‘Shit, it effing stings,’ Hunter said, as Mae worked on her wrist.
They were sat on a bench at the bottom of the driveway.
They’d all marched through West like an army in black tie and ballgowns.
The party was at the Prince house.
Spotlights shone into the sky as a heavy bassline thumped.
‘Are you okay?’ Mae said.
‘Now, yeah. I’m drunk. But when I get home, and I see my mother …’
Mae and Hunter watched Hugo as he tussled with Liam, just playing, Liam joked Hugo was too worried about losing a nail to get into it properly.
‘Your boyfriend likes to wear make-up.’
‘I’ve always known, Mae. Always. I caught him with my lipstick when he thought I was asleep.’
‘It doesn’t bother you?’
‘Hugo’s a good guy, he just hides it well.’
‘Under a thick layer of foundation.’
‘He learned from the master.’
They stood.
‘Something I forgot to ask – what did you do with the other tapes?’ Mae said.
‘Please, that wasn’t me. You really think I wanted Abi Manton coming back from the dead?’
The house had been transformed. Lights were strung from every tree, a butler stood by the door and handed out champagne while Final banners were draped from the windows.
Dry ice smoked from machines by the garage block and drifted like fog across the driveway And behind that was the hole, the reminder that nothing about their night was normal, no matter how they pretended otherwise.
Hugo stood in the shadows. Mae could see his hands shaking.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ Hunter said.
‘You stand up to your father, I’ll stand up to mine. That was what we agreed.’
Maybe Hunter would’ve done it anyway. Mae looked at her, in that perfect gold dress, and she wondered just how little she knew about her.
Hunter kissed him, then fixed both of their lipstick. Hugo took a deep breath, grabbed Hunter’s hand and they began to walk up the driveway.
Inside the music was deafening.
People spilled from every room.
In the kitchen kids played beer pong. Mae watched a boy run past clutching his mouth, looking for somewhere to puke.
‘We need a room,’ Candice said to Hugo.
She grasped Felix’s hand. He made eyes at Mae, who leaned close so she could hear him.
‘I’m scared,’ he said.
Hunter pointed to the stairs. ‘Take your pick.’
Felix leaned closer to Mae. ‘Those pills I’ve been taking to keep me up, they don’t keep all of me up. In fact they kind of do the opposite.’
‘Jesus.’
‘Yeah, he still hasn’t helped either.’
Candice dragged him towards the stairs.
Felix looked close to tears as he followed her up, his fingers crossed behind him, like he was hoping for a miracle.
And then the music died.
Sergeant Walters walked into the room, clutching his hat, his mouth tight. Mae thought of his life, working on the last night, his commitment to keeping order.
He walked up to Sally Sweeny and asked her to step outside.
Mae moved in front of her.
‘I need to talk to Sally alone.’
‘No,’ Mae said. ‘It’s the last night, she’s at a party. She needs this.’
Sergeant Walters seemed to weigh things, then looked directly at Sally. ‘Is there anything you need to talk to me about, Sally?’
Sally looked at Mae.
Sergeant Walters continued to watch her. ‘Mitch Travers was out fishing today. On his way back in he saw something by the cove. White as a ghost when he told me.’
‘What did he see?’ Sally said, so quiet Mae could hear her own breathing.
‘Two of them. Only people I’ve got missing from this town since I closed the road in.’
Sally closed her eyes.
‘Thought he saw,’ Mae cut in. She felt every eye on her, on Sally and Sail and Sergeant Walters.
‘The tide, it goes out at sunrise. I’ll be able to get to them. But I think I have a good idea what I’ll find. It’ll be easier if you just tell me. You need to come now, Sally.’
‘And then what happens?’ Sally said.
Sergeant Walters smiled at her, the kind of sorry smile that almost broke Mae. ‘I do my job. I keep you all safe and I uphold the law. And it doesn’t matter if Selena comes, or if she doesn’t. I’ll die protecting this town and the values that built it. I have to take you in, Sally.’
Sally went to step forward but Mae stayed in place.
‘Don’t make this harder,’ he said.
‘Sally was at the concert last night,’ Mae said.
‘And after that?’
‘She was at the beach with me,’ Matilda said.
‘I saw her at eleven,’ Betty said.
‘I saw her at midnight,’ Sail said.
‘I was there till dawn. Right beside her,’ Hunter said.
Sergeant Walters looked at each of them in turn. ‘And before the concert?’
There was silence for a while.
‘She was with me. We rehearsed all day.’ They all turned to see Theodore, beyond reproach.
Sergeant Walters looked down at Theodore’s wrist, then shook his head sadly, like he was disappointed in every one of them. ‘Your house, Sally. That feeling I got. All that bleach I could smell. I understand, believe me I do. You should have come to me. You have a duty to report it.’
‘To report it?’ Mae said.
He faced her.
‘How’s your father, Sergeant Walters?’
Time froze between them.
And then he looked around, at all the faces watching him, and he made his decision, because he knew Mae, he knew she wouldn’t back down.
‘At dawn I’ll find out. And this just got a whole lot worse for all of you.’
They watched him leave.
For a while nobody spoke, and then Mae followed Sally out to the pool as the music started up again.
They watched the blue of the water.
‘I’ll tell him what I did. I’ll say I did it alone and –’
There was a moment when Jon Prince saw his son. The make-up on his face.
And that moment seemed to stretch for so long that Mae stood close to Sail and felt his body tense.
The hatred he felt for his all-star son was plain to see.
Mae spotted a couple of Forevers, and they didn’t turn away, just silently moved towards Hugo, till they stood beside him.
And then others from the house came out, maybe twenty of them, and they joined the line.
Jon Prince started to laugh. ‘Out here in the open now? I didn’t beat it out of you?’
Hugo watched his father.
Jon Prince kept the sneer in place, though the laughter died.
Hunter kept hold of Hugo’s hand.
Jon Prince took a step towards his son.
But so did Liam.
And Sail.
And a dozen other Forevers.
‘You’ve got your gang together now,’ Jon Prince said, sneering. ‘I tried with you, Hugo. I always did my best, but you were too much like your mother. Shit, you’re even starting to look like her.’
And then the tirade began. Maybe he was drunk, or frighteningly sober, but he swore at Hugo. He told him he was a freak, that he was weak, that he wasn’t a Prince.
Mae watched Hugo. He said nothing back but she could see the hurt and the strength there.
‘Maybe I didn’t hit you hard enough,’ Jon Prince said.
‘Like you hit Mum hard enough?’
‘You watch your mouth.’
‘Why? I thought we were telling each other how we really feel. We confess all our sins before the morning comes.’
‘You shut your mouth, Hugo.’
‘The night you started digging was the night Mum left us. Only she didn’t really leave, did she?’
‘I’m warning you.’
Hugo took a step forward, alone. ‘You didn’t mean it, that’s what you told me. She hit her head when she fell. The Wright girl next door, she was looking out, always watching the sky. And she saw you digging. So you told everyone you were digging a bunker.’
Jon Prince watched his son with hatred burning in his eyes.
‘That’s why you don’t let building control in here. Why you’ve done all the work yourself. Why the town keeps shaking the way it does. Because you’re wrecking it. Because you know what they’ll find.’
Jon Prince took a deep breath, and then he smiled. ‘You could’ve had it all, Hugo. But now you’ll rot, just like your mother. And your freak friends.’
‘We’re not freaks,’ Hugo said.
‘We’re creeps,’ Hunter said.
‘And weirdos,’ Mae said.
Jon Prince looked at them like they were crazy. And then he took a step back, and they watched him as the lift began to descend.
‘There’s no room for you in here,’ he said to Hugo, as he took a last look at his son, and then he disappeared below.
They heard the heavy, steel door begin to close for the first time. It groaned and moved and dislodged itself from its place.
No one spoke for a long time.
Hunter cuddled close to Hugo.
He didn’t look sad, that was what Mae thought, there was something different about him, like he’d finally found his Forever.