“Oh yeah? What did he say?”

“He was like a vault, but I think he knows something. He got this sly smile when I mentioned that truth quote you said about the sun and the moon.”

“He did? So you think it’s him?” As much as I hadn’t wanted it to be him the day before, now anyone other than DJ would be welcome news.

“I think it could be him. Did you talk to Jackson?”

“No, I didn’t get a chance.”

We pulled in to the parking lot and I claimed I had to talk to a teacher before the bell rang. But DJ wasn’t in the coach’s office. Why did he pick today of all days to really not-work? Didn’t he want to talk to me before tonight? Before I had to see him again with that mask on. Was I supposed to pretend I didn’t know him?

A growl escaped my throat and I headed for my first-period class.

“Moore!” The call must’ve been loud because I heard it through my music. I clicked the off button and turned.

Jackson was heading my way at a slow jog. My heart gave a little leap.

“Hey, Holt.”

He had his mischief-making smile on. “You’re not the only one who can figure things out.”

I stopped in the middle of the hall. “What?”

He held up the Styrofoam cup I hadn’t seen until then. “Norman’s. I don’t believe you went to that seedy shop for me.”

“Oh. Right. You found it.” If that had been Jackson last night online, he’d mention it now, wouldn’t he? I stared at him, willing him to say something. He just had his easy smile on.

“You no longer own me.” He took a sip, then met my eyes. “Unless you want to.”

My heart thudded twice. I wasn’t sure if he was just being his jokester self right now or if he was being serious. “I . . .”

The bell rang. “We’ll talk later, Moore,” he said, then held up his cup again. “To heaven in a cup.” Then he turned and jogged away. No, that boy did not need to put on a mask to speak his mind. There was no way he was Heath Hall.

Only we didn’t talk later. And DJ never showed up at school, so I couldn’t talk to him. Now I was facing the night, the Heath Hall event, blind. My shoulders were acting up. I needed some aspirin. Amelia dropped her bag in the middle of my bedroom floor. “Due to the vagueness of tonight’s event, I had no idea what to wear. What are you wearing?”

“Jeans and a nice shirt. I think.”

“Good call. An in-between outfit.” She opened her bag and began flinging clothes onto my bed. “I don’t believe your parents left you alone for the weekend.”

“One night.”

“My parents would never trust me enough to leave me home alone. They would think I’d throw a party or something.” She stopped and put her hands on her hips. “We should throw a party. We can invite everyone over after the Heath Hall thing tonight.”

“Probably not a good idea.”

“You’re right. We’ll just invite a few people over.”

I laughed and sifted through the clothes in my closet until I found the green blouse I was looking for. “Nobody over. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stay out late.”

“So true.”

I needed to tell Amelia now before we left. Before we saw Heath Hall. Why was I still calling him that? DJ. Before we saw DJ, I needed to prepare her for who he was. Tell her how I pieced together the clues: how long ago the account was created and how he talked to his dog and I soaked his sweater and how he and the masked man were never in the same room at the same time. And I needed to tell her . . . how he felt about me.

“Do you think tonight is the night that Heath Hall will unmask himself? Maybe that’s why the description was so vague.”

“No. I don’t.” As I said it, I realized I believed that. If he hadn’t done it in five years, why would he do it now? I could still wait to talk to Amelia until after I’d talked to DJ. I hoped that once we talked, things could still work out with him and Amelia. If he knew how I felt and how she felt, it would clear things up. Everything would turn out fine. Yes, that’s what I’d do.

We sat in a small theater in the old town district. The only people there were Heath Hall supporters, and it was a fairly small crowd at that. Twenty? All faces I recognized. Dylan, Brady, even Robert, who I could now officially eliminate as a suspect. Amelia was surprised to see him there after her talk with him the day before. Maybe the numbers were few because this event seemed even more vague than the others.

The heavy velvet green curtain was open and a single spotlight lit a mic on the stage. Whatever DJ was doing involved that mic. Singing? Speaking?

There were empty chairs on either side of us and Amelia kept looking back toward the door like she thought he’d walk in that way. I figured he’d walk in from backstage, so I didn’t bother craning my neck around.

“You think he’ll make us sit here for three hours?”

“I hope not.”

“Maybe he’s waiting for more people to show up.”

“Yeah, maybe.” But right as I said it, footsteps sounded on the hardwood of the stage and Heath Hall appeared from behind the side curtain. He walked to the mic, tapped it twice, then cleared his throat.

“Tonight I have a declaration. A truth I need to speak that I haven’t been able to as myself.”

This was different. But he’d said the mask wasn’t just about expressing fears. That was just one of its purposes. So tonight we got a truth.

“A poem,” he continued. “Declaring truth. Revealing love. In front of all. It’s from my heart. From my soul.”

It took my brain a moment to realize he had already started the poem. He was midpoem. And he was about to say something he couldn’t say in front of anybody but especially not Amelia. He was going to say he liked me. I stood up and screamed, “No!”

He stopped. The microphone issued a screech of feedback.

Amelia tugged on my arm and whispered, “What are you doing?”

The rest of the room had turned to look at me as well. I was supposed to say something now. Justify why I’d stopped Heath Hall from speaking. I didn’t want to have to tell him that I didn’t feel the same way. I wanted to pull him off the stage and talk privately to him, spare the embarrassment. If he needed a mask to say it, he was already feeling unsure. I wished I didn’t have to do this, but Amelia and her feelings were the most important thing to me right now.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement, someone sitting down next to Amelia. Then I heard that someone whisper, “Sorry I’m late. What did I miss?”

I turned toward that someone, who was now slipping his hand into Amelia’s.

“DJ?”

He smiled up at me. “Hi, Hadley.”

“Oh no.” My eyes whipped back to the stage. Heath Hall still stared at me and appeared to have lost every ounce of the confidence he had when he first got on the stage. I held up my hands. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else.” Why did I say that out loud to the only person possibly left who could be under that mask? The person I had wanted to be under that mask all along. Was it too late for him to finish what he’d started? “Go on. I’m listening. It was really good.” But he was still frozen, now gripping the mic stand. I gave him my pleading eyes. “Please. Finish.”