Guilty by Proximity

rhythm of it-steady, then not, then steady again in a way that m

new their dad kept standing up, pacing a few steps, then sitting back down again. He knew something was wrong. What he didn't understand was why nobody would tell him what was happe

not because of anything dramatic about it, but because of how carefully composed it was. How

membered Milo's hand tightening in he

and for a while after, like saying it explained anything. It

arm went off at 6:15, an

ll, pulling a shirt over her head one

a good

t something that isn'

him, and it clearly w

orway, six years old and holding up two socks that did

th socks. P

don't

to be looking at

a much older person weighing an important dec

ting cereal directly out of the box like a raccoon, which was

ble," he said,

rning to

planning to scare people t

grabbed a handful out of the

cereal." Milo

fourte

more financially re

whole other conversation happening. The one where Milo correctly clocked that today was one of those days for her, the kind that came around eve

nder the sugar bowl, the way he always did

money fo

you t

y 7, may

on the other end of a text message these days, which wasn't the same a

could start a second bowl, and put the whole hospital hal

r Hollow High, the morning r

re first period even started. Hazel had four minutes to get to homeroom and a blog post due by lunch that she hadn't finish

king to two guys from the lacrosse team, laughing at something in that easy way he had tha

od, insuffer

." She ke

t being asked, the way he always did, like the sidewalk belonged to both of them by defau

something you half-remembered fro

ar

cur

today. I'll even let you go first, s

anything from

still can't walk past me

sed with himself. It had been like this since freshman year, since a teacher who should've known better paired them up for a debate unit and discovered, disastro

orse. They'd been keeping score ever since. Ranks. Rounds. Who got the last word in AP Gov. It didn't mean an

fee in one hand and a stack of ungraded quizzes in the other, l

You should pitch the mill story to the paper too, not ju

that interesting yet.

ond longer than the comment required, the way he sometimes did-not intrusive, just present, the way almo

t fa

get this ti

the noise in her head that wasn't home and wasn't Milo and wasn't something she could hand to her dad on top of everything else he was already carry

mill tonight for the vote piece.Shou

o happen." He said it lightly, already moving on down the hall tow

tomorro

way, that it was the last

*

ith her camera slung over her s

was supposed

yone asked what she was doing out here alone after dark. The vote was Thursday. She wanted the mill the

than she liked under her boots. The mill sat black against a bruised sky, windows like missing teeth. S

she s

nse of at first-a shape too still, too wrong, half-lit by the flashlight he'd dropped beside him. She almos

't get t

eard from him. Not once, not since freshman year,

d to call someo

round before she

le, falling certainty, exactly whose jacket t

ng. Liam's hands were shaking. Her own voice sounded oddly calm a