Julie had not intended to leave. But then, she was not the type of person who intended a lot of things. Spontaneous by nature, these things just seemed to happen to her, often without her consciously deciding anything. It was near dawn when she’d found herself skiing away from the boys in one quiet moment, and only when a crack of tree limbs in the distance caught her attention did she even notice how far she’d gone. She stopped suddenly, like a sleepwalker who’d just been awakened.
She turned her ski tips, rested on her poles, then checked the phone she’d taken from Carter’s pack while he slept. No signal. Not yet. But the compass worked, and Julie was enormously pleased to see that she was going in the right direction. This way, she thought. She didn’t feel that bad about taking it; Tony still had his, and if she could climb up above the tree line she was certain the phone would work. Where Matt and Leah might have failed, Julie was determined to succeed.
I’ll get up to where it’ll work, she told herself, not dwelling on the fact that Matt and Leah had left hours ago for that specific task. But something must have happened to them, and in Julie’s mind it was because she hadn’t gone with them. She gritted her teeth; her stomach growled so loudly in the quiet that it startled her. But it wasn’t unpleasant. For Julie, hunger was a good thing. It made her feel sharper somehow, putting everything into focus. Letting her forget about Carter and what happened in Dylan’s apartment two nights before. What she let happen. But Carter was, well, Carter. Her first . . . everything. She let herself have one moment of weakness. One moment of nostalgia. And now she could never take it back. Carter was right. She felt guilty. She shouldn’t have said what she did. She knew that, but knowing it didn’t really help things, not now. And drowning in her guilt wasn’t going to fix anything either. She had to act—leave her regret and shame behind.
Another crack in the distance, sharper this time, and she swiveled around trying to find its location. The noise reminded Julie of a rifle report and she caught her breath in excitement. Someone else could be out here! Hunters? She turned her ski tips in a new direction, energy renewed. Maybe Matt and Leah did get a call through—there could be rescuers out there right now combing the woods. A burring whine punctured the silence around her and Julie smiled, certain that this was the sound of a snowmobile, and she pushed off vigorously into the growing light.