Finding Abbey Road by Kevin Emerson Read Free Book Online

you have one?”
    Caleb nods. “Mom and my grandmother took me to Italy when I was thirteen. You?”
    â€œMexico vacation,” I say. “Do you think Val does?”
    â€œI’ll ask her.” Caleb types into his phone.
    I check the time. “We should be back by the end of school. If we talk to Matt, then go talk to your mom and Randy. . . . Then we try my parents tonight. Worst case, they say no and you go without me.”
    Caleb wraps his arm around me. “There’s no way I’m going without you.”
    We kiss, and the warmth of it beats back the drumming of my nerves. “We could leave by Wednesday,” I say hopefully. “We could be in London by the end of the week.”
    Caleb nods. “I’d say this is crazy, but, what hasn’t been in all this?”
    I kiss him again, and our faces stay together for a minute, breathing each other’s air. “All we can do is try.”
    2:24 p.m.
    We walk past the main school doors just as the first students are rushing out. I already feel like a foreigner, like we’ve forever broken the bonds that keep us trapped in orbit around Mount Hope High day after day.
    Everyone is chatting, laughing, rushing to the next thing. Part of me wishes my biggest worry today was band practice, or a PopArts project, or where Caleb and I were going on our next date. Classic senior year stuff. We pass my old friends, Jenna, Callie, and the rest, with a couple guys I don’t know. I have this weird feeling, a sort of vague itch, like all of them bother me, or like I feel left out? Which doesn’t really make sense. But I’ve given up on expecting all my feelings to make sense at this point. None of us make eye contact as I walk by.
    Caleb and I head for the Green Room, staying outside school, buffeted by the exodus. I keep flipping back and forth between thinking we can pull off finding Eli and thinking it’s insane. But if I’ve learned anything these past few months, it’s that sometimes you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and not worrying about the what-ifs. There’s a very good chance this won’t work out, but until it’s actually dead, there’s still a chance.
    The Green Room is already crowded when we arrive, but I see that the hierarchy of bands still applies, and that despite our current troubles, Dangerheart’s table by theespresso bar remains vacant. Waiting for us.
    As we cross the room, I hear a few whispers amidst the usual din: Denver, New York, she ran away . . . It’s gossip but, in a way, the band might be even more revered, now that our road trip adventures have leaked out.
    The question is, will any of the other members show up?
    A few minutes later we get our answer: Matt, yes. Jon, no.
    â€œHey, Matty,” I say, giving him a gentle hug before he sits down. His eye is still purple and swollen; so’s his nose. Two butterfly bandages cross his eyebrow, a couple stitches beneath that. It’s like an abstract artist has attacked his boyish features.
    â€œHi.” He notices me noticing. His voice is muffled from the swelling.
    â€œHow are you feeling?” Caleb asks.
    Matt smiles, but the injuries make it lopsided. “Not bad. The headaches have mostly gone away. Except for the headache that is my pissed-off parents.”
    â€œThey weren’t happy, huh?”
    Matt laughs, but then winces, as if laughing hurts. “Randy called them from the ER, once we knew it was serious enough that I needed stitches and scans and stuff. So, they were prepared, and they even bought the story that I slipped on icy steps, but when they actually saw me last night? Yeah, they still freaked out.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” I say.
    Matt nods. “It’s okay. So . . . ,” he starts but then glances up and pauses.
    Maya Barnes is at the front of the espresso line. She leans on the counter, eyes straight ahead, face