The Night She Disappeared

Mrs. Klug greets Drew kindly, but he suspects that she is noticing his worn clothing and writing him off as a bad kid. Gabie’s father, Steve, behaves more coldly toward Drew. Gabie takes Drew up to her room, which is lined with collages and band posters. They bond over their shared love of the band Flea Market Parade.

Gabie admits that she needs to talk to someone about Kayla. Though the authorities seem sure she is dead, Gabie still can’t quite believe it. She asks Drew about death—whether he thinks it’s like sleep, or a “torture that goes on and on” (103). Gabie starts to shake, and Drew encircles her a hug. He reflects that it feels he is her protective brother—until Gabie kisses him.

Kissing Drew makes Gabie feel like she is “drowning or drugged” (104). She quickly pulls away and walks to her window, asking Drew to leave. She is realizing that she needs him, even though she’s always thought of herself as a person who doesn’t need other people. Her coworkers at Pete’s are like her friends and family, and now she’s worried that she has irreparably altered her friendship with Drew. On top of that, she knows her parents wouldn’t approve of their Stanford-bound daughter dating someone like Drew Lyle.

Drew joins Gabie at the window and comments that the darkening sky is turning cerulean. Gabie voices her surprise that he knows what the word means—to her, this is one of the heavy “reading words” that people rarely use in real conversation. This offends Drew, and he turns and leaves without another word.

Alone in her room, Gabie reads about the discoveries of various bodies, including that of missing 16-year-old Marissa Johns, who was found stuffed into a suitcase.

Kayla reflects that when she called Robertson “master” for the first time, she split into two girls—the subservient one, who obeys to protect her safety, and the other Kayla, who still kicks, screams, and fights, silently, on the inside. After Robertson leaves, she falls asleep and awakes to a paltry meal of a sandwich and apple on the floor. She turns on the TV, but it has no cable, and all the channels return static.

This chapter ends with an evidentiary search warrant for the residence of Cody Renfrew. The warrant is issued so that the police can look for evidence relating to the Kayla Cutler case, including: “the human remains of Kayla Cutler” (11).

At school the next morning, all Drew can think about is kissing Gabie. He wonders why someone like her would kiss him, “the straight-C stoner” (112). He’s still deeply hurt by the way Gabie responded to his comment about the cerulean sky.

When class lets out, Drew makes his way to Pete’s. Gabie is there when he arrives. She tries to apologize for the previous night, but Drew doesn’t want to hear it, so she moves on to talking about Kayla. She’s still certain Kayla’s alive. Drew argues that the bloody rock and the fast speed of the river point to Kayla being dead, but he realizes that Gabie must believe Kayla is alive because Kayla’s fate was originally meant for her. Drew and Gabie get to work, but Drew is distracted by the memory of kissing her.

When she works at Pete’s, Gabie can slip in and out of different personas. Today, she works like a machine, distracting herself from Kayla with intense efficiency. She pushes through the dinner rush, but as the flow of customers slows, she recalls the way her parents grilled her after Drew left, asking about his future and whether he knew anything about Kayla’s disappearance. Mrs. Klug had asked if Drew was “a special friend of Kayla’s” (120). Gabie believed her mom was accusing Drew of involvement and yelled at her, but then realized that her mom was afraid she’d hurt Drew when she moved for college. Now, Gabie realizes that she herself is worried that Drew will hurt her.

Robertson enters Pete’s Pizza, where Gabie is working the register. She greets him with a bright smile, and they engage in some playful banter. Last time he visited Pete’s, Robertson stole Gabie’s pen and slipped it into his pocket next to his X-Acto knife. In his car afterward, he ran the pen between his lips, thinking of Gabie. The staff at Pete’s know him as a vegetarian, but when he made the call to lure Gabie, he ordered three meat-lover’s pizzas to throw them off. He believes the police would never look for a quiet vegetarian who builds architectural models for work.

Drew emerges from the walk-in fridge. Robertson is annoyed by the way Gabie smiles warmly at him. In retaliation, he brings up Kayla and says he is sorry for her disappearance. He still bears scratches from subduing Kayla and has had to cover them with makeup and lie to clients at work. At the mention of Kayla, Gabie’s face drains of color. Robertson suppresses a grin at the thought that Gabie has “no idea Kayla will have to die to make room for her” (123).

At Pete’s, everybody except Drew and Gabie has gone home. A woman calls in a to-go order, meaning that Drew will have to leave Gabie alone at the restaurant. He creates a makeshift door bar out of a plank of broken wood and instructs Gabie to barricade herself into the walk-in fridge if anybody suspicious enters the restaurant. Drew then takes off in Gabie’s Mini Cooper. He delivers the pizzas to the customer, an older woman who sympathetically asks whether Kayla has been found. Drew knows that if he fakes a big emotional reaction, he will get a good tip, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to believe that Kayla is still alive and suffering.