Page 19

DECEMBER

Jodi was sitting on a window ledge, reaching out for a tree branch.

“I’ve got you,” a voice said to her right.

Zack sat in the tree, arms extended to her. She smiled at him and stretched her leg out, letting him pull her out of her second-story window.

“See? That wasn’t too bad,” he whispered excitedly.

It was dark on the street except for the lamps that would always wink at her. She let Zack help her down the branches, like she was following him off to Neverland.

A black Mustang idled on the street with its lights off. Zack’s friends waited inside, and although Jodi could tell they looked bored and even cranky, she didn’t care. Zack had asked her to hang out. Zack wanted her there.

They drove to the rose garden, and Zack and Julian Hollister lit joints while Paige Montgomery and Lucy Reed drank hard ciders. The guys dared the girls to streak, and Jodi laughed as Paige and Lucy ran in their underwear around the abandoned playground. Zack and Julian took off after them, and Paige screamed when Julian caught up with her and tackled her to the ground.

Jodi turned her face up to the stars and thanked Jesus for this night. For this boy. For this life .

Jodi woke with a start. Her left arm was completely numb, and as she shook life into it, she couldn’t help but remember the dream.

The dream that didn’t feel like it was hers.

Jodi had been there that night. She remembered Paige and Lucy streaking, and her and Emily declining. She remembered sitting with Emily in the rose garden, waiting in silence for her friends to return so she wasn’t alone with the strange girl.

But that wasn’t her second-story window. That wasn’t her tree. It was Emily’s.

Jodi wondered if Emily had even noticed she was there that night.

“I think we should go to the rose garden.” Paige popped a fry into her mouth and slid her eyes over to Jodi.

It was the first day of winter break, and it had been Lucy’s idea to celebrate at Burr’s for lunch. Zack had passed chemistry with a C plus, Lucy had been offered a volleyball scholarship to Denver (her third choice), and Jodi had gotten her CalArts application in with a recommendation from Mrs. Calloway—practically blackmail for agreeing to take drama again in the spring.

This was the first day in three weeks that the five of them had gotten together. Jodi tried not to take it personally, but Lucy flat-out asked her last week if she had any idea what they expected her to say on the witness stand against them. Jodi didn’t know. They hadn’t even scheduled a deposition.

Jodi had ridden her bike to the Thrashers’ two weeks ago to tell Greg about Vanessa Jones. He said he’d look into it, but not to get her hopes up—everything could be circumstantial. She left without even seeing Zack; Greg had been watching him like a hawk in the lead-up to his chemistry final. But Jodi couldn’t help but notice that Kiera was also taking chemistry, and Kiera was allowed to join Zack after school before his tutor arrived so they could attempt the homework together.

Julian had his first meeting with the judge during finals week, scheduled purposefully to sabotage him, they guessed. She didn’t know if he’d started to struggle in anatomy class toward the end, or if he was checking up on her, but he started asking her for her notes after class, walking back to her locker with her. Then he would ask about the drawings in her locker or stay and poke fun at her clothes, but it was lighter—less cutting. In retaliation, she’d started drawing pictures of him being torn apart by wolves in the margins of her notes.

Paige had given up on her obsession with Emily and the supernatural since visiting Nan’s salon. Or so Jodi had thought.

“Why now?”

Zack looked up from his phone, and Julian met Jodi’s eyes before looking away.

“It just feels like unfinished business.” Paige tossed her hair over her shoulder and wiped her fingers on her napkin. “Emily wanted us to go there.” Her eyes flicked to Lucy.

“There hasn’t been anything weird happening though. Has there?” Jodi asked.

The group was quiet as Lucy and Paige seemed to have a silent conversation across the table. Then Paige blurted, “Lucy is having visions.”

“They’re not visions ,” Lucy retorted quickly. She sighed and addressed the table. “It’s called sleep paralysis. I’ve been having trouble breathing in the mornings. It’s like an out-of-body experience. It’s not a nightmare. I know I’m awake, but I can’t catch my breath, and… it feels like someone is watching me.”

Paige turned and stared intently at Jodi, as if to say, just like me .

“And you think it’s Emily?” Zack said.

“No… I don’t truly believe it’s her. I’m just scared and unable to move, and there’s a lot of stress around these trials.”

The table was quiet, waiting for more. Jodi remembered the dreams she’d been having, waking up without feeling in her arm. Just the night before, she’d had one where she was Emily.

“I’ve had dreams, too,” Zack said. The table turned to him. “She, like, Inception s her way into past memories. Things she wasn’t there for. I don’t have the sleep paralysis thing though…”

Lucy nodded. Jodi looked around. So Paige, Zack, her, and now Lucy were all being haunted in a way.

Paige turned to them and said, “So… rose garden.”

Jodi thought about the text she’d received last week from an unknown number: Good luck on your finals. She’d called it immediately, but it didn’t go through. Neither the text or Lucy’s breathing issues pointed toward Emily specifically.

“What is it you want to do there?” Jodi asked Paige.

She shrugged. “Honestly, I have no idea. She said go to the rose garden, so I wanna go. I think it would be really good for all five of us to go together. Tonight.”

“Tonight? Why the hurry?” Julian crossed his arms.

“It’s just… I’d like to do it before Christmas.”

“Again, why?”

“Because! Because tonight is the winter solstice, and I think it would be more appropriate to try to talk to a dead girl on a witchy day.”

“ Paige .”

“No, listen! It’s not like I’m going to try a spell or anything! All I’m saying,” Paige continued, despite the disbelieving expressions, “is that if we were to visit the rose garden one evening, we would have the best luck with a solstice.”

“Best luck with what?” Zack’s voice was soft.

“With letting Emily guide us.”

“Not convinced. Sorry, Paige,” said Jodi. “Besides, I’ll be at my aunt’s house tonight, and there is no way to sneak out of that house.”

“Why are you at your aunt’s?”

Jodi snapped her eyes to Julian, surprised by his interest.

“I… My dad took holiday hours. So I’m spending the week of Christmas with my mom’s family.”

He watched her, searching for more. She tore her eyes away. If he stared too long, maybe he’d see the yelling match she and her dad had had last week. Or the lamp he’d knocked off the living room table in a drunken stumble. She was happy to be at her aunt’s and happy her dad could get more money from the holidays. Simple.

“I’m out, too,” said Lucy. “We’re going to Tahoe tomorrow and leaving early. So I really don’t want to be running around town all night.”

Pouting, Paige leaned back, accepting defeat.

“Hey, there’s always the spring equinox,” Julian said drily, knocking her shoulder.

Jodi felt bad for Paige, but she was far more relieved that they were not going to sit in a park at midnight, calling upon a dead girl to speak to them.

When Mr. Burr came over to ask if Paige needed more fries, Jodi saw Zack staring out the window, thinking hard on something.

Jodi had resigned herself to spending New Year’s with her aunt and grandma, doing jigsaw puzzles and burning tamales. Lucy was still in Tahoe through New Year’s, and Paige had a meeting with her legal team scheduled for the first week of the year, so she said she was lying low in town for the thirty-first. Julian invited Zack to Napa with the Hollisters.

On the thirty-first at ten in the morning, Oliver texted her.

nobody home?

She replied, nope. dad on a drive and im at my grandmas

He sent back an Apple Music link to the Postmodern Jukebox cover of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

“Can I meet up with a friend tonight?” she asked Rosa.

“Which friend?” Rosa lifted her threaded brow.

“An old friend. Do you remember the Burnses next door? I used to watch cartoons with their son.”

Thank god Rosa hadn’t seen Oliver recently. The septum ring and the hair would have set off alarm bells. But the version of Oliver Burns that Rosa remembered was gap-toothed and had talked with her about the new Selena Gomez makeup line.

At ten that night, she got in Oliver’s car, and they drove out to South Sacramento to some junior’s house. Inside, a large television hosted a video game tournament between four dudes, and there was alcohol, pipes, and joints for all.

Oliver knew everybody, and she noticed he brought in his backpack. Nikita was holding court in the kitchen, and she grabbed Jodi’s elbow when she saw her, drawing her into the conversation. Jodi felt eyes trailing over her, greedy gazes from people who realized that Zack Thrasher’s best friend was here.

It was climbing toward midnight, and the video game paused in favor of Ryan Seacrest. Jodi was out on the patio, near the aboveground pool with a few girls she knew from stage crew, consoling one of them about their cheating boyfriend. Her eyes wandered to the screen door, and she nearly choked.

Emily Mills was standing in the doorway, eyes pale blue and looking out over the backyard, as if searching for someone.

Jodi drew a sharp breath, letting the hazy scene clear and reform in her mind.

Hannah. Hannah Mills, in her sister’s orange shoes, with her sister’s hair and eyes, was floating over to a table with empty Cheetos bowls and greasy pizza boxes. Before Jodi could get her breathing to even out, she watched Hannah accept a pipe from some dude, artfully tilt the lighter, and inhale. Jodi stared in shock as Hannah blended right into the crowd.

Oliver’s drunken cackle from next to the barbeque pulled her attention, and Jodi made a beeline for him. She tugged on his sleeve, and he stepped aside with her.

“Hannah Mills is here. She’s fourteen !”

His lips twitched. “Don’t pretend you don’t know how long your bestie Zack has been smoking pot. Or how old Lucy Reed was the first time she had her stomach pumped.”

“But… they’re different.”

“Jodi. Hannah Mills has been buying from me for six months.”

Jodi reeled back. “Oliver, she’s really vulnerable. That doesn’t seem right.”

He scoffed, stealing the joint back from her. “You really want to argue with me about how to treat vulnerable people?” He brought the joint to his lips and muttered, “Your friends did far worse things to a Mills girl, you know.”

Jodi frowned. There was something specific here. He stared down at the cement patio and pressed his lips together, like he wished he could swallow something back.

“What did you mean before, when you said there were things I didn’t know?”

He leveled guilty eyes at her. Extending the joint back to her, he said, “Hit this. So I can pretend you won’t remember this in the morning.”

Jodi blinked. She brought it to her lips and inhaled, waiting for him.

Oliver stared out over the party. The two of them were tucked into a corner near the fence. No one else could overhear.

“I was finishing the set for The Miracle Worker last spring, and I was the last one in the theater lab. When I left, it was like seven or eight. There were only a couple of cars left in the lot, but one was driving slowly around. I only remember because that was weird.” He met her eyes. “Then it sped up. And I heard screaming. That’s when I saw Emily Mills on the hood.”

Jodi’s heartbeat leapt as she realized what he was saying.

“I’d seen you guys play the game before, so I knew what was happening.” He sniffed, and readjusted his septum ring. “The car took a sharp turn, and I heard her tell them to stop. She was screaming, ‘Stop! Stop!’ She was begging, Jodi.”

“There’s… there’s a safe word. You have to say ride or die .”

He shrugged. “Whatever. I’m just saying, she wanted it to stop.” He stubbed out the joint and blew out a deep breath. “She slid off the car. I watched her tumble down and roll. When everyone got out of the car to check on her, she started laughing, but I don’t know if that was just what she thought they wanted.”

Jodi croaked, “Who’s ‘they’?”

He locked eyes with her and said, “Lucy Reed. Paige Montgomery. Julian Hollister. And Zack Thrasher.”

It felt like a cold hand had reached inside of her chest and grabbed hold of her heart. She nodded, looking down at their shoes. “And you’ve told the cops this.”

Oliver said nothing. “When I got home, I saw you carrying in groceries. I told the cops that, too.”

She realized then that this was a key piece to the case and a key reason why she was never formally charged.

“Who was driving?” she asked softly.

“I don’t know, actually. I was watching Emily to see if she was even moving after falling off the hood. I didn’t see who got out of the driver’s seat.” He turned to her completely and put his hands on her shoulders. “Listen. When they question you, you know nothing, okay? There’s no reason for you to know about it. It’s okay if you lie. But I thought it was important for you to know that your friends didn’t care about Emily Mills at all. You were the only one that did.”

Jodi remembered the night she’d taken Emily to the movie in stead of letting her play Ride or Die—because she had known in her heart that it would end like that.

Jodi felt like screaming. There was some part of her that was white-hot at the idea that she wasn’t invited somewhere and Emily Mills was, and they never told her. They never spoke about it again. Was it on purpose? Was there a conversation about not inviting Jodi, not telling Jodi later? How often did something like that happen?

She was suddenly unsure if Lucy was really in Tahoe. If Paige was really staying in tonight. Were they in Napa with Julian and Zack without her?

She shook herself. “When was this? March?”

“April.”

Something slithered against her spine. She saw it clearly in her head. Emily started laughing because she was supposed to laugh when she got thrown from the hood. Emily went home and realized she could have died. Emily realized no one would have stopped until she died. Emily tried to kill herself that night.

Jodi breathed deeply. “Do you have more weed? I need something else.”

Oliver draped his arm over her shoulder. “Come on.”

He steered her inside. Nikita was sitting on the couch, giggling and passing a bong back and forth. Jodi started to head her way, but Oliver led her toward the kitchen.

Hannah Mills reached for the bong from Nikita. Jodi forced her shoulders to relax. Emily had been dependent on other people’s opinion of her, but that was not Hannah. Maybe she should be more like Hannah.

Oliver was pouring shots with a few guys—some she knew, some she didn’t. A shot glass with a deep amber liquid appeared in her hand, but she handed it back to the guy next to her.

“I don’t drink.”

“Yeah, she’s the Thrashers’ DD,” one of them said.

Blinking to clear her eyes, she opened her mouth to respond, but it was full of cotton.

Oliver laughed, clinked glasses, and poured his down his throat. The temperature of the kitchen rose.

“Zack Thrasher’s not here, sweetheart,” the other guy said. “I’ll drive you home.”

They laughed. Oliver smiled and poured another round.

Jodi felt tired and full of air. Like she could float away at a moment’s notice. Zack Thrasher wasn’t here. He’d left her alone on New Year’s with Emily Mills’s ghost. None of them were here. None of them had been here in a long while. Maybe they didn’t want to be.

Oliver was the one to hand her the shot. And he knew about her dad. So if Oliver said it was okay—it was safe for Hank Dillon’s daughter to start drinking—then maybe it was.

It tasted just like she’d thought it would. Like something from the chemistry lab. Like poison. But the guys cheered her and gave her another, so she drank that, too, coughing.

She didn’t know what was the weed and what was the rum, but very quickly the world got fuzzy. She needed to lean on the counter and count the tiles on the kitchen floor.

Someone handed her another shot, and she said to no one, “My dad drinks Corona.”

“You’re gonna want to stick to rum, babe.”

Sometime later, on the couches with Nikita, she wondered if she liked it. She wondered if it was something that brought her any relief.

“Why do you think people drink?” she muttered to Nikita, but a redhead was sitting in her place. Jodi didn’t know when Nikita had left her.

The redhead had smoke coming out of her nostrils, like a dragon. “I think… because we’re not supposed to.”

Jodi blinked at her. No, that wasn’t it.

A flash of blond hair caught her eye, but disappeared before Jodi could turn her head fast enough. Her skull felt like a fishbowl, the top open and sloshing.

When it was time to throw up, Jodi found the upstairs bathroom empty. She tied her hair back and wet the hand towel with cold water. She had plenty of experience helping Paige and Lucy.

The splash in the toilet was loud against the quiet tiles. The violence in her throat pulled tears out of her eyes and snot out of her nose, and wasn’t it nice that no one was here for this? Wasn’t it nice that they would never know?

She’d gotten Happy New Year! texts in the group chat, but nothing else. Maybe that’s the kind of friends they were now. Holidays and birthdays, but once they graduated in June, there wouldn’t be anything but the reunions to bring them together.

She heaved again, spitting and dragging the washcloth over her face. She sat back on the furry gray carpet next to the shower, thinking of just climbing inside and going to sleep.

Maybe if she’d told Zack she was proud of her backdrop, he would have come to see Our Town . She liked painting things for a purpose. Not just a bowl of fruit on canvas to hang in someone’s kitchen, but something that told a story.

She’d been to all of Lucy’s track meets. She’d sat through a Model UN meet last year for Paige. She had pulled back both girls’ hair and pressed a cold towel to their necks whenever Paige or Lucy drank too much. She’d driven Julian and Zack home without a license whenever they were too blitzed. And here she was sitting in a bathroom alone, not even sure if she’d locked the door, but too far away to crawl to it to check.

She stared down at their group chat. Julian had sent a selfie with his tongue out and Zack asleep on the deck of the Napa house in the background.

Julian had come to Our Town for some reason. He was the only person who had been showing up for a while. She hadn’t thanked him. How was he supposed to know to come to the next one?

She flicked her screen to her contacts and listened to the ring until someone picked up. “Yo.”

“Thank you for coming to the play.” Her voice sounded hoarse and echo-y.

“The—the play? Yeah. I told you I liked your painting.”

“It’s called a backdrop. When it’s for theater, it’s called a backdrop.” She pressed the washcloth to her forehead and tilted her head back.

Spinning, tilting—

Humming, she sat up again, pressing her eyes closed until the ground was beneath her again.

“Why are you calling me at two A.M. , Dillon?” There was a smile in his voice, and she wondered what she’d said that was funny.

“I should have thanked you. Before. And I thought if you didn’t know that I apprep—appra— appreciated it, you wouldn’t come to the next one.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” She heard sheets rustling. “You tell me the time and place.”

“It’s in May, I think. I can look it up, hold on—”

“Later, Dillon.” He laughed. “So, did you and your aunt do anything fun?”

“I went to a party.”

“Oh, yeah? Whose party?”

“I don’t know them. Oliver Burns brought me.”

A pause. “Is that why you sound weird? You flying, Dillon?”

“Like a kite,” she sang. “But I’m also spinning like a… something that spins. Hey, what do you keep in your flask?”

“Vodka. It’s my mom’s favorite.”

“Have you tried rum?”

“I—yes, I’ve tried rum,” he said, and she heard him chuckle. The sound was warm.

“It’s terrible. Is vodka better?”

The phone was quiet. After a handful of seconds, Jodi pulled away the screen to make sure her battery hadn’t died.

“Are you… Did you drink?”

“A little bit. Maybe a lot. I don’t know what’s a lot.” She rubbed her face. “But I didn’t throw anything at anyone. Not that I thought I would, but… it’s nice to know that I don’t hurt people when I’m drunk, like my dad. Or yours.”

“Where are you?” She heard the sheets moving again.

“In the bathroom.”

“Who’s with you?”

Jodi looked behind her into the bathtub to make sure. “Nobody. But Hannah Mills is downstairs somewhere. She’s a druggie. Isn’t that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard?”

“Whose house is it?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t meet him. Or maybe I did.”

“Can you call an Uber? Can you go home right now?”

“An Uber at two A.M. on New Year’s Eve? What am I, a millionaire?” She snorted at herself.

“I’m gonna Venmo you a hundred dollars right now. Is your Uber app hooked up to Venmo?”

“I don’t…” She looked down at her screen. “It might be, but I’m at three percent.”

“Jodi, can you find a charger?”

“‘Jodi.’” She hummed. “I didn’t know you knew my first name.”

“Okay, just… drop me a pin to your location. Go outside and wait for a car.”

“Which car?”

“Dillon, focus! Just—”

She waited. “‘Just’ what?” Nothing.

She pulled her phone screen away. Dead.

Jodi blew out a breath and pulled herself up to her knees to go find a phone charger—

The room spun. She turned and vomited into the toilet as a knock came to the door. “Is Jodi Dillon in there?”

Coughing and wiping her mouth, she nodded. Then realized no one could see her. “Yes.”

“Jodi, you sick?” It was Nikita.

She moaned a response, and the door opened.

“Aw, poor little Thrasher.” Nikita chuckled and pulled Jodi’s hair back off her neck. “Let’s get you into bed.”

She tugged her off the floor and encouraged her to drink water from the faucet. After scrabbling through the drawers, she gave Jodi a tube of toothpaste to scrub her mouth with.

“My phone’s dead,” she said as Nikita led her down the hall.

“I’m sure we can find you a charger. I’ll look for one and bring you some water, too.”

“You’re really nice,” Jodi mumbled, falling onto a quilted bed.

“Don’t tell anyone. It would ruin my reputation.” Nikita winked at her and pushed Jodi’s hair away from her face.

Jodi was out before Nikita could close the door behind her.

Jodi opened her eyes to a dark room, unfamiliar and heavy. A bass beat pounded downstairs in time with her headache, rattling the second-story floorboards. The ceiling was spinning. She was going to be sick again. She swallowed back bile and turned on her side.

A halo of blond hair fanned over the pillow next to her. A pair of clear blue eyes watched her.

The bed felt unsteady, like a waterbed, but she focused on the girl staring back at her.

“Emily,” she croaked. “Emily, what are you doing here?”

She didn’t move, didn’t blink. Had she died? Again?

Then Emily lifted her hand and brushed Jodi’s sticky hair away from her forehead.

“I’m sorry,” Jodi said. “I’m sorry you’re dead.”

Emily’s eyes flickered back and forth between Jodi’s. “Do you miss her?” Emily whispered, voice nothing but air.

She felt her throat burn with acid, and her heartbeat in her temple.

“Sometimes.”

Emily brushed her fingertips over Jodi’s eyes, closing them.

The door banged open, and Jodi’s head split in two as the overhead light burst on. She slapped her hand over her eyes, feeling fingertips like butterfly kisses.

“She’s in here!”

Someone was leaning over her, speaking quietly to her, but she just needed to go back to sleep. It wouldn’t hurt like this if she just slept.

“Come on, Jo,” the voice said, deep and warm. He helped her turn on her side slowly as someone else came in the room. Jodi’s eyes were wet and blurry. Her stomach turned and she bolted upright, bracing herself on the nightstand and throwing up on the carpet.

The two people said nothing, but then the second one cracked open a water bottle. Then soft hands were on her chin, wiping at her mouth.

“It’s okay, baby girl.” Paige. She ran her fingers through the hair at Jodi’s neck. “Let’s drink some water, okay?”

Jodi blinked away the haze and took the bottle from her. Paige smiled, even as she crouched over Jodi’s sick.

“I’ll find a towel for the carpet, or…” Zack. Zack was here.

“Yeah, and get one for the car,” said Paige.

Jodi swallowed three sips of water, wondering if she was asleep. Paige grabbed her elbow and helped her stand.

“What about Emily?” Jodi said, turning over her shoulder to the bed.

Empty. She’d been alone.

“What?” Paige said, a panic in her voice.

Jodi shook her head, then abruptly stopped when it made things worse. “Nothing. I was… I was dreaming.”

Zack met them at the door with a beach towel stolen from somewhere.

“Why aren’t you in Napa?” she asked him when he took her elbow from Paige. “How did you get here?” Just then, Julian appeared at the top of the stairs, having taken them two at a time.

He stopped when he saw her. She immediately wondered what she looked like.

“Do you have your phone?” Paige asked, closing the bedroom door behind them. Jodi nodded. “Okay, we’ll charge it in the car. Let’s go home.”

Eyes turned on them as they passed people smoking on the staircase, and it seemed like the entire living room was waiting for them to descend by the time they came into view.

“Hey. Everything okay?”

Jodi turned and saw Oliver putting out a cigarette, coming around from the side porch. He looked between Zack and the others.

“Yeah, I drank too much—”

A fist slammed into Oliver’s jaw, sending him tumbling sideways. Paige yelled and Jodi jumped.

Julian was on top of him in a flash, tugging him up by his shirt and punching him again.

“Julian!”

“You know,” he hissed. Oliver’s eye was split. His nose bleeding. “You know and you know she doesn’t drink—”

“She’s her own person, not your lapdog. She makes her own choices—”

Julian’s fist reared back.

“Hit me again and I swear to god, I’ll press charges.” Oliver’s eyes were bright, rage-filled.

The sharp crack of Julian’s knuckles connecting with Oliver’s face resonated again, and then he was standing, heading toward his truck and starting the engine.

Jodi stared down in horror at Oliver’s bloody teeth and swollen eye. Zack leaned down to help him up, but he jerked away, snarling, “Get the fuck out of here.”

She thought she should stay and make sure Oliver was okay, but Paige took Jodi to the left, where her car was parked in a neighbor’s driveway. Tossing Zack the keys, Paige slipped into the back seat with Jodi. She spread the beach towel across the floor just in case Jodi needed to throw up again, and then let Jodi lay her head in her lap. Zack turned off the radio, backed out of the driveway, and followed the black truck out of South Sac. They didn’t say anything until Jodi finally asked, “When did you get back from Napa?”

Zack cleared his throat. “We’re not. Julian’s parents are still up there. He and I drove back after you called him.”

She remembered her suspicion. The idea that they were all there without her.

“Paige, were you there?”

“No, I was home, remember? I met them here once we figured out where you were.”

Jodi watched hot tears spill down over Paige’s knees as her hair was pulled away from her neck, patterns traced through her scalp like Jodi did for her.

She slept in one of the Thrashers’ guest rooms. Two water bottles poured down her throat and a pair of aspirin later, and she was out, Paige’s fingertips still braiding and unbraiding her hair.

When she woke up to sunlight breaking through the part in the curtains, Paige was asleep next to her, and Lucy was passed out in the armchair, curled into a ball with her phone still in her hand.