Page 27

Twenty-Seven

Before

September 2nd

The lake is so cold it’s a shock to my entire body. It’s like plunging into an ice bath and it makes me gasp before my head has cleared the surface. Black water rushes down my throat and burns. I kick to the surface and choke it all back out as I spin around and around and around, trying to orient myself. I suck in mouthfuls of air.

What the hell just happened?

Everything is blurry and waves kicked up by the boat’s wake lap at my face, made larger by the impact of whatever we hit. It takes a few tries to blink enough water out of my eyes to sort out what I’m looking at. I’m about twenty feet from the boat, between it and the shore, but I can’t reach the bottom, even with the tips of my shoes. The boat is smashed up against a sandbar, a good forty feet from shore. The engine idles, slowly drifting the boat to the side.

“Shit.” The whole fucking boat is probably wrecked. How the hell am I going to explain that to my parents?

I start towards the swim platform at the back of the boat, but my pink dress tangles around my legs with every kick, slowing my progress.

Something bursts from the lake in front of me.

Claire emerges from the water like a creature from the black lagoon, gasping for air. A strangled, panicked sound comes out of her mouth until she dips back beneath the surface and it turns into a flurry of bubbles.

Pathetic.

I try to swim around her, but she latches onto my arm and pulls herself back above the surface. I turn toward her, ready to tell her off, and reel back when I see her. She’s a fucking mess. Water and blood intermingle on her face. She’s got a nasty gash across the top of her forehead, so deep I can see the bone of her skull through the wound. The gash trails all the way down her face and beneath her opposite eye.

She slaps at the water with her other hand, hyperventilating as her mouth keeps slipping beneath the waves and washing her chin clean of blood.

Like I said, pathetic.

She yanks my arm, trying to keep her head above water at my expense, and gasps, “Brooke. Help.” Her mouth dips under, and back up again. “I can’t swim.”

“Now’s a great time to learn.” I kick her away from me to swim toward the boat, but I only get a few feet away before I feel a hand on my ankle and I’m yanked back. My face goes under the surface and water goes up my nose and burns through my nostrils.

I snort it out and whirl on her, kicking her hand off. “Don’t fucking touch me!”

She gulps another mouthful of air. Her eyes are so wide with fear they’re basically all whites. “Help me. Please .”

I blink at her pitiful face. Something clicks into place like a key in a lock, and I’m done in a way I can’t even explain. A dull emptiness spreads through my entire body. It’s always going to be this, for the rest of my life. I’ll always be trying to stay ahead, and Claire Heck will always be there dragging me back down.

Enough.

I grab her by the arm and yank her close.

There’s a flash of relief in her eyes as she clings to me.

I smile, placing my hands on her shoulders. “Sorry, Claire. Goodwins don’t save lives.”

Before her surprise can register, I press down on her shoulders and shove her beneath the water. Claire thrashes around, grabbing at my legs, but I wrap them around her torso and hold her there. She claws at me, tugging me under with her, but I’m closer to the surface than she is. I breathe when I can, watching the bubbles from her scream drift to the surface when my head crests the top of the water.

It turns out, drowning takes a while.

Eventually, the thrashing slows. Her movements get weaker.

The bubbles trail off and the surface of the water stills.

Her clawed hands loosen and drop away from my thighs, my dress.

The lake goes eerily silent. I kick her further down and float at the surface for a second, letting the weightlessness of this moment sink into my very bones.

I’m finally free.