Darkness takes over the world through the window of my room. I’m lying in bed, the smell of the barbeque still embedded in my clothing. Before West showed up, Miles said he knew something about the guy outside of the window, but . . . part of me still believes he was the one who did it. If Miles was guilty, it would make sense for him to try to distract me and point the finger at someone else.
But who?
When my phone chimes, I check it right away. It’s just Keely.
Hey, I heard what happened at the BBQ. It’s messed up that West hits his own brother.
I know. Things got way out of hand.
Can we meet up?
What for?
Talk about things one more time? I feel like I don’t know anything that’s going on with you.
It’s true; I’ve hidden more from Keely this summer than ever before. Besides, we need to talk one-on-one, without Miles watching us. I sneak over to the bedroom door and peek through it. My parents are sound asleep on the couch, even though it’s only 9:00 p.m. I hurry back over to my phone and text Keely.
Okay, but can you meet me here?
Yup, be there soon!
The floorboards creak as I move through the living room and scribble a quick note—BRB, meeting Keely—and leave it next to my parents. They’ll be upset I left without telling them first, but they’ll try to make me stay if I do. Mom’s head rests on Dad’s shoulder, and the magazine they were reading together has fallen to the floor. This entire trip is aging them.
Maybe I shouldn’t go.
Keely texts and says she’s outside.
I’ll be right back, I remind myself. Everything will be fine.
Throwing my denim jacket on, I head out. The smell of rain hangs in the air. A storm brews over the horizon, thick black clouds that crawl across the dark sky as smoky wisps of fog waft over the coastline. The wind whips Keely’s hair all over the place, and she hugs herself over her yellow dress and black jacket.
“I think we still have some time before the rain starts,” she says. “Want to go for a walk? I’m seriously craving a soda right now.”
The cottage isn’t far from downtown, so a short walk leads to the gas station. Silence sweeps over us as we head down the street.
After a while, Keely says, “What really happened to you the other night? I was worried . . .”
“It’s hard to explain, Keel. I’m pretty sure the animal killer found me and was messing with me, but everyone else is saying I imagined it.”
“Whoa. Was it like, another one of your nightmares?”
“No, it was totally different. It was like he was really there.”
“Oh.”
More silence. A low thunder grumbles overhead, raising the hairs on my neck.
“I don’t like this weather,” I say. “Let’s just grab sodas and get back to the cottage.”
Keely picks up her pace. “Sounds like a plan to me.” She pauses. “So hey, look, about Miles . . .” I stiffen. Keely goes on. “Covering for Shawn and Dean was wrong, but I get why he did it. I mean, this town is so small, we sort of have no one but each other. I don’t blame Miles for wanting to keep his friendship with Dean and Shawn intact. I still hang out with them because I don’t want to be alone either.”
That makes sense, but I stay quiet for a few moments. “Why are you defending him, Keel?”
“Because I get where he’s coming from. That’s all.”
As much as I don’t agree with it, in a way I do understand why Miles would want to hold onto some of the only friendships he has, but still. “All right,” I say.
“What are you going to do about West?”
“I don’t know. He knows I don’t like that side of him. It just sucks—I have to leave tomorrow, and I don’t want to go on bad terms with him. Maybe he isn’t perfect, but I really love him, Keely.”
“Whoa, the L word? I didn’t know you were that far gone.” She laughs. I do, too, just as a crack of thunder explodes above our heads. Rain slams from the sky in an instant and drenches us. “Shit!” Keely shouts.
Up ahead, the gas station’s fluorescent lights are blurry through the rain. “Come on,” I yell, “this way!”
Our feet splash through puddles until we crash into the store. It’s dry in here, but an oscillating fan sputters cold air at me, and the goosebumps on my skin are purple. The old man behind the counter looks up from this newspaper and gives us a funny, grumpy look. Keely and I share a laugh and run to the soda fridge as the storm lives on.
Just as we’re paying for our drinks, a vehicle rolls outside of the gas station. Even through the heavy rain, I’d recognize Dean Bowman’s van anywhere. Lightning flickers. Dean parks under the overhang and starts filling up his tank. There’s no way Keely isn’t going to notice him.
“Oh hey, it’s Dean,” Keely says as if she read my mind.
Outside, the rain pounds my shoulders like bullets. Keely and I take shelter under the overhang. Dean finishes pumping his gas as we walk up.
“What’re you two doing walking around?” he asks. “Lovely storm, isn’t it?”
Thunder booms and we both shiver from the cold. I cower farther under the overhang. Please don’t let me get hit by lightning.
“Is this really the right time to be getting gas?” Keely shouts over the rain.
Dean glares at her. Sometimes, I swear there’s hatred in Dean’s eyes when he looks at Keely. Then again, he always looks like that. “My tank won’t fill itself, Keely.” A sudden, unnerving smile twitches at his lips. “Hey, you want a ride? Get in.”
“You sure?” Keely asks.
“Yeah, it’s no problem. You too, Olivia. In the van.”
“No thanks,” I say. “I’m staying not far from here. Come on, Keely, I’ll wake my dad up and he’ll drive you home.”
“No way am I walking in this!”
Before I can protest, Keely gets into the van. Dean stares at me. “Well? You coming or what?”
This is giving me bad vibes, but I don’t want to leave Keely alone with him. Miles is almost certainly in the van, too, but I can’t see through the tinted windows. Everything in me screams don’t go. I crawl in after Keely anyway. Sure enough, Faye’s in the passenger seat, and Shawn and Miles are in the very back. I slide into the empty spot next to Keely in the middle row of chairs. As soon as the door traps me in the dusty, ketchup-smelling van, regret forms inside me. Dean gets in the driver’s seat.
“Oh great. You.” Faye looks back at me, her face malicious in the uneven light. “Did West kick your ass, too, or just his own brother’s?”
Gulping, I glance back at Miles. He gazes out the window, into the empty parking lot. “West would never hurt me,” I say and buckle my seatbelt.
“How do you know?” Faye says. “He hurts Miles.”
“Has he ever hurt anyone else?”
Everyone is quiet, and Faye eventually says, “Probably.”
“What West did wasn’t okay no matter what,” I say. “But to be fair—Miles, you did attack him first.”
“Whatever, Liv,” Miles mumbles. “Obviously you’re taking his side. He’s your boyfriend.”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side. What West did was awful, but I’m even more mad at all of you for what you did to Mr. Jenkens.”
Dean scoffs and starts driving through the storm. Rain pounds on the windshield, and the sky is almost a shade of green. “This again? It was weeks ago, Olivia. And he’s the animal killer. Why do you care?”
“He isn’t the animal killer, they let him go.”
“Why do you defend him so much?” Dean asks.
Faye juts out her bottom lip. “We all know Olivia likes to fix battered, broken things. Like my piece of shit brother.” She clicks her tongue and sings, “You picked the wrong one, Liv.”
“Shut up, Faye!” Miles snaps. Everyone flinches.
“Whoa, Hendricks.” Shawn shifts away from him. “Calm down, man.”
Keely and I exchange an uncomfortable-as-hell look. This is weird. As we cruise down a dark street, my seatbelt grows heavy and constricts my ribcage.
“Where are we going?” I ask. “Keely’s house is that way. Just drop us off there.” I’ll be in big trouble, but it’s better than anyone knowing where the cottage is.
“You guys are zero fun,” Dean says. More thunder and lightning. “We’re heading to the cabin. Looks like you’re stuck with us now.”
“What?” My stomach drops. “No, I have to get back to my parents. I’ll get in trouble. Forget this, just let me out.”
Thunder cracks so loud, even Faye jumps. “Babe, maybe she’s right,” Faye whispers. “This weather is insane. Let’s stop somewhere.”
“My car, my rules.”
Faye shuts up. The air cuts off from my lungs, but I try to practice the breathing that Dr. Levy taught me.
“Dean,” I say calmly, “please let me out of the car.”
“Don’t stress so much. We’re just cruising. You hungry?” He tosses back a paper bag. I peek into it to find fries with ketchup gushed all over them, and I kick it away.
“Okay, Dean, we don’t want to go to the cabin,” Keely says. “Seriously, drop us off.”
We’re already on the outskirts of town, passing by the population sign. The last time I drove out here, I was on my way to meet West’s baby girl. The time before that, West and I were speeding so fast I felt like I was in a spaceship. That’s probably the biggest thrill I’ve ever had since I fell. The accident made me timid, terrified to take risks. But West gave me the courage to try. I should be with him, not these people. But I’m trapped, and the deeper we drive into the forest, the more the water rises above my head. The raindrops on the windshield get lighter and the thunder dims. I shut my eyes. Okay, everything’s going to be fine. I’ll just let him take me to the cabin, then I’ll call Mom and Dad to pick me up.
Dean nods at Faye. “Babe, pass me the booze.”
She opens the glovebox and tosses him a silver flask.
“Are you seriously drinking and driving?” I ask.
“Calm down, city kid. Look, we’re almost out of the storm.” Dean laughs. “You might not be able to drink and drive back home, but it’s cool down here. The roads are dead this time of night.” Dean winks at me in the rear-view mirror.
Keely bites her lip. “Dean, wait . . . Liv is right. Drinking and driving is messed up.”
“Did I ask you?” He glares at her, before he sighs and tosses the flask back at Faye. “Fine, have it your way. No drinking yet.”
Everyone screams when Dean jerks the van to the side. He laughs as he steadies it.
“Dean, don’t do that!” Keely shouts.
“You’re all pussies,” he says as he chuckles.
I need out of this car, but the van revs as Dean hurls us forward. If I try to jump out of a moving vehicle, I’ll probably kill myself. An endless blur of trees speeds by the windows.
“Liv, are you okay?” Miles asks, but his voice alone is enough to freak me out.
“Leave me alone, Miles.”
“Why are you such a stuck-up bitch?” Faye asks.
“She won’t even talk to me,” Miles says. “She always just runs away.”
“Then make her talk now,” Dean says. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“What I need to talk to her about is private.”
Cornered, I sink into the seat. Maybe I should just jump out.
“Come on, Hendricks,” Dean says. “Don’t be a pussy. Tell her how you feel.”
Miles is quiet for a long time before he says, “All right, Liv. Since you’re here and you’ll never talk to me alone, I want you to know that I wish things had been different between us. I thought what we had when we were kids was special.”
“It—it was. But we were kids, Miles. We were friends. That’s it.”
“Everyone always said we’d get married, then you came back to town and you fell in love with—” Sighing, he stops himself. “Forget it. Wow, I sound so pathetic.”
Panic rises like an ever-growing tide; it skyrockets over my head and swallows me whole.
“And now I don’t know how to feel about you,” Miles says. “I still love you, but I also hate you.”
Hate. The word electrocutes me, and I think back to the footage of the man on the tape, then the dead deer outside my window. Even after everything, I never believed Miles could hate me.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Miles?” I manage to ask.
“What?” he says.
“Outside of Keely’s house, and the dead animals—it was all you, wasn’t it?”
“Are you serious?”
My brain grinds against my skull, and I squint my eyes shut. I’m sinking. Suffocated. Trapped in this tiny space with these people I don’t trust.
“Liv, what the hell?” Miles says. “This is what I was trying to say before, but you wouldn’t listen . . .”
“Before what?” Anxiety overwhelms me, but right now, this is the only thing that makes sense. Miles did this. I know he did. If I’m trapped in this van with him, I want him to admit it.
“Yeah, before what, Hendricks?” Dean says.
“It isn’t me, Liv,” Miles says. “I know it isn’t because—”
“Hendricks,” Dean says through his teeth. “The fuck are you talking about?”
“Miles, seriously, shut up, man,” Shawn whispers.
I don’t understand any of this. We drive deeper into the darkness.
“No, I’m not taking the fall for this!” Miles says. “I know what happened! I know you guys lied about—”
The car lunges to the side. I scream. Metal crunches. Glass shatters. My body jerks forward, and the world turns red.