“Is that what Clements said or is that what you’re saying?”

Her dad shifted his jaw again, then said, “The other thing is the note could’ve been a prank. When I got home before a bunch of kids were playing football in the street, right in front of the house. The police are talking to them to see if they saw anything, but one of them could’ve done it. Justin Green was there. I remember his parents were having some discipline problems with him a few years ago; he almost got expelled from school. They even asked me if I could suggest a good child psychologist and I gave them a referral.”

It was amazing how her dad could make up these stories; it was even more amazing that he actually believed them.

“I guess anything’s possible,” she said and lay down again.

“But look,” he added, “I just want you to know, there’s nothing to worry about.”

She thought, Yeah, nothing except that some maniac wants to kill you.

He continued, “You might’ve noticed the police car outside. The cops’ll be there all night and all day tomorrow. Twenty- four- hour protection.”

“What about tomorrow night?” Marissa asked.

“They’ll probably be out there for the next night or two. Mom wants to get private security, and maybe, just to make her feel better, we’ll do that. But there’ll probably be an arrest by then and this whole thing will be moot.”

He stood up, and she saw him noticing her bong, which was out in plain view on her desk, right next to her laptop.

“I threw out all my pot,” she said.

This was true. She’d thrown out the dime bag this morning.

“So, did you have fun tonight?” her father asked.

She remembered Darren grabbing her arm, her screaming at the cabdriver to pull over.

“Yeah,” she said. “It was okay.”

“That’s good,” he said. Then, after several seconds of awkward silence, he said, “Well, good night,” and left her alone.

Marissa was still thinking about the cab ride, how she’d totally freaked.

She stirred for a long time and finally fell asleep.

She dreamed about Prague. She had never actually been there, but she’d seen enough pictures of the cobblestone streets, the buildings, the castle, the Charles Bridge, to know that she was specifically in Prague and not some other Eastern Europe an city. She was happy in the dream, hanging out, playing guitar, getting wasted. So what if she didn’t know how to play a single chord on a guitar- the dream still felt real.

She woke up, disappointed to be in her bed in her house in Forest Hills, and thought, Why not just pack up and go? What was stopping her from doing something radical like that? She had no job, no boyfriend, no responsibilities. And going to Prague would solve two problems: It would get her far away from her parents and all of their problems, and she’d be able to afford to live on her own. She still had about six thousand dollars left over from the trust fund her grandparents- her mom’s parents- had left her. That was two months’ rent at a decent apartment in Manhattan, but in Prague she could probably last six months or longer, especially if she lived in a hostel or some kind of cheap housing.

She went online and Googled “moving to Prague” and viewed pictures of the city- eerily, her dream had been almost dead- on-and read all about relocating, becoming increasingly psyched. She was so sure of her plan that she posted a blog entry entitled i’m moving to prague.

When she went downstairs, her mom was frantically vacuuming. It was obvious that her mom had a lot of manic energy today, but Marissa didn’t know if it was because she was worried about the break- in or if it had to do with her affair with Tony the trainer or both. When Marissa asked her if she was okay she mumbled, “Fine,” but barely made eye contact. Later on, when Marissa went downstairs to do some laundry, her mom was lying on a couch, covered by a shawl, watching a soap opera. With her dad acting so deluded and her mom acting so weird, Marissa felt like she was living with two mental patients.

She couldn’t wait to escape to Prague.

Marissa was still upset about Gabriela but was trying not to think about it too much and was resisting searching for information about the murder. She figured if there was any major news- if there’d been an arrest- her mother or father would let her know, and reading about it would only upset her even more. She also was afraid she’d stumble on some new embarrassing article about her father that would make her want to contemplate a name change. Instead she focused on happier things- Prague and, more immediately, her plans to go out tonight. Tone Def was playing a set at ten at Kenny’s Castaways, and there was no way Marissa was missing it. She was planning to meet Sarah, Hillary, and Hillary’s work friend Beth at the Bitter End for drinks at six. She’d also been exchanging text messages with Lucas, the bass player from Tone Def she’d hooked up with that one time, and Lucas had invited her and her friends to hang out at some place on the Lower East Side after their set. Marissa was looking forward to having a fun night out with her friends and then hopefully hooking up with Lucas, maybe going back to his place.

She left the house looking very sexy, very rock ’n’ roll, in preripped skinny jeans, a low- cut T-shirt showing her angel tattoo, knee- high black leather boots, chunky tribal wood earrings, and dark, gothicky lipstick, which contrasted nicely with her pale skin. She met her friends for drinks, and then a few people wanted to eat, so they went up the block to some cheap Vietnamese place and then over to Kenny’s. Marissa had a nice buzz and didn’t want to lose it, so she suggested doing shots of schnapps to celebrate.

“Celebrate what?” Hillary asked.

“Me moving to Prague,” Marissa said like it was obvious.

Sarah and Beth wouldn’t do the shots, but Marissa and Hillary did. Now

Marissa had a really good buzz going; she was even close to being drunk. An annoying retro punk band called I’m Bernadette was finishing their set, and the place was filling up for Tone Def, who had a big cult following. Marissa made her way through the crowd toward the stage, wanting to say hi to Lucas. Naturally there were a lot of Vassar people in the crowd- there was just no escaping them- and she stopped and had a short conversation with Megan, Caitlin, and Alison. Then she spotted Darren, sitting with Zach Harrison at a table off to the right. She couldn’t believe Darren was actually here, what a total asshole. She knew he only came because he’d heard she’d be here; he didn’t even like Tone Def. What was it going to take for him to get the freaking point?

She went past Darren’s table toward the stage, where Tone Def had started setting up. She wanted Darren to see her with Lucas and get jealous as hell.

“Hey, where’s Lucas?” Marissa asked Julien, Tone Def ’s drummer. “Hey, how you doin’?” Julien said. “Dunno, he’s around somewhere.”

“I think I saw him going into the bathroom,” a guy plugging in an amp said distractedly.

Marissa went to the area outside the men’s room and waited. A few guys went in and out, but there was no sign of Lucas. Meanwhile, there was a line forming outside the women’s room. Marissa didn’t want to go back to the area in front of the stage, knowing Darren would come up to her, so she remained outside the bathroom.

A girl banged on the women’s room door, saying, “Come on already.”

Another couple of minutes went by then Lucas came out of the bathroom with his arm around this drugged- out girl with long, messy red hair. His jeans were partially unzipped and her lipstick was all smeared, as if there was any doubt what had gone on in there.

Marissa would’ve walked away if she had the chance, but Lucas and the girl were walking right past her. Lucas’s eyes widened when he saw her, then he said, “Hey,” and he and the girl continued toward the stage.