Dodge Mason // Mystery Boy

32

As we leave, Heather gets confronted by Ray and Dodge pulls me aside.

"You told them about Dayna?" He asks sternly.

"What?"

"My individual challenge? How did they know? You're the only person... Stay away from me," he starts to walk away.

"Dodge, let me explain!" I call out.

"Explain what? I guess we were both liars, huh?"

"I had to!" I cry out. He leaves me there standing and all I can do is watch him get in the car.

~

I wait anxiously at home for Heather to call at some point to tell me about her challenge. Her challenge decides who will be facing Dodge in the joust. This summer has been all too much. I don't even know how to make sense of it anymore. Even when I try to simplify it I can't paint a clear picture. We joined Panic. Did some challenges. I met a boy who I thought was real but was actually working with Cortez to bring down Luke who, allegedly, paralyzed Dayna and has been gambling on this whole thing. This is all so crazy. The crazier part is how I've managed to hide all this from my mom and from Kai. I don't think I can do this anymore. The more I think about the money and my life the less it seems worth it. But I've already come so fucking far. To give up now would be a disservice to me. To my future. If Panic even lets me have one. This shit was never a game and I knew that, but... damn, we're playing for our years. The stress of this summer alone has surely cost me some already.

I head outside in our backyard to sketch. I flip through my pages and look at all the ones I've done of my dad. What I remember of him. The good times, before the hospital. My mom and Kai in the kitchen. Heather asleep in class, drooling, snoring. Natalie as a movie star with star sunglasses and a feather boa. Bishop as a superhero (the biggest juxtaposition in here). Kai's old pet lizard. Horses. Dodge. The sketches in here make me tear up. I haven't looked at them like this in a long time. I don't even know what to sketch anymore. I draw me. I draw me jumping off the cliff. Walking the crossing. Running away from Spurlock's. Looking out of the window from inside of the burning Graybill house. As I draw, the sketches get messier and messier as my hand gets heavier. When I'm done, I don't even look at the drawings. I just close the book and head inside tossing it on my desk. I lie on my bed and cry. I just look up and cry. My phone rings. I pick it up without even looking.

"Heather?" I ask worried.

"Uh no, this is Dodge," I hear making my heart drop and my eyes widen.

"Wha— why are you calling me?" I ask stunned.

"I talked to Dayna," he answers.

"Oh. Okay?"

"Did you know that Dayna and Natalie were friends?"

"What? No? Dodge, what is going on?"

"Natalie asked Dayna to meet with her and Dayna saw her Panic folder. She's the one who set up my challenge. She's one of the judges."

"Oh my God," My jaw drops. "And I told her everything because she's my best friend," I breathe out. I shut my eyes tightly and hope when they open I'll be somewhere else, anywhere else. "That's why she got disqualified. Judges can play but they can't win, but if she didn't play we would've known," I piece it all together.

"Have you heard from Heather about her challenge yet?" he asks.

"No not yet, I've been worried sick."

"Can you meet me here? At my place?" he asks after clearing his throat.

"Right now?" I raise my brows.

"Yeah, or just whenever today," he offers.

"Um, yeah I can start walking right now," I answer. I didn't even really think about it. It's like I forgot all the betrayal. Like I almost don't care about it because this is all too messy to figure out where the hurt is. Of all people, Dodge is the easiest to talk to right now and I don't know what to do with that. Talk to him I guess.

"I'll see you soon," he says before hanging up. I head over.