Every You, Every Me by David Levithan Page A

wore myself out and slept most of Sunday. On Monday, school was a full hive when I got there. I ran to the patio, hoping to find you Jack. Sure enough, there he was, and it even looked like he was waiting for me. When he saw me, he put out his cigarette and said something to Katie, who was standing next to him. They both came over, heading me off before I got over to where they’d been.
    “Hey,” I said. “Something happened.”
    Something was wrong. I could tell. Jack was looking at me strangely. Like I had done something wrong. Really wrong.
    “Let’s talk over there,” he said, gesturing a little ways off, into the woods.
    “I got another photo,” I told him. Katie, I noticed, wouldn’t look me in the eye.
    “Of course you did,” he said.
    “What?”
    But he wouldn’t answer. Not until we were away from everyone else, in the trees. And even then, he only stared at me. It was Katie who broke the silence.
    “I caught Mr. Rogers this morning,” she said. “He’s back in school.”
    That’s it, I thought. They’ve found the girl.
    “Who is she?” I asked.
    “I told him I needed to contact the person who took the photo. I told him I’d damaged it and needed another print.”
    “And?”
    “He yelled at me for being careless. But then he gave me the name and told me to be more careful next time.”
    Now she stopped.
    I couldn’t stand it.
    “Who is she?” I asked again.
    Katie shook her head.
    And Jack said, “It’s you.”
    It’s you It’s you It’s you
    “What?” I don’t understand.
    Now Jack was grabbing my shirt. Pushing me against a tree. Katie telling him to stop. But he was knocking me back. It hurt, but it didn’t hurt so much, because part of me wasn’t even there.
    “I said, it’s you, Evan. The person who submitted that photo is YOU.”
    “But it can’t be!” it can’t be it can’t be
    “Stop lying!”
    He knocked my head back. Pain.
    “Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”
    it can’t be it can’t be
    “It wasn’t me,” I said.
    He shoved me. Hard. I bent over.
    “Jack—stop!” Katie was yelling at him now.
    “Stop!”
    He didn’t pay any attention to her, hovering over me, shouting. “So is Mr. Rogers lying? Is that what you’re saying?”
    “It wasn’t me! She must have put my name on it. She’s after us, Jack!”
    “Ah, yes, the mysterious ‘she.’ Only thing is, she doesn’t exist.”
    Now Katie was in between us. Shielding me.
    “Jack, stop.”
    He pulled back for a moment, took something out of his back pocket, and threw it at the ground in front of me.

    “Are you saying you didn’t leave this in my locker this morning?”
    I didn’t I didn’t I shook my head.
    “Evan, what are you doing?”
    I was shivering. Shaking.
    “I’m not doing anything.” I’m in the photos. “Look—how can I have taken the photos? I’m in them.”
    “Well, maybe she took them.”
    And I knew which she he meant. Not the mystery girl.
    You.
    I could barely look at him.
    “You think we did this together?” I asked.
    “Jack,” Katie cautioned.
    He wouldn’t relent. “I think you’re just as bad as she is. No—maybe even worse. Because she took it all out on herself. You’re taking it out on other people. That’s definitely worse.
    “I don’t know what I did to you to make you do this, Evan. Is it jealousy? Did you want to be the boyfriend? Did you hate that you couldn’t have her all to yourself? I’d almost understand that. But why now, Evan? Why bring it all up now? Does it really kill you so bad that I’m not miserable and pathetic like you? Is it really so bad that I’m getting over it and you’re not?”
    “I didn’t do it.”
    “And what about the other ones you put in my locker? I saw you that morning. How do you explain that?”
    “I wanted you to see them. She left them on the train tracks and I—”
    “Oh, yeah—you didn’t want me missing out. Maybe I’m the pathetic one, because I actually believed that.”
    It’s not