امی دوبوا

AIMEE DUBOIS

7:18 a.m.

Aimee gives up calling Rufus. There are three possible explanations for why Rufus isn’t picking up, ranked from greatest hope to biggest fear: 1. He’s ignoring her but will call her back.

1. He’s blocked her number and has no interest in reaching out.

2. He’s dead.

Aimee goes on Rufus’s Instagram, leaving comments on his pictures asking him to call her back. She charges her phone, raises the volume, and changes into an old T-shirt of Rufus’s and her shorts.

Aimee has really gotten into exercise ever since becoming a Pluto. When she originally snuck into her foster parents’ room, looking for something to steal from Francis, who gave her the weakest welcome, she spotted Jenn Lori’s bedside dumbbells and gave lifting a shot. Her own parents, locked up for robbing a family-owned movie theater, inspired her kleptomaniac urges, but Aimee discovered working on herself made her feel more powerful than stealing from others.

Aimee already misses going on runs with Rufus while he rides his bike.

And she’ll always think back to the time when she taught him to do a proper push-up.

And she has no idea what comes next.