Page 40 of Life and Death

Apparently I’d said something funny, but I couldn’t guess what it was, or why there was an edge to her laughter.

“Have fun at the beach,” she said when she was finished. “Good weather for sunbathing.” She gestured to the sheeting rain.

“Won’t I see you tomorrow?”

“No. Eleanor and I are starting the weekend early.”

“What are you going to do?” A friend could ask that, right? I hoped she couldn’t hear the disappointment in my voice.

“We’ll be hiking the Goat Rocks Wilderness, just south of Rainier.”

“Oh, sounds fun.”

She smiled. “Will you do something for me this weekend?” She turned to look me straight in the eyes, her own burning in their hypnotic way.

I nodded, helpless.Anything, I could have said, and it would have been true.

“Don’t be offended, but you seem to be one of those people who just attract accidents like a magnet. Try not to fall into the ocean or get run over by anything, all right?”

She flashed her dimples at me, which took away some of the sting of being called incompetent.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised.

I jumped out into the vertical river and ran for the porch. By the time I turned around, the Volvo had disappeared.

“Oh!” I clutched at my jacket pocket, remembering that I’d forgotten to give her my key.

The pocket was empty.

6. SCARY STORIES

WHILEITRIED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE THIRD ACT OFMACBETH, I waslistening for my truck. I would have thought I’d hear the engine’s roar even over the pounding rain. But when I went to look out the window again, it was suddenly there.

I wasn’t super excited to get up on Friday, and it more than lived up to my negative expectations. Of course there were all the fainting comments. Jeremy especially seemed to get a kick out of that story. He laughed till he choked when Logan pretended to swoon at the lunch table. Luckily, McKayla had kept her mouth shut, and no one seemed to know about Edythe’s involvement. Jeremy did have a lot of questions about yesterday’s lunch, though.

“What did Edythe Cullen want?” he’d asked in Trig.

“Not sure.” It was the truth. “She never really got to the point.”

“She looked kind of mad.”

I’d shrugged. “Did she?”

“I’ve never seen her sit with anyone but her family before. That was weird.”

“Yeah, weird,” I’d agreed.

He’d seemed kind of irritated that I didn’t have better answers.

The worst part about Friday was that, even though I knew she wasn’t going to be there, I still hoped. When I walked into the cafeteria with Jeremy and McKayla, I couldn’t keep from looking at her table, where Royal, Archie, and Jessamine sat, talking with their heads close together. I wondered if Archie had been the one to drive my truck home last night, and what he thought about the chore.

At my normal table, everyone was full of our plans for the next day. McKayla was animated again, putting a lot more trust in the local weatherman than I thought he deserved. I’d have to see his promised sun before I believed it. At least it was warmer today—almost sixty, though it was still wet. Maybe the trip wouldn’t be totally miserable.

I caught a few unfriendly glances from Logan during lunch, which I didn’t really understand. Just like everyone else, I’d laughed along with his fainting stunt. But I got some clarification as we walked out of the room. I guess he didn’t realize how close I was behind him.

He ran a hand over his slicked-back, silver-blond hair. “I don’t know whyBeaufort”—he said my name with a sneer—“doesn’t just sit with the Cullens now,” I heard him mutter to McKayla. I’d never noticed before what a nasal voice he had, and I was surprised now by the malice in it. I really didn’t know him well, not well enough for him to dislike me—or so I would have thought.

“He’s my friend; he sits with us,” McKayla snapped back. Loyal, but also territorial. I paused to let Jeremy and Allen pass. I didn’t want to hear any more.