Page 7

Four Weeks Before the Abduction

A ctually a chain of four lochs connected to one another by channels, Emerson Bay was the largest and most populated, and ran via the Chowan River to the Atlantic Ocean.

Homes colonized the shores and were stacked deep inland away from the bay.

Matt Wellington’s house sat on the banks of Emerson Bay and, like Rachel Ryan’s, was a sprawling hillside estate whose backyard spilled down to the water’s edge.

By ten p.m., Saturday night’s party was in full swing.

The Wellingtons’ pool was dug into the side of the hill, with boulders and granite creating a backdrop where the bulldozer had cut into the earth.

Spotlights highlighted the granite, and underwater bulbs made visible the kicking legs of kids treading water in the deep end.

Girls screamed as they sat on guys’ shoulders for chicken fights.

Matt Wellington’s parents made an appearance every so often, walking out to the pool to check on things.

The kids resorted to sneaking beers down by the bay.

Stairs cut through the hill and led to the water.

Out of sight from the house, a cooler filled with cold Budweiser was quickly losing its bulk as kids chugged beer, squashed the cans, and tossed them in the bay.

Megan McDonald sat with her friends at a patio table. Some girls walked around in bikini tops and cutoff shorts. The bolder ones lost the shorts and paraded around in full bikinis.

“She’s a total slut,” Megan said. “Look at her.”

Megan was hanging with her cheer team friends, a huddle of ten girls.

They watched Matt hoist Nicole Cutty onto his shoulders by dipping his head underwater and swimming between her legs before standing, his hands firmly planted on her thighs.

Nicole screamed as she wrestled Jessica Tanner, who was sitting on Tyler Elliot’s shoulders.

At some point during the chicken fight, Nicole reached over and pulled Jessica’s bikini down to expose her breast. The boys hooted at the skin show before Jessica screamed and fell backward into the water, one arm crossed over her bare chest, the other extended straight at Nicole with her middle finger raised until the deep end swallowed her.

“Who does that?” Megan asked.

“They’re so desperate for attention,” Stacey Morgan said.

“And they’re getting it. She’s going to end up pregnant before she’s twenty. Just watch.”

“They call her Slutty Cutty for a reason. Half of Emerson Bay would have to take a paternity test to determine the father.”

This got the cheer team laughing. Megan and Stacey split off and headed down toward the bay.

They each grabbed a Budweiser and sipped the awful-tasting stuff for ten minutes while they watched boys skip crushed empties across the water.

From behind her, Matt grabbed Megan around the waist and hugged her tight.

Soaking wet from the pool, he dripped all over her.

“You haven’t even said hi to me yet,” he said in her ear.

“That’s because you’ve been too busy with the topless girls in your pool.”

Matt picked her up, Megan’s back pressed firmly to his chest. “I’m throwing you in the bay for that comment,” he said as he penguin-walked her along the dock.

“Throw me in and you’re dead,” Megan said calmly.

Matt kept walking closer to the water. At the edge of the dock, he rocked her back and forth. “One. Twoooo. Three!” He lifted her up and pretended to throw her in the water. Megan screamed. When he let her go, she turned with a smile and slapped his shoulder.

“I would’ve killed you,” Megan said.

“Yeah,” Nicole said, coming down the stairs.

She was also soaking wet, just out of the pool.

With her breasts spilling from her bikini top, her bottoms straight across her flat stomach, and the string of dock lights reflecting off her skin, Megan admitted she was gorgeous.

On the outside. Inside, Nicole Cutty was ugly.

She was a bully. The type of person Megan’s parents always taught her not to be, and not to be around.

Nicole Cutty was the type of person Megan had created the retreat to fight against .

“How would she explain to her police-chief daddy that she ended up in the water with all her clothes on?”

“I wasn’t going to throw you in,” Matt said, still smiling and ignorant of the rivalry.

“Where’s your bathing suit, anyway?” Nicole asked. “You know this is a pool party?”

“Thanks,” Megan said. “I figured that out.”

“So where’s your suit?”

“On my body, I just don’t feel the need to parade around in it.”

“Figures.” Nicole laughed. “It doesn’t take a bikini top for everyone to see you’re flat-chested.” Nicole grabbed a beer from the cooler. “Get over it or ask Daddy for some implants.”

“Shut up, Nicole,” Stacey said.

Nicole popped the beer. “Or, since you guys are so scared of swimsuits, maybe you’ll join us later when we go skinny-dipping in the bay.” She laughed again. “Right! The cheer princesses skinny-dipping.” Nicole walked up the stairs. “Matt, tell your buddies we’re getting naked at midnight.”

Stacey made an ugly face as Nicole walked up the stairs. “It must be tough when everything you have going for yourself is in your tits.”

Ignoring the comment, Nicole looked over her shoulder as she ascended the stairs, hips swaying back and forth, and stared at Matt. “You better be in that water with us.”

Megan looked at Matt once Nicole was gone. “She’s such a slut. I can’t believe you hang out with her.”

“Nicole?” Matt said, laughing it off. “She’s cool. Just has, like, a chip on her shoulder about something. Wants to fit in like everyone else. Blow her off. ”

Jessica Tanner came down the stairs, smiling as she watched Nicole saunter past. Jessica grabbed a beer. “Don’t let her bother you,” she said to Megan. “She’s got a thing for you.”

“For me ?” Megan said.

“She thinks you’re an elitist. . . .” Jessica opened her palms and shrugged her shoulders. “Or something. Too good to hang with anyone but, you know, your little group. Like Matt said. Just blow her off. She’s harmless.”

“Isn’t she your friend?” Stacey asked.

“Yes. Best friend.” Jessica smirked. “But I’m not a zealot.

I can admit when my friend is being a bitch.

” Jessica popped her beer. “I think that’s what Nicole hates about your clique.

Defending each other no matter what. It irks her.

” Jessica took a sip of beer. “Me too, sometimes. But hey,” Jessica said as she headed back up the stairs.

“Wanna shut her up? Call her bluff about skinny-dipping.”

It was eleven thirty p.m. when the first group swam out to the raft.

It floated twenty-five yards off Matt’s dock and, lighted by a halogen bulb stuck to the top of the flagpole that stood in its center, the raft was a beacon of light in the otherwise dark bay.

Made from thick pinewood, it was a small patio deck floating on Emerson Bay, attached and secured to the bottom by a long chain.

Two of the guys floated the cooler out and hoisted it up on the deck.

It was only a few minutes before a melee broke out among the guys, pushing one another into the water, backflipping and belly flopping.

The girls screamed as they huddled on one side of the raft and allowed the boys to play King of the Hill, which Matt—captain of the wrestling team—won without contest. Next was the girls’ turn, as the guys playfully pushed them into the water.

Some fought back, but resistance brought the attention of two or three guys who carried the girl by the armpits and ankles to heave her over the side.

Once things calmed down, they all sat around the edge of the raft dangling their feet into the water.

Beers were popped and chugged and things quieted down.

The same scene played out every time this group got together at a bay party; someone always talked about skinny-dipping.

The boys outnumbered the girls on the raft—twelve to eight—all hoping for the girls to magically slip out of their suits and jump in.

They would all do the same, they promised.

Dares and challenges and compromises were usually laid down before the group finally got bored and swam back, the journey to the raft resulting in nothing more than a good swim and some laughs.

At Matt’s urging, Megan and Stacey, along with three other cheerleaders, had floated out to the raft.

Jessica, Nicole, and Rachel also took the swim, and together they made up the group of eight girls.

Now, with the twenty kids sitting around, legs dangling in the water and the raft ebbing with the subtle waves of the bay, they broke off into separate conversations.

Megan sat next to Matt and they talked about Duke.

He, too, was headed there in the fall and they were each happy to know a familiar face would be close.

They had never formally dated, although last summer they got together a few times with mutual friends and had gone to see The Martian together, which was termed a date only after they kissed in Matt’s car.

But as popular as they each were, they somehow never managed to be comfortable with each other.

So senior year passed with them as friends, both waiting for more to happen, but never getting there.

“So who’s doing it?” Nicole asked the group after twenty minutes on the raft. “Didn’t we all swim out here for a reason?”

“You go first,” one of the guys challenged.

“Please,” Nicole said with a dismissive smirk.

“I’m not worried about me, I just don’t want to be the only naked person in the lake.

I want naked guys with me, but you’re all too scared to drop trou.

” Nicole looked at Jessica and Rachel. “Shrinkage? It’s so dark, we won’t be able to see your little guys anyways. ”

Jason Miller stood up and walked over to her. “You go, then I’ll go.”

Another ugly face. “Right, I’ll get naked so you can watch me jump in. Then you’ll sit down with your buddies, too scared of the woody in your shorts to jump in yourself.”

“You’re all talk, Cutty. We’ll do it at the same time.”

The debate went back and forth about who would remove their swimsuit first and in what order. Then came the rules about where to place the discarded clothing, and that no one could touch the suits or there would be hell to pay.

During the back and forth, Megan turned to Stacey. “Let’s just do it.”

“Really?” Stacey said with a smile.

Matt joined in. “Let’s just friggin’ do it, shut them all up.”

“Yeah,” Tyler Elliot said, looking at Stacey .

“Fine,” Stacey agreed, and in one unified movement of twisting arms and legs they each dumped their suits onto the deck of the raft before anyone knew they had done so.

“See you, suckers!” Matt yelled as they all jumped in the lake. When the group looked over, they saw a brief glimpse of bare butts, shadowed by the night, until the splash erased everything from view. The four of them laughed as they swam away from the raft, protected by the dark water.

This sent the others onto their feet, all straining for a better view of the four who had finally done it.

A mass disrobing began, as guys dropped their shorts and jumped into the lake.

Nicole was naked a few seconds later, but in no hurry to find protection in the water.

She shielded her breasts with her arm as she jostled Jessica and Rachel to join her.

The remaining guys who stayed on the raft whistled at the show.

Jessica and Rachel quickly undressed and jumped in.

Nicole slowly turned to the guys who stood staring at her, uncovered her chest, and stared back at them for a few seconds, her eyebrows raised.

It shut them up quickly as the boys blinked and could think of nothing to say.

“Only ones left,” Nicole said. She began to fall backward off the raft. “Must have the littlest guys in the group.”

A splash followed and she was gone.

In the end, two guys who never dropped their shorts claimed the beer was running low and wanted to keep their buzz going.

Megan and Matt, after taking a lap around the perimeter and treading water, grew tired and swam to the safety of the raft, holding on to the side and placing a foot on the bar that ran underwater and encircled the float.

Megan was careful to stay underwater, keeping just her head visible.

“That was crazy,” Matt said.

“It’s senior year, we had to do it eventually.”

“I love that we started it.”

The water splashed between them as kids swam and kicked around the raft.

“I’m really glad we’ll be at school together next year,” Matt said.

“Yeah? Me too.”

He leaned his face toward hers, careful not to get too close—not to get too much skin-on-skin contact—and kissed her.

Megan, balancing with her right hand on the raft and right foot supporting herself on the bar, kissed back, rubbing her left hand through Matt’s hair.

Without warning, Megan felt a hand run up the back of her thigh and grab her butt with a hard squeeze. She pulled away quickly.

“Take it easy you two,” Nicole said. “Grabbing ass in the lake? Get a room, already.”

Megan pushed Nicole’s hand away. Matt laughed because he wasn’t sure what else to do. Nicole swam off as quickly as she had appeared.

“That wasn’t me,” Matt said as soon as Nicole was gone.

“No kidding.”

Spent of energy from treading water, everyone slowly reconvened at the raft. Awkward and shy now that swimming away was not an option, the girls mostly congregated on one side, boys on the other. Matt reached up and grabbed Megan’s suit.

“Here you go,” he said in a disappointed tone. “Looks like the party’s over.”

Megan took her bikini and strapped it around her neck, watching out of the corner of her eye as Matt pulled himself out of the water to his waist to retrieve his shorts.

She pulled on her bottoms, climbed back onto the raft, and handed out suits to her friends in the water.

Everyone did the same except for Nicole Cutty, who climbed up the ladder and stood on the raft, squeezing water from her hair in no particular rush before bending over to pick up her bikini.

From the depths of the lake, the guys helplessly stared.

Megan noticed Matt, like every other guy, unable to peel his attention away until Nicole stepped both feet into her bottoms and pulled them up.