tell me.”
    “I have to pee in front of the guards.”
    “I know.”
    “There’s no trash can. There’s no running water except the shower. There’s no fork. The toothpaste doesn’t work.”
    “It doesn’t
work
?” said Andrew.
    “We’ll get you real toothpaste,” said Anna.
    “Can you get me real tampons?”
    “
Real
tampons?” said Andrew.
    The guard had entered the room and was standing, with quiet obtrusiveness, in the corner.
    “Yes,” said Anna, emphatically.
    “What are real tampons?”
    “Dad.”
    “The shower is freezing,” said Lily. “I mean,
freezing
. I swear they’re doing it on purpose.”
    The guard was upon her, and he