Chapter 35: With a Knife in Hand, I'll Stop Adam
The Next Day
The Duncan House
When Emmett and Juno arrived, they could hear Adam humming something upbeat from the front step.
"Someone's in a good mood," Emmett said, with the particular tone of a person who was not.
"Sorry." Adam touched the corner of his mouth with one finger. "Can't seem to turn it off."
"That's not like you," Emmett said. "What happened last night after we left?"
"Nothing scandalous," Adam said. "We talked about cars mostly. Did you know Jennifer got into mechanics because of Transformers? Like genuinely — she can actually work on an engine. It's impressive."
Emmett stared at him. Then he looked at Juno. "Did any of that make sense to you?"
"He's talking about cars," Juno said simply. "The whole thing. That's what he's excited about. Cars."
"That is the least convincing explanation I've ever heard," Emmett said.
"It's the true one," Adam said. "My dad's truck has been making a noise. Jennifer offered to take a look at it. I'm genuinely excited about free truck repair."
Emmett's expression suggested he found this deeply unsatisfying.
"Also," Adam said, patting his shoulder, "you got redirected to the friend last night pretty smoothly. You might want to work on reading those situations a little faster."
Emmett's face, already dark, went darker.
"Don't be smug about it," Juno said to Adam, with a look that carried more weight than the words. "And be careful."
"About what?"
"Lauren," Juno said. "Don't get involved with her. And probably don't get too deep with Jennifer either."
"I'm not getting involved with anyone," Adam said. "I'm getting my truck fixed."
"Hopefully that's all it is," Juno said, and left it there.
"Can we talk about something else?" Adam said. "Like — what do you think Sheldon's first week of college is going to look like?"
"Lord have mercy on whoever sits next to him in lecture," Emmett said immediately.
"I'm more curious about what happens when Sheldon and Paige are both adults," Juno said, smiling. "Both of them, fully formed, in the same field."
"Genuinely can't predict it," Adam said.
He could imagine pieces of it — Sheldon at his most certain, most armored, encountering someone who matched him completely and refused to be managed. It was either going to be the most productive scientific rivalry anyone had ever witnessed, or a catastrophe. Possibly both at the same time.
Something to look forward to.
Jennifer's House
That Same Morning
"Karen, listen to this." Jennifer was lying across her bed, staring at the ceiling with a contemplative expression that Lauren had never seen on her before. "Adam told me last night that knowledge is actually a form of power. Like, the more you understand about something, the more you can do with it. Doesn't that sound right?"
"I— yes?" Lauren said carefully.
"I think I need to study more," Jennifer said.
Lauren stared at her.
"I'm serious," Jennifer said.
Lauren continued staring.
This was new. Jennifer had always coasted on charm and instinct, both of which worked extraordinarily well for her, and she'd never shown any particular interest in adding to that toolkit. Whatever Adam had said last night had apparently landed somewhere significant.
Lauren wasn't sure how she felt about that.
One Week Later
"Jennifer, are you free this afternoon?"
"Oh — I can't today, I already made plans with Adam."
A short silence.
"We haven't spent time together in a week," Lauren said.
"I know, I'm sorry. He found this spot on the hillside outside town, apparently the angle of the sunset against the tree line does something incredible with the light, and he wants to—"
Lauren heard the rest in fragments. Something about the view. Something about the drive up.
She stayed on the line until it ended, then stood holding the phone.
The thoughts came the way they always did when she was tired and hadn't been sleeping well — sideways, visual, hard to separate from reality at the edges.
She saw it in pieces. Adam as something dark and deliberate. Jennifer drawn toward it without understanding what it was. Lauren watching from outside, the only one who could see it clearly, the only one who could stop it.
She'd always protected Jennifer. From the time they were small. When Jennifer got hurt, Lauren was the first one there. When Jennifer made choices that didn't make sense, Lauren stayed close. When the social dynamics at their old school had gotten complicated, Lauren had made herself smaller so Jennifer could be larger.
And Jennifer had always come back.
But this felt different. This felt like something that wouldn't come back from on its own.
Lauren sat on the edge of her bed for a long time.
Then she put on her red hoodie, put her keys in her pocket, and left.
That Evening
Jennifer had slipped out quietly and climbed into the passenger seat of Adam's pickup truck. The engine turned over and they headed toward the edge of town, out past the residential streets and onto the road that wound up toward the ridge.
Once they cleared the last stoplight, Jennifer leaned out the window and shouted something into the open air — not words exactly, just the sound of being out and moving and uncontained.
Adam grinned. The view from the ridge at sunset was genuinely something, and he'd been thinking about it since he'd driven past it the previous week.
Neither of them noticed the car keeping a careful distance behind them.
Lauren followed with both hands on the wheel, her expression fixed on the truck ahead.
The sun had dropped most of the way down. The sky had gone deep orange along the horizon, dark blue overhead. From the hillside, the light came in low and warm and turned everything it touched the color of an old photograph.
Jennifer and Adam stood at the overlook, looking out at it.
Lauren parked further down the road. She sat there for a moment. Then she got out and walked through the dry grass toward them, her hand in her hoodie pocket.
The utility knife she'd brought made a small sound when she opened it.
She was close enough now to see their silhouettes against the light — two shapes, close together, the distance between them comfortable in a way that sent something through Lauren that she couldn't name cleanly.
She kept moving forward.
A hand closed gently around hers.
She stopped.
She looked up.
A girl was standing beside her — she hadn't heard anyone approach — backlit by the last of the sunset, expression completely calm and completely kind. Not afraid of her. Not judging her. Just present.
"It's not worth it," the girl said quietly.
Lauren looked at her for a long moment.
The thing that had been building in her chest — the pressure of it, the certainty, the vision of herself as the only one who could set things right — released all at once, like a knot coming loose.
The knife dropped into the grass.
She didn't pick it back up.
End of Chapter 35
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