Page 100 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

I watch the rippling water, feeling mean. Allison’s right; it doesn’t make any sense for her to want to kill me, and wasn’t I just saying this would be a stupid place to do it? I need to be on my toes, but I don’t need to be making accusations I can’t support—

Wait. Where’s Allison?

She’s been under too long.

Oh, shit. Oh, no.

I never should have let my guard down.

CHAPTER 18The Medicinal Properties of Pee

“Help!” I yell and start to swim in a panic toward where Allison went under. Shek is behind me, like a shadow.

I get there right as Allison surfaces with a grimace on her face.

And then she starts yelling bloody murder.

“What is it? Allison, are you okay?”

“A jellyfish,” she yells. “I got stung!”

“Try to hold still,” Shek says. “That thrashing can’t help.”

Allison grits her teeth and steadies herself, but the pain is written all over her face.

Oliver swims up next to me, his hair wet, water clinging to his shoulders.116 “What’s happening?”

“She was stung by a jellyfish,” I say. “Be careful.”

It seems to occur to Shek for the first time that if Allison got stung, he could, too. He starts to glide away from us slowly on his back, his hands making small movements at his sides.

Coward.

Meanwhile, Oliver swims around Allison and slips his arms under her armpits. “Try to stay still. I’ll swim you back to the boat.”

Allison nods calmly, but she has tears streaming down her face. Oliver turns her around and starts to swim backward, passing Shek with a few powerful kicks. The swimmers from the other boats have kept their distance, forming a loose semicircle around the mouth of the cave, and the rest of our party have reversed course and climbed back into the boat. Everything looks so calm, but my heart is thundering and I feel short of breath.

Another almost-death. Another woman who needed to be saved by Oliver.

What was I just saying about coincidences?117

I turn back toward the cave and search the water, waiting for it to clear. When it does, all I see is my legs, making slow circles as I tread water. I’m not sure what I was expecting to find, but then it hits me, like it must’ve occurred to Shek, that I might not see the jellyfish until it’s too late. So, I start to swim away from the cave, passing the silent group of red-shouldered tourists bobbing on their pool noodles.

“Be careful,” I tell them. “There are jellyfish in the water.”

A man with a thick thatch of gray hair says in a slightly imperious manner, “There aren’t any jellyfish in the Med.”

My heart starts to hammer again as I swim away from him. Is that right? It’s easy enough to look up. But why would Allison lie? Her screams and tears were real. What would she have to gain by faking that?

I shake the thought away as I watch Oliver and Connor bring Allison up into the boat as Shek watches.

“You planning on helping?” I say as I pull up next to him.

“They seem to have everything well in hand.”

I roll my eyes as I pass him. Is it wrong to think that it makes more sense for someone to want Shek dead than me?118

I grip the ladder and haul myself up, happy that Oliver’s already in the boat and can’t see how inelegant I am as I climb up the ladder.