Page 166 of On His Mind

I shake my head.

“Percy.”

“I sat outside her building.”

Nobody laughs. That’s how I know how bad it is.

“We need her on that trip,” Stanley says. “This is do or die now. Call her.”

I look at Blue, because Blue is the one who’ll say it’s a bad idea. Blue’s been the brakes on this whole thing since the bags hit the table.

Blue nods. Once.

I look at Benson. Benson’s staring at my phone like he’s waiting for me to call her.

“It’s in the middle of the night,” I say. It’s not. It’s almost one. “Her lights are off. She’s sleeping.”

“Like that ever stopped you before.”

“She leaves tomorrow?” I ask, not believing it.

Stanley nods and smacks Blue in the arm with the back of his hand. “Tell him, man. Why am I always the only one talking in this house?”

Blue looks at me. “It’s true.”

I go down the hall and shut my door behind me. I sit on the edge of my bed in my coat with snowmelt running down the back of my neck, and I open my phone and find her name.

I hit FaceTime before I can think about it.

My heart’s going like a puck off the boards, back and forth, back and forth.

It rings.

And rings.

And rings.

And then it stops ringing, because there’s only so long a phone will ring for someone who isn’t going to answer it.

I sit there and look at my own face on the screen. Red nose. Wrecked eyes. A guy who walked miles in the cold to look at a window.

I go back out into the hall and shake my head at the guys who are waiting. I walk out to the living room and look back at my phone. I check my screen to see if she’s calling back. She’s not.

Stanley claps his hands together, one loud crack that makes Rowan flinch. “Alright. You heard the man. We’re doing this shit tonight.”

Benson blows out a long breath. “I’d rather wake up early.”

Rowan raises two fingers without taking his chin off the blanket. “Same.”

“Fine.” Stanley points at all of us, one at a time, like he’s assigning positions. “Everybody up before the sun. And I mean up, not lying there with your eyes open. We have to be ready before she wakes up.”

“You can’t be serious,” I say.

They’re already peeling off toward their rooms. Blue claps my back on the way past. Rowan trails his blanket up the stairs.

Stanley stops in front of me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Be ready,” he says. “It’s gonna be unforgettable.” He walks off. “Get some sleep. See you in the morning.”