Free I Kissed The Boy Next Door by Suzanne D. Williams Page A

in the place of his.
    “And who was this lucky Billy Felton who you were going to marry at age five?”
    I flicked my hair behind my neck. “You ought to know.”
    This made him look at me funny, his mouth half smiling. “I’ve never heard of Billy Felton,” he said.
    “No, probably not, but like you, he was the boy next door.”
    And Jackson lost it.

    ***

    “San Antonio,” I said. “She’s in San Antonio.”
    Tray typed it into a search engine and scrolled through the results. “No. No. Not that one.” He was talking to himself like he did when he was thinking. “Here, maybe this.” He clicked on a link and the picture of a hospital flashed onto the screen. “You’ll have to call to see if it’s the one.”
    I knew that, and I’d been practicing what to say. My best bet, I figured was to be related. I wanted to say I was Jackson’s sister, but that seemed wrong.
    Tray wrote the hospital’s number on a sticky note. “If that’s not the one, you’ll have to try another.” He handed me the note. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
    I was sure. Jackson wanted to know the truth; he deserved to know the truth, and I was the only one able to find out what that was.
    “Don’t dissolve,” I said as I left the room. I went into the living room, thinking if Jackson saw me enter my bedroom, he’d call or text, and dialed the number.
    I was put through an operator to a desk clerk. “Maternity,” I said. There was this very peaceful, sleepy on-hold music playing in my ear until a voice answered the phone.
    “Hello,” I said, “ I’m looking for my older sister. She had a baby, a little boy. Her last name is Phillips.”
    I didn’t know her first name to include it and saying “Missus” would clue them in to my deception.
    “Phillips … yes, that’s what I said. You … you don’t have anyone with the last name Phillips? Well, let me ask you, she might have been released recent. We don’t talk much, you know how that is, with distance and stuff.”
    There was some clicking and clacking on the other end. The voice returned saying, “No, no one by that last name.”
    “Well, let me ask it this way. She was Caucasian, middle-aged, but her baby was black.”
    Nothing. Discouraged, I hung up and went back into Tray’s room.
    “ Failure. Or they’re not telling me.”
    “Well, did you think they would?” he said. He called up the screen. “Maybe you’re going about this all wrong. Maybe you should look for his mother.”
    “But what if she’s not going by her married name now? And San Antonio is a big city. There’s probably lots of Phillips.”
    He flipped over on his bed. “You’re simply going to have to have more information.”
    More information. Information I couldn’t ask for. I mean, maybe I could find out his mother’s first name, but I could never ask her maiden name or what hospital the baby was at.
    Then an idea lit in my head. It was crazy stupid. It was like the biggest dare ever, one of those that will get you in a load of trouble if you do it. Thinking about it my heart began to race and my fingers sweat.
    “I’ll get back with you,” I said. No way was I telling Tray my idea.
    I went to my bedroom and sitting on the mattress stared at Jackson’s window. Should I? Because no one was pushing me this time, and no one would applaud. It’d get me no attention. In fact, it might get me in a whole wad of trouble and upset Jackson.
    I picked up my phone and set the alarm. Two a.m. I’d wait until Jackson was asleep and then I’d sneak in.

CHAPTER 14

    This was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
    Sneaking in to wake Jackson up was one thing. Sneaking in to use his cell phone was another, and I didn’t even know if his mom’s number would be on his phone. I did know he’d miss it in the morning and flip out, so my plan was to get the number and leave it behind. I figured that was not stealing but more borrowing. And I had to do all of that without waking him up.
    Two a.m.