Page 25

Outside, Evan’s been as productive as we have.

They’ve cleared away the dead grass, dug a hole several inches deep, and made a circular mound of the loose dirt to create a firewall.

Rocks have been arranged on the outer edge of the wall as reinforcement.

They’ve got a fire going, flames licking at the wood and brush until it curls and withers, blackening to a crisp.

They’ve even managed to intrepidly rig together a stick contraption to suspend a pot of water over the fire.

Evan sits on a camo folding chair they’ve brought, which leaves me to sit on the log that’s tipped over and worn smooth, as though it’s seated hundreds of people over the years, a thought that makes the back of my neck prickle. I inhale, a sharp, ragged thing. Then I turn over my shoulder.

Nothing. No one.

“Nova, you look so stunned! Or is that your impressed face? What, did you really think I’d be sitting here idle?” Evan laughs, obviously pleased to have proved me wrong.

I mumble a sheepish “Well…”

They roll their eyes. “Tayla better get back with water soon. I had to use the last of my drinking water for this.” Carefully, they lower the metal pot to the ground using the same stick that kept it suspended.

Then they add a few tablespoons of dried hibiscus flowers to a stainless-steel mesh infuser and let it steep in the pot.

While it steeps, they dismantle their stick contraption and set it aside, hunting for larger branches that will hold the weight of our dinner.

I shake off the uncomfortable sensation of being watched. It’s too early for the others to be back, and I’m probably just tired and a little on edge after Kiara definitely flirted with me. That’s all it is.

“How did you learn how to build a fire from scratch anyway?” I ask. “Keiffer mentioned something about an RV campground? Wouldn’t an RV have a kitchenette?”

“It did.” Evan juts their chin to the left. The sanitation trowel—which, to everyone’s utter mortification, is intended to dig holes to bury our poop—is crusted with dirt and off to the side next to a box of matches. “I just watch a lot of YouTube.”

“Nice,” I say appreciatively. “I only use it for makeup.”

“Well, it always looks nice. Even Tayla’s said so.”

That’s not just hard to believe, it’s mind-boggling. “What, really?”

“She’s not so bad. Tayla’s tough but fair.”

“Evan, you can say that about a hard-ass teacher, not a teen girl. Besides, all I’ve seen from her so far is either utter loathing or cool indifference. There’s literally no middle ground with her. Whatever good qualities you all see in her, I have zero evidence of it.”

“Yet.” They give me a bright smile. “Before this quest is over, you will.”

I envy their confidence.

When the tea is ready, Evan transfers some of the piping hot liquid into a thermos for the others and splits what remains between us in two camp mugs.

I want to point out that between Keiffer’s cans and Evan’s folding chair, we’ve been lugging around way more than we need, but when that first sip of tea sinks into me, I could kiss Evan for bringing enough to share.

I let the rising steam warm my face. The sweetness of the honey mingles with the tart, cranberry-like flavor of the hibiscus flowers. “This hits the spot.”

“Kiara! Get your butt out here if you want tea!” Evan calls.

“Almost done!”

The timer goes off on the old generic smartwatch that Kiara borrowed from her mom, pealing out obnoxiously in the otherwise eerily silent clearing. “They’re still not back,” I say.

I run my fingers over the buttons of my radio and peer between the densely packed tree trunks and shrubbery. I can’t see anyone. It’s an amorphous green-black vastness out there, void of sight or sound. Even squinting doesn’t help. It’s almost like we wouldn’t see them until they crept up on us.

Which means anyone could find our camp, and we wouldn’t know until they were already here.

But , my mind reasons, you haven’t passed a single soul out here all day. If someone was in the woods, wouldn’t you know?

Would we, though?

“We should start dinner,” Evan says, as though I didn’t say anything of concern. “I hope he brought cans with a pop tab because I didn’t bring a can opener.”

“You want to eat his beans when he’s missing?”

I mean, I don’t want to call it bad manners, but you don’t just touch a man’s beans.

Or a woman’s Pringles. Fuck it, let’s go for those beans.

“So dramatic,” Evan teases, grinning. “They’re not even a full minute late. And they’ll be hungry when they come back, so we should start before it gets dark. We’re already losing the light.”

I throw a glance back to the juniper-colored tent from which Kiara has yet to emerge, even though she turned off the timer.

She let it go on longer than I would have expected.

Maybe she’s worried for them, too. They wouldn’t be the first to go missing here.

Maybe she thought the sound would be like a Marco Polo cry to help them find their way back to us.

Evan follows my gaze. “You don’t have to feel like the odd one out, you know.”

“Because I’m the only one among us who Kiara never dated?”

They hum. “You could look at it that way.”

I’m skeptical, but I still ask, “What other way is there?”

“That you’re the only one of us who Kiara never dumped.”

Evan was her first, when we were in eighth grade, then Radhika and Keiffer in ninth, and most recently, Tayla, who she was with sophomore year from Christmas break all the way through summer. Everyone thought maybe Tayla was the One. Hell, even Tayla probably thought Tayla was the One.

But by the time junior year began, Kiara was single again. It’s why I dubbed us the Fellowship of the Fling; no relationship has lasted longer than Tayla’s eight months.

“So it was always Kiara’s decision to end the relationship? With all of you?” I ask.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Why?”

Evan gives me a weird look. “Kind of personal, no?”

“I don’t mean specific details. It’s just…it’s weird, right? How things are always on her terms?”

“Not always.” Evan shrugs. “And not really.”

Right. The bad luck that brought us out here in the first place. My eyes flick back to the tent, where Kiara is still cloistered. “I hope it stays good.”

“The tent? Or whatever’s going on between you two?” they ask wryly.

I wonder how much, if anything, Evan overheard. “Is it that obvious?”

They take a languid sip of their tea. “I’m observant.”

“Trying to say you stare at me?” I joke.

“Sometimes. You’re really pretty.”

I choke out a laugh. “Evan!”

“What? It’s true.” Unperturbed, they set their cup aside and rifle through Keiffer’s bag for provisions.

“Is the subtext of your casual flirting that you’re not here to get Kiara back?”

“Nah,” they say easily. “I love her as my best friend, and she’ll always be a big part of my life. But she’s not the one for me, and I’m not the one for her. That’s okay, though. It doesn’t make me sad.”

I think on that, poking at the fire while they gleefully crow over the pop tabs, peeling back the lids.

“Nova?” Evan waits until I mm-hmm before asking, “If we’re the Fellowship of the Fling, does that make Kiara basically Aragorn, then? Since everyone wanted his D.”

“Evan!” I pretend to be scandalized, clutching my invisible pearls.

“What? That scene when he throws open the doors of King Théoden’s fortress and walks in all wet and majestic after everyone thought that awful orc dragged him off the cliff? Don’t tell me that didn’t do it for you.” They sigh just thinking about it.

“You’re full of surprises,” I tell them, smiling.

“I think,” says Evan, airy as cotton candy, “I’m not the only one.”

My smile drops. What do they think they know?

Standing abruptly, I blurt out, “I think I’ll, um, radio in. See how Austin and Caroline are.” Without waiting for a response, I bolt for one of the empty tents.