Free The Forgetting by Nicole Maggi Page B

just a heart anymore. She wasn’t just some inconvenient echo of a ghost who was stealing my memories. She had become a mystery I had to solve.
    â€œThat’s what I want to write about now. About these lost girls no one ever finds.”
    Nate held my eyes with his own for so long that I could count the little gold flecks in each of his blue irises. “You shouldn’t write about teen suicide,” he said finally. His voice crackled. “You should write about FAIR Girls. About human trafficking. About how it’s happening around the corner from your fancy private school. You could open people’s eyes to that.”
    We stood there for a long moment, frozen in stillness, our eyes melded to each other’s. In the silence that stretched between us, I heard the Catch so loudly that it bounced off the walls. Without breathing, I asked him, “Will you help me?”
    Without hesitation, he answered, “Yes.”
    â€¢ • •
    When I got home, all I wanted to do was head upstairs to the privacy of my room and think about everything I’d learned. But my family had other ideas.
    Grandma blocked my path the instant I walked in the door. “Where have you been?” she demanded. “Do you have any idea what your parents have been through?”
    â€œI—”
    My mother emerged from the living room into the hallway, the phone in her hand. “Georgie!” She lifted the phone to her ear. “She just got home. Thanks, Bill.”
    Bill was Ella’s father. Crap. I was in for it now.
    Mom tossed the phone onto the bench in the hallway where all our hats and gloves and scarves seemed to congregate. “Where the hell have you been? Your father and I have been worried sick.”
    As if to reinforce this, Dad appeared behind Mom, his face a mask of concern. “Georgie, you nearly gave us a heart attack.” He looked stricken. “Oh jeez, you know what I mean.”
    Grandma took my elbow and led me into the living room. “Explain yourself, young lady.”
    â€œWe know you weren’t at that rehearsal tonight,” Mom said. “So if you weren’t with Ella, what were you doing?” She sounded like she was fighting very hard to stay calm.
    I looked from her to my dad to Grandma and started a little when I noticed Colt sprawled out in the armchair in the corner. He was scribbling in the margins of a thick textbook. “I told you she’d be home,” he said without looking up.
    Dad glanced at him and back at me. He folded his arms over his chest. “Look, we’re not mad, Georgie. We just want to know what’s going on with you.”
    I loved how adults said they weren’t mad when they clearly were. I heaved a sigh. “I’m really tired. Can we just talk about this tomorrow?”
    Dad looked inclined to allow this, but Mom crossed the room until she stood right in front of me. “No. We’ll talk about this now.” She stared at me for a moment, her jaw working hard. “Do you have any idea what it was like sitting in that hospital room? Watching you almost die? Do you?” Her voice had tipped over the edge into hysteria now. “And this is how you repay us? By running around God-knows-where with God-knows-who at all hours of the night?”
    I looked at my watch. “It’s nine-thirty.”
    Grandma threw her hands up. “Georgie! Just answer your mother.”
    â€œFine. Can I sit down first? I did just have a heart transplant , you know.”
    From his corner nook, Colt laughed. No one else looked amused, but they waited until I had taken my coat off and settled myself comfortably on the couch. “Look, I’m really sorry I’m late,” I said. “I didn’t realize it would take so long.”
    â€œWhat would?” Mom asked.
    I tucked my feet up underneath me and arranged my face into a beatific expression. “Sydney asked me to write an article for