It’s midnight, and we’re kicking gravel in the neighborhood.
Next to me, he’s caught in a rhythm: head bobbing, fingers drumming, feet tapping to the bone-deep thrum of nearby rager music. An empty McDonald’s bag skitters across the road, dances with us before the wind whisks it past a row of parked cars.
Above us, the sky unfurls like a movie poster.
Everything is white; the snow coming down in sticky, territorial clumps, smothering the massive houses, the yards, this ritzy neighborhood road, and the whole damn tri-state area. I steer Angela, my complaining old maid of a black sedan, through the wet thickness and toward this last-minute job I agreed to. The cleaning company called when I was barely awake—and still a little drunk. Partying on a weeknight is never my best idea. But with the community college closed and all my classes cancelled today, even in my groggy state, making money seemed like a sound option. Until I hit these messy roads. Hardly anyone is out, and for good reason.
I try to stop myself, but I can’t resist checking my phone again. It’s summer, and I haven’t seen anyone in days. I’ve liked a hundred posts, and no one even cares if I’m alive?
Nothing. I set the phone down, then it dings, as if rewarding me for giving up hope. It’s a message from Jill. I haven’t seen her in weeks.
Did you hear what happened?
No?
A kid got shot by cops. A Black teenager. Everyone is going downtown to protest. Want to come? We can pick you up.
I think for a minute, thumbs paused. I don’t like crowds. I don’t like going into the city. And anyway, Dad will say no.
Sugar sits by the window, clutching the blanket, staring into the sky again. She’s barely moved since he took her baby. Sugar used to be sweet—annoyingly cheery, really—so much so, we’d roll our eyes at her, while secretly wishing we could share her lust for life. But now, she’s silent. Like nothing’s left but the empty carcass of the mother she’ll never get to be. Or at least she thinks she’ll never be. Her life will change, if tonight goes well. We didn’t tell Sugar the plan since she’s useless right now. She doesn’t know we’re gonna kill Troy.
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