vii
They meet in a coffee shop down the street from the bookstore where the barista gives him a weird look when he just orders tea. Ginny couldn't get out of the house until almost 8:00 so Todd waits in a corner booth, drinking his tea and googling the crap out of Mumford and Sons. He still doesn't know a lot about them other than there's a GIF of a cartoon character dramatically playing a lute everyone associates them with. The hard thing is without Ginny, Todd really doesn't know what he's supposed to be looking for. Is it something to do with the members? Is it something in a lyric? Or maybe it's more straightforward than that...again.
Ginny shows up at 8:24 looking flustered. "Sorry," She says sliding into the booth beside Todd, "My mom was all on my case, she's like 'I thought you weren't going to prom?' and I'm like 'I'm not I'm going out to meet Todd' and she's like 'who's Todd?' and I'm like 'Just some guy' and then she gave me a box of condoms and told me to 'be safe'." Ginny sighs, "She tries to be cool and progressive but sometimes I wish she would just like go to bridge club and ignore me like they did in the old days."
"Trust me, that's not fun." Todd says taking a sip of his tea, long gone cold.
"You know in a movie this would be the part where we get zapped by lightning and change bodies. Then we'd both have a deeper empathy for each other and their be a crappy soundtrack and everything."
"Uh, right." Todd says, "Now speaking of soundtracks, Mumford and Sons?"
Ginny nods, "Oh yeah, sorry. I'm going to assume since this is Neil it's going to be a physical thing it'll be either the CD's themselves or maybe his i-Pod. Which means we're going to have to get into his room."
"What?"
"Look it's not a big deal, I've done it a million times before," Ginny fiddles with something out of her coat pocket, "I actually have a key so we're not technically breaking in."
"That's still entering."
"I don't think the Perry's will call the cops on us." She frowns, "Actually yeah they might do that. So that just means we have to be extra careful not to get caught."
"I dunno..." Todd fiddles with his empty cup, breaking into the school with Neil was one thing but breaking into Neil's house was a whole new neighbourhood of danger. Especially since they'd have to be careful not only to steer clear of Neil's parents but his own as well.
"Look, I know this is kind of sketchy and maybe more than a little insane. But Neil left you these clues on purpose and he made it so I'd get involved too and we can't just ignore that. I don't know what this is all leading to but we have to follow it through to the end."
Todd sighs, "Okay, okay, fine. But only because I want to find Neil."
Ginny pulls a napkin out of the dispenser. "Okay so here's the plan. I'll sneak in the backdoor with my key and get the CD's and his i-Pod- if he left it behind which I doubt but who knows -and you can keep a watch from your house." She says drawing a sketch on the napkin.
"Was a diagram really necessary? That's a pretty straightforward plan." Todd says.
"Maybe I'm making a scrapbook."
"That seems a bit unlikely seeing as having a detailed account of the crime you're going to commit is a pretty sure fire way to get arrested."
Ginny pouts, "Now you're going to tell me I have to throw out my murder photo albums!" The barista darts a glance over at them and looks away quickly.
"Great, now the barista thinks we're serial killers."
"He does not. He probably just thinks we're writing a screenplay. Isn't that what people in coffee shops do?"
"Yeah but usually those people have laptops." Todd deadpans. Ginny just grins and Todd decides he needs to stop spending so much time with people who seem to get a real thrill out of breaking and entering. Honestly he'd call a stop to the whole thing if it weren't for the memory of Neil on the roof that morning. How sad he'd sounded. How lost. Todd hadn't done anything then and now he has a way to set things straight. Or at least that's what he's hoping.
Ginny insists on ordering a mocha latte before they leave and the barista gives her the stinkeye. "He definitely thinks you're a serial killer." Todd says buckling his seatbelt and turning the keys in the ignition.
"That's fairly statistically unlikely given my age, sex and socio-economic status." Ginny says taking off the lid of her drink and blowing on it, "I'd be one hell of an outlier."
"Don't spill!" Todd says eyeing her open drinking warily.
"Because we definitely wouldn't want to ruin this quality upholstery. It's like the 1990's threw up."
Todd opens his mouth to defend his van's interior, but it's accurate enough that he doesn't have much of a comeback. He does arguably have the worst car of anyone at their high school. But it's not like he really has much of a desire to be driving around a BMW with an all-white leather interior like Richard Cameron got last year for his birthday. (As previously mentioned it was not Cameron himself who gave off the air of douchebaggery but rather the unfortunate set of facial expressions he was limited to by his bone structure and his car, which has been named by Charlie Dalton, the Douche-Mobile).
"Gimme your phone." Ginny says as they idle at a red-light. Todd hands it over and watches out of the corner of his eye as she plugs something into it. "It's my number, that way you can call me if you see any suspicious activity."
"Suspicious activity? You mean like a girl breaking into the Perry's house."
She slaps him on the arm, "For the last time it's only entering. Besides I can always play the hysterical girlfriend card if I get caught."
"Ex-girlfriend" Todd murmurs and he doesn't know if Ginny doesn't hear him or just chooses not to respond but she's silent beside him as they drive.
"I think the best way to do this will be if you let me through your backyard and I go in through the backdoor. Mr. Perry's always in his office and that's got soundproofing. Mrs. Perry usually goes to bed pretty early so everything should be quiet. All I have to do is sneak up the backstairs and into Neil's room. You can watch from your house and make sure everything stays quiet."
Todd turns onto his street and glances at the Perry's house, Ginny is right everything looks pretty quiet. The light on in Mr. Perry's office and not much else. "I love this street." Ginny says, "It's the only one that really feels real in the whole subdivision."
"That's only because it's old." Todd says, "I'm sure when they were built everyone though it looked weird and fake. Time gives everything a false feeling of importance."
Ginny shrugs, her face pressed up against the window. "Maybe." She glances at the clock on the dashboard. "I was supposed to be at prom right now." She says, voice neutral.
"Yeah. I guess." Todd says not knowing how to respond.
"I wish I was there. Well, I mean no I don't actually. I wish I was there with Neil and everything was normal. Even though it obviously wasn't really normal if he packs up and runs away like that. I just wish-" She cuts herself off and shakes her head.
"You have no idea where he went?"
"Not really. I guess there's the whole New York thing, right? Like that's the whole dream you go to New York and everything's amazing and different. But I can't really see Neil in New York, I can't imagine him being in a place and just being a little blip, because he's Neil Perry and Neil Perry is not a blip."
"He wouldn't be a blip. Not even in New York. Not ever." Todd says clutching the steering wheel, and even though he means it, it feels like a lie.
They wait in the car, parked in the garage for almost two hours because Todd's paranoid about it not being dark enough. He half-reads Moby Dick which he had stashed in the backseat for some reason while watching Ginny play Angry Birds on her phone. It's almost 11:30 when she hops out of the car. "I think this will be dark enough." She says looking down at her brown t-shirt and dark-wash jeans. Todd can't help but think of Neil in his full-on ninja get up, could that really have only been three nights ago?
Already the picture of him is fading, getting hazy around the edges his imagination filling in the gaps. Todd doesn't want that to happen, doesn't want to loose what really happened between him a Neil and have a memory take it's place, made up of half truths and white lies.
Ginny opens the backdoor of the garage, "Call me if you see anything okay? I'll wait a few minutes so you can get into position." And then she's gone slipping out into the night.
Todd tries to be as quiet as he can climbing up the stairs so he can get to his old bedroom. The last thing he needs right now is his mother bothering him to fold laundry or his dad mad at him about some miniscule thing he did wrong. He winces when the door creaks, shutting it halfway behind him. The binoculars he had brought down the other night are still sitting on top of the bookshelf so he grabs them, searching for the outline of Ginny in the yard. He flicks the lamp on and then off again, like this is some made-for-tv spy movie. The room is dark and Todd fixes the binoculars on Neil's house.
Briefly he sees Ginny run across the yard getting caught in the light coming from a window and then she's gone again, hidden in the shadow cast by Neil's house. Todd places his phone on the window sill, easy access in case he needs to call Ginny. It flashes across his mind again how totally insane, not to mention illegal, this plan is, and for the first time he can feel himself getting angry at Neil.
Neil has always been selfish, always. Every since they were children Neil's problems, or the problems Neil cared about were always the most important ones. And now he's gone and Todd's scrambling after broken pieces searching for Neil, letting Neil's problems take over his life again. For a moment he considers calling Ginny and telling her to forget it. Neil can come home if he wants to, he is an adult after all, at least in the eyes of the law. Why are they wasting their time and energy dragging him back when he obviously wanted to leave?
But Todd doesn't do that. Because he loves Neil, which is pathetic or noble depending on how you look at it, and loving someone means loving the jagged edges too. Even if you might get cut on them in the process.
He catches a glimpse of Ginny as she moves around Neil's room. The lights are off so he can only see her shadow-y outline whenever she passes in front of the window. He holds up the binoculars, practically pressed up against the glass. The light in Mr. Perry's office is still on and it's the only one in the house from what Todd can tell.
Only then suddenly it's not and there's a light on in the hallway. Todd reaches for his phone, knocks it off the window sill and grapples for it on the floor cursing under his breath. He scrolls through his contacts in a panic and he has never been more grateful to not have that many people in his phone. His hands are shaking just a little and it rings twice before she picks up.
"Yeah?" Ginny whispers, "Todd?"
"Mr. Perry isn't in his office anymore."
"Shit. Shit! Okay I'm going to climb out through the window."
"What? No! Why? Just wait a minute."
"Look, I dunno where Mr. Perry is going to go and I'd rather not get trapped in Neil's room. Look it's easy, I'll just climb onto the roof-"
"I know how you can do it but it's a bad idea!" Todd hisses into the phone.
"I'll be over in a minute."
"Ginny-no!" But the line goes dead. Todd climbs to his feet and wretches the window open. Ten feet away Ginny is doing the same before pulling herself out, pushing the window mostly shut again with her feet and hauling herself onto the roof. Todd looses sight of her as she heads around to the back of the house so she can use the tree to get onto Todd's roof. The amount of dangerous climbing in his life has increased tenfold in the last week and it's not a pattern Todd likes very much.
There's a loud thump as Ginny hits the roof and her feet come kicking into the window. Unlike Neil she comes in backwards Todd grabbing onto her hips to help pull her through the window.
"Watch it." She warns.
"You know I'm gay right?" Todd says ignoring her and getting an arm around her waist to pull her in.
"Well this is awkward." Jeffery says from behind them and Todd whips around letting go of Ginny who falls backwards onto her ass on the carpet.
"This isn't what it looks like!" Todd says, panicked.
"Uh, and what exactly would that be? The thing that this looks like but isn't because I don't even know what I'm supposed to think this is." Jeffery says, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Omigod," Ginny says from the floor, "You're Jeffery Anderson."
"Um, yes?"
Ginny scrambles to her feet, "Oh wow. Hi! Uh, I don't think you remember me, I'm Ginny. Chet's sister?"
"Oh, yeah. Sure. How's it going Ginny?"
"Good. Great!" She rubs her hands together nervously, "You go to Yale right?"
"Yeah. Poli-sci." Jeffery says but he's looking at Todd, his eyebrows raised in an obvious 'what-the-fuck-is-going-on?' kind of look.
"Oh wow. Great." Ginny says smoothing her hair down over and over. Tucking it behind her ears and untucking it nervously.
"Ginny." Todd says, not able to stand the awkwardness for a second longer. "How about I drive you home?"
"Yes. Great. Amazing. Best idea ever Todd-o." Ginny babbles letting herself be led by Todd into the hallway and down the stairs.
Jeffery stands at the top looking down at them, the confused expression still plastered onto his face.
"What the hell was that?" Todd asks once they're safely in the mini-van.
Ginny flushes and ducks her head, "I'm sorry it's just I mean. God, Jeffery Anderson. I remember he gave us a tour of the high school when I was in eight grade and every girl just had a ridiculous crush on him. I mean Todd, you do know your brother is sort of a legend right?"
He gives her a sideways glance. "No, I've never once heard about the amazing exploits of Jeffery Anderson."
"I didn't say it like that." Ginny complains.
"You did! It's like you were meeting the President or something."
"He could be one day!"
"One can only hope." Todd deadpans. "Hello. Priorities. Did you find the stuff in Neil's room?"
Ginny bites her lip. "Well not, exactly. Actually, you should just pull over because there's no point going back to my house."
"Why not?" Todd asks, but he's already pulling over. "Please tell me they were there." Ginny doesn't say anything. "Ginny please tell me they were there!"
"Look okay, before you freak out, and you're already kind of freaking out. But before you freak out more I just want to say that I don't have the cds but I know where they are."
"You don't-" Todd starts darkly. "We need the- how are we supposed to find Neil and- You had one job!"
Ginny looks at him evenly. "Todd, seriously, bring it down like three notches; this is insane."
"We need the cds! We need the cds to find Neil! I have to find Neil because he wants me to find him and he could be in danger or need help!"
"I know! But the cds aren't in Neil's room." Ginny says, well half-shouts really.
"Then where are they!" Todd snaps.
Ginny raises one eyebrow and jerks her head towards the house they've stopped across from.
"Oh god no." Todd says.