162 days.
Thatâs how long Lexi needs to survive at her new school. Every year, she starts somewhere else under a new name, hiding in plain sight for as long as she can manage. Her record is 134, but it's senior year now and if she can make it till June, she can disappear into the real world. Maybe a big city, where no one recognizes her and no one knows about her brother and what he did.
But this time things are different. This time thereâs her new friend, Ryan, who makes her believe that she belongs somewhere. This time thereâs Marcus, the boy looks at her in a way no one has before. This time sheâs actually started to miss her older brother, Scott, even though she knows she shouldnât. He was the boy who hung out with her reading comics and riding bikes. The boy who applied Band-Aids to scraped knees and chased away spiders. But heâs also the reason that sheâs been in hiding away from the world, and from herself.
It turns out you can't really run away from who you are. Eventually, it catches up with you.
Itâs just 162 days, but for Lexi that's a few days too many.