Mind Magic Read Free Page A

keep moving, Demi.”
    A virus?
    Her heartbeat picked up, but not with fear this time—with that little thrill she got when she found the answer to a hard problem. It wasn’t Amanda with the virus. It was Demi’s phone. Her phone must be infected with a virus that made it ping the cell towers even when it was in airplane mode. That’s how Mr. Smith had known she was coming here. He must have them tracking her phone. That wouldn’t be hard for him to arrange. He’d had more distance to travel than she had, but he hadn’t had to travel by bus and bicycle. He’d had time to figure out where she was going and get here before she did.
    All of a sudden she was at the door. Second bedroom on the right, Mr. Smith had said. This used to be Laura’s room. “Where’s Laura?”
    “California. She’s twenty now, so she isn’t with us anymore.”
    “Nicky’s twenty.”
    “Nick has made different decisions than Laura did. Do you want to see him or not?”
    Mr. Smith was so sure of himself. Demi was so . . . not. Her mouth was dry. Her hand shook a little when she raised it to knock.

TWO

    NICKY sat at the desk with a laptop in front of him. There was at least three days’ worth of bristles on his pale skin; his hair had needed a trim two months ago; his jeans were ragged, his feet bare. He wore the same black-framed glasses he always did. She’d seen that T-shirt dozens of times. On it, a cartoon cow and chicken held out a plate piled high with green peas.
    All in all, he looked scruffy, malnourished, and one step away from homeless. That was normal. The stony face he turned toward her with was not.
    Her gaze skittered away from that unwelcoming face to take in the room. It was barely big enough to hold the bed, the desk, and a chest of drawers, which was why it was one of the private bedrooms. It didn’t look like Nicky, either. None of his stuff was here. It couldn’t be, because everything was back at college or at his parents’ house.
    Almost everything. She still had his copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . He’d loaned it to her, and she hadn’t been able to bring herself to give it to his parents like she should have. “Nicky?” Her throat closed up. She couldn’t get another word out.
    “Shit.” He shoved back his chair and stood. “I should’ve known you’d pull something like this.”
    She felt worse than she had since Mama died.
    “Oh, God, now with the puppy dog eyes.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Listen, Demi, I’m fine, okay? I changed my mind about some stuff. No biggie. Mr. Smith told me you were out there trying to sneak in. What did you think, that I needed to be rescued?” He snorted. “If I had, you wouldn’t be my first pick. A team of commandos maybe—”
    “What are you talking about?” she burst out. “Your parents are worried sick! You just vanished without a word to anyone. Your advisor didn’t know where you were, and neither did Mike or Sean. You stopped coming to classes, and you left all your stuff, and—”
    “For crying out loud—look at my T-shirt! I wasn’t wearing it when I—when I left. And here. Look here.” He strode to the closet and threw open the door. “There’s my stuff.”
    Demi took a few stiff steps toward the closet. She knew that dark blue T-shirt. It said, I SUPPORT HABITAT FOR A MANATEE. And the gray one next to it—that’s the one she’d given him that said, STOP MAKING CHEMISTRY JOKES. ALL THE GOOD ONES ARGON . She got it because his dad was a chemist and a punster and he’d always been really nice when he and Nicky’s mom came up to campus to visit and . . .
    “My folks boxed everything up and sent it to me,” Nicky said.
    Bewildered, she shook her head. “Your folks didn’t know where you were. They asked me if I knew.” They hadn’t liked her answer, but they’d asked.
    “I didn’t handle it very well, all right? I should’ve told them right away, but I knew how they’d react. I knew. And I was