Crush by Stefan Petrucha Page B

you’re asking for a whole lot of trouble.”
    â€œAre you threatening me?” Jonathan asked.
    â€œJust don’t push me, Jonathan.”
    The phone line went dead.

11
    From The Book of Adrian, Mon. Oct. 17
    Knowing whom to trust is like the fable of the two doors. Behind one door is a paradise, lush with comfort and sustenance; beyond the other is a ravenous tiger, aching to rend flesh and fill her belly. Every person one meets is a door—do they offer safety or savagery?
    Given time, we could erode the door’s surface and peer through to see what awaits us. Friends may be exposed as false. Those who first seem to be enemies may be revealed as saviors. But what if there is no time and a door mustbe chosen? In such situations we are at the mercy of fate—the 50/50 chance that our trust will be wasted and our lives further damaged.
    Isn’t that right, Jonathan?
    Saturday afternoon Jonathan dozed on his bed. Groggy and exhausted but too frightened to actually fall asleep, he tried to rationalize the conversation with David, tried to see it as anything but a threat. He couldn’t. Not really. Every time he thought about David’s words— “Just don’t push me, Jonathan” —he pictured Ox being smothered against the trunk of a tree. The two things were inexplicably connected in his mind.
    When the phone rang, he was drifting down into a shallow sleep. The noise startled him, sent his heart to ticking like a stopwatch. He looked around his room, confused at first as the remnants of sleep crept from his head. The phone rang again.
    David? Let it be David. I don’t want to believe what I believe.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œBarnes?” The voice was quiet and nervous, butit wasn’t David’s. It was Cade Cason’s.
    â€œGood-bye,” Jonathan said.
    â€œCome on, man. I just want to talk for a minute.”
    â€œLeave me alone, Cade.”
    â€œFine,” Cade said. “If that’s what you want. We’re cool, right?”
    â€œWhatever,” Jonathan said. “Just stay out of my face.”
    â€œBut we’re cool, right?” Cade sounded desperate like a henchman trying to please his master. “I did what you told me, man. So I want to make sure we’re cool.”
    Did what I told him?
    â€œJust tell me what you want.”
    â€œYeah. Right,” Cade said, all but babbling. “It’s just. I mean…Is it cool to talk?”
    â€œGo ahead.”
    â€œYeah. It’s just that after last night, I got to thinking, and you totally don’t have to worry. I didn’t tell anyone anything. Okay? I mean, maybe you’re right, and Ox had it coming.”
    â€œI didn’t say that,” Jonathan said, disgusted by the implication. Ox was murdered. No one deserved that, no matter how much of a jerk they were.
    â€œWhatever, okay? The thing is, I think we can help each other. Right?”
    â€œHelp each other?”
    â€œRight. I mean you don’t really fit in at school or anything, and I can totally help with that. No one’s going to bust your ass anymore, okay? You can hang with me, and I’ll introduce you to the Specials, and things’ll be cool.”
    Jonathan listened to Cade’s prattle. With everything that was going on, did Cade really think Jonathan was interested in popularity?
    â€œAnd it’s not like you have to do anything,” Cade said. “I mean…it’s just…I’ve got this uncle, right? And you know, he lives alone and stuff. But he’s full-on Hilton rich. I’m way up in his will, okay? So, I’m thinking if something happened to him, we could both make out good.”
    Jonathan wasn’t sure he was hearing Cade right. Was he really asking him to commit murder? Was Cade that sick?
    He thinks I controlled the things that killed Ox, and now he wants me to kill his uncle so he can inherit the guy’s money .
    â€œAre you