Bronwyn gives Jo another day, and then she tells her everything she told Marshal. She can't stand the passes in the hall where Jo pretends she doesn't know her. She can't stand the whispers and then silence when either of the three of them walk into a room the other is in. The senior english class becomes her refuge, but she wishes it doesn't have to be.
"Why were you texting Donna that night?"
Bronwyn sighs. Jo's room is no longer a safe place but a hostile one. "I was going to meet up with Donna."
"You were going to make up?" Jo is slightly disappointed, more than she is worried that Donna got hit while going to see Bronwyn.
"No. I was done with her. She wanted to make up and wouldn't take no for an answer. So I told her to meet me at that bench at the intersection of Main and Crown."
"Almost diagonal from the cafe."
"That's why I was only watching her and didn't see the car."
"You knew it was Donna before I said it?" Jo has a pillow in between herself and Bronwyn as a buffer. Bronwyn sees it as the great wall of china.
Bronwyn nods her head.
"Another lie."
Bronwyn is tearing up now. "I'm so sorry Jo, but it makes me look so bad. Especially after that threatening note, knowing the hit was on purpose, and I knew where she was going to be that night."
"You could have told me that." Jo says exasperated. "Hello, best friend here."
"I was scared Jo, you were trying to figure out what happened and I thought if I told you that you'd suspect me." Bronwyn can't look Jo in the eye. "I only told Marshal because he saw the phone in my room."
"Marshal was in your room?"
Bronwyn plays with the fringe on Jo's comforter. "We were studying." She blushes.
"B." She looks up to Jo. "The biggest answer I was looking for was why Donna was out there that night and so focused that she didn't notice the car. Thank you for answering that."
"I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner."
"But don't you think the police need to know that too?"
"Jo." Bronwyn pleas, "they'll start questioning me again."
"Okay, okay, I don't want that either. But maybe you can delete your messages to her and give the phone back. It could have links to the person who did this to her."
"I keep forgetting this wasn't an accident." Bronwyn's look turns glassy. "You've probably made a list of suspects by now. Can I see it?"
Jo riffles through her nightstand and opens a notebook. "This is what I've got so far."
Bronwyn skims through the list quickly, there is one name she knows should be there but isn't.
"Jo, I-" Bronwyn's phone rings. "It's the hospital, I told them I'd like to visit Donna when she woke up from her nap."
"Oh sure, go ahead."
"We'll talk later, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Once again Bronwyn leaves Jo for Donna. Jo looks at her name on that list, she titled it Police Suspects so she had to put her own name on it. She is very guilty of hating Donna, but only two people knew that other than herself, and now three counting Scott.
"It kinda sucks that you lost your cell phone huh?" Bronwyn says to Donna, she's not sure what else to say.
"Totally. I feel like this is prison, but my mom says she'll get me a new one if my pink one doesn't turn up by tonight."
"Why tonight?"
"I'm getting out of here and going to school."
Bronwyn's eyes get wide. "D, you have a broken leg and a broken arm."
"Oh please, my right arm is fine, and people can push me around in my throne." Donna gives her signature smile.
"But what about that threat?"
Donna's smile fades. "Whoever sent that is a dead man walking. Dad pulled in every favor to get them." Her smile returns. "I'll be fine."
Blair is trying to keep her head down. School has been buzzing about her and Bronwyn and Jo, just like it was a year ago. Her friends have the sense not to ask her about it, but her mother is concerned and thinks she's being bullied.
On top of everything else the latest news from the police had gotten around and Blair can't get it out of her head.
