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One

Evie

It started with a phone call at one o’clock in the

I’d put my pillow over my head to block out my rootone,over nize the number “Hello?”

A strange man’s voice on the other end said, “Evie Bates?”

“Yes?” I croaked, half into my pillow in my dark bedroom

“Is your boyfriend a guy named Josh Brantwell?”

“Yes” I sat bolt upright, shoving my hair back “Oh my God, is he okay?”

“Not for long”

Theover a bar band all night, and I could hear the faint sounds of street noise in the background I had never heard that voice before, and for a second I got a strange chill down my spine, like a premonition of doom

“What?” I said “What are you talking about?”

There was a pause Then the ain, dark and cold “Look, Evie Bates, I realize this is probably bad news, but I’o beat your boyfriend to a pulp”

For a second, the words didn’t co up in the dark in my old pajama top

“It’s going to be bloody I just thought I should warn you first”

“Is this a joke?” It didn’t sound like a joke It sounded like soers didn’t phone their victied unless he was out on the street somewhere, when I knew exactly where he was He was—

“No joke,” the strange ht now And I’o mess him up”

That stopped irl at Josh’s place,” I said stupidly “He’s there alone”

“You sure about that?” the ht And she came here” He rhymed off an address that made my stomach drop to the floor “Resident is one Josh Brantwell”

“What is she doing there?” I said

“Fucking him, I presume,” the man said bluntly “I’o in there and give hi But I looked hiirlfriend So hey, Evie Bates, your asshole of a boyfriend is cheating on you I thought you should know”

“I—” I couldn’t think, couldn’t speak Josh? “I—”

“Well?” the man said

“I have no idea what you’re talking about”

“Yeah,” the es, a towel,up

For a second I stared at the wall of my bedroom, my mouth open