Page 9

Jodi went with her dad to see a moderately priced criminal defense lawyer on Friday after school. Miranda Perez was a thin woman with intense eyes and black curls peppered with gray. Jodi told her everything she knew—aside from the stolen page of Needlemeyer’s notes hidden in her bottom dresser drawer—and her dad agreed to set up the three-thousand-dollar retainer.

It was a quiet car ride home. Jodi knew that money wouldn’t just appear. It was going to be taken from somewhere else, and that somewhere was her meager college fund.

She sent Paige a Snapchat video that would automatically delete after being watched, asking if Paige thought she’d ever accidentally invited Emily in the limo. Paige sent back her own.

“No, definitely not,” Paige said, filming herself in the car, sunglasses on and focused on the road. “In hindsight, I really should have said, ‘Emily. Girl. You are not coming.’ But I tried so hard not to talk about that limo when she was around. As for Zack telling her he’d slow dance with her?” Paige put on her blinker and took a heavy breath. “Honestly, maybe? He’s terrible. I love him, but he’s oblivious.”

Jodi agreed. There was nothing Zack would have done cruelly. He didn’t like humiliating people. With Emily and the other classmates that had been Thrashed, he never laughed at them directly. He thought Emily’s oddness had been funny, but he hadn’t made fun of it. Zack was always ready for a practical joke, but never one at someone’s expense.

She texted him to ask how his first week went, and he got back to her after eight, which meant that Greg was keeping his phone hostage until after dinner now.

Weird. I cant tell whos being nice and whos just digging for gossip.

She tried to ask him about his class schedule, hoping to find a few breaks to meet him, but he didn’t respond. She even tried texting the group chat about how their weeks had been, but she got minimal responses there. It seemed like Jodi had instigated every Snap, every DM, every Discord thread. She felt too annoying, too clingy. She felt… she almost felt like Emily. Like no one wanted her around, but they were tolerating her.

On the second Friday of the semester, with her mind on her first anatomy quiz later that day, she sat under the oak tree, snacking on her crackers and jotting down her answers on the path of blood through the body. A shadow crossed her sunlight.

“Hey.”

Zack looked like an angel, with a halo of light around his head, sent to save her from loneliness. She beamed up at him as he kicked her shoe.

“How’s it going?”

He shrugged and slid his hands in his pockets. “It’s pretty awful.”

“Same.” She closed her book and moved her backpack so he could sit. “How’s Chemistry: Round 4?”

He cursed under his breath, folding himself to sit next to her. “The first three weeks are always good. It’s once the word covalent comes up that I completely lose it, so Peter has me working a few weeks ahead of the syllabus this time around.”

She knocked his shoulder. “You know, if your dad just donated the money he’s spending on your tutors to the school, he could buy your passing grades.”

“I literally told him that. I said, ‘I can find someone to take the SATs for me if you’re paying this much.’” He rubbed a hand down his face. “But you know Greg. That wasn’t funny to him.”

Jodi hummed and offered him a Ritz. He spun it between his fingers instead of eating it.

“I haven’t seen you,” Zack said, his fingernails chipping away the salt flakes.

“I think that’s the point. We’re not supposed to.”

“He meant not all five of us at once.” Zack broke the cracker in half. “Not that we have to spread ourselves across campus.”

“Yeah, well, no one has been rushing to pick me for dodgeball this week.”

“Me neither.”

Jodi cast an Oh, really? look at him.

“Seriously,” Zack said. “Paige ate lunch with me the first two days. Julian drove with me to school twice this week. But I’ve had to meet new people for lunch every day, and it feels off, you know?” He glanced at her, and she nodded. “Like they want to talk to me, but for a different reason than before. I haven’t heard from Lucy since last Sunday. Paige says she’s been tiptoeing around Reagan, but I don’t know.”

She felt her heart sink. “I’m sorry. I thought… I thought everyone paired up without me.”

“Me too.” He pressed his lips together and looked out over the field. “I thought you were distancing yourself.”

“I’ve been miserable. I’ve been eating lunch with Oliver Burns and Nikita.”

He puffed out a laugh. “Who’s Nikita?”

“Oh, you’ll see. She’s going to be famous one day—just ask her.”

They smiled together and sat quietly for a bit. Then Jodi took out her phone and opened their group chat. “Do you have tutoring tonight?”

“Yeah, but I’m done at six. Dad’s in Modesto for a case.”

“Perfect.”

She typed to the five of them: Drive in tonight? we wont be seen by anyone if we stay in the car

Zack hummed next to her and typed back the movie reel emoji. Lucy was quick to send back the eyes emojis. Then she saw him flip open the Fandango app. He chuckled.

“What’s playing?” she asked.

“Oh, man. You’re gonna hate it. I can’t wait.”

She tried to lean in to see his phone screen, but he jerked his arm back. He grinned down at her, and Jodi was close enough to count his eyelashes. She felt her pulse flutter as she fought the instinct to glance at his lips. Zack’s eyes seemed to soften, the glee still there, but directed at her, not the movie choice.

The bell rang from across the field, and Jodi pulled away, calming her heart.

Zack jumped up and held out his hand for her, and Jodi relished the contact. It had been two weeks since he’d hugged her in his kitchen as he cried. She wasn’t sure anyone else would have gotten that vulnerability from him, but she had. She wanted him to need her like that again.

“I gotta get my book from my locker, but I’ll see you tonight!” Zack said over his shoulder as he left.

Jodi waved and watched him jog across the field, wondering if she could get those five minutes with him every day.

By the time anatomy was over, Julian was the only one who hadn’t responded about the drive-in plan. She approached his workstation as he zipped up his backpack.

“You coming tonight?” she asked.

He curled his lips like she was something sour. “It’s a stupid idea, Dillon. You honestly think no one else is going to be at the movies on a Friday night?”

“The drive-in . We’ll be in the car—”

“Am I not allowed to get food? Or piss?”

She glowered at him. “I’ll bring an empty water bottle for you.”

“You wanna see my dick that bad?” He lifted a brow.

She’d forgotten how nice her life had been without Julian Hollister swatting at her like a fly. Jogging after him, she caught his elbow just outside the door.

“Come on, Julian. You’ve been just as lonely these two weeks as the rest of us. No one else tolerates you.”

He leaned into her. “Do you see me eating lunch by myself, Dillon?”

She felt her cheeks heat. Julian swiveled on his heel and strode away.

But when Paige and Lucy picked her up at seven that night, Julian was already on his way with Zack.

There was a system they’d used for years. They’d meet at the Denny’s two blocks from the drive-in, hide three of them in the truck bed, and then only pay for two tickets at the cashier. Jodi didn’t know why four of the wealthiest kids she knew did this. Maybe it was just for the thrill of it, but either way, it was only three bucks each for the five of them to spend a night getting high or drunk or just eating Red Vines until Lucy puked.

They pulled into the Denny’s lot and parked next to Julian’s black truck. The smoke from his pipe was already curling up and out of the windows.

She watched as Zack got out and swept Lucy up into his arms. “I haven’t seen you in so long,” he said into her curls. Jodi looked away, straightening her shirt and trying not to think of the simple kick to her shoe she’d received upon seeing Zack for the first time in two weeks.

Paige made them wait while she went inside and ordered a milkshake for her and a bunch of fries for the group. While Paige was inside, Lucy hopped up on the truck bed and answered questions about Reagan.

“Every time I enter French, she’s leaning into someone, whispering, and then she shuts up. Obviously spreading shit. And I saw her talking to the news crew last Monday, but I couldn’t find any stations that played her.” Lucy sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know what she wants from me. She didn’t give a fuck about Emily Mills, so what kind of clout is she trying to get?”

“She saw an opening, and she took it,” Julian said, leaning forward on the side of the truck and stretching out his calves. “If you’re out of the way, she has a chance at starting position volleyball, nationals in the spring, homecoming court…”

Jodi snorted. “You think Reagan Matthews wants homecoming queen bad enough to lie to news cameras?”

Julian tilted his head at her with a slippery smile. “Says the only one of us who’ll never be nominated.”

She flinched.

“Hey.” Zack stepped forward.

“You want homecoming queen, Julian?” Lucy cooed. “I’ll put in a good word.”

Julian shook out his shoulders and walked around to the front of the truck, done with them.

“What is his deal?” Lucy reached out her hand, and Jodi stepped into her.

“He’s had a rough week,” Zack said weakly. “It’s no excuse for being a dick, but—”

“I got my arraignment papers yesterday.” Julian’s voice carried to them from the other side of the truck. Jodi and Lucy snapped their heads toward him. “That’s right. Ya boy’s going to jail.”

Lucy jumped up and peered down at him. “What? Don’t talk like that. It’s… It just means that—”

“It means”—Julian reappeared on the other side, walking the parking spot line like a high wire—“that my case was easier to research than the three girls’. Easier to conclude.” His smirk didn’t reach his eyes. “It means that Emily Mills had some fascinating things to say about me in her diary.”

Jodi stared at him, her heart beating in fear.

“No,” Lucy said matter-of-factly, “it means the mail in Sacramento is shit, and we’ll get ours tomorrow. Fuck, I haven’t been home. Maybe I already have it.”

Jodi’s mind spun. Her dad was on the road to Denver all weekend. The mail would be on the entryway floor.

Maybe going to the drive-in was a bad idea after all. Julian was right: they shouldn’t be seen hanging out together.

Just then, Paige jogged out of Denny’s, a milkshake in one hand and a to-go box in another. “Let’s do it! Friday night and I got my milkshaaaake.” She wiggled her hips and growled her words, and it was enough for them to forget Julian’s news for a time.

“Truck or Paige’s car?”

“Truck,” they chorused, and Jodi sighed. Taking the truck to the drive-in meant that she sat up front with Julian. Jodi had lost her shit once and cried when Julian sped out of the parking lot while she was in the bed of the truck, and now it was understood that Jodi would not be one of the three in the back anymore. Which meant it was Zack, Paige, and Lucy in the back, rolling around and clutching each other.

Lucy grabbed a six-pack of her Mexican Coke bottles from Paige’s car and placed them in Julian’s truck. Then the three of them climbed in the back and shut the tailgate behind them. They tugged a tarp over themselves, laughing and trying to steal fries from Paige, and Jodi turned to Julian.

“Do you want me to drive?”

He stopped, keys in hand, and raised his brows at her.

“Are you high?” she clarified.

“Not yet.” He tugged open the driver’s door, and Jodi reluctantly followed to the passenger’s side. Julian only let her drive his truck when he was blitzed out of his mind. They’d had a screaming match outside a party last year when she refused to get in the truck after his third beer, and he refused to let her drive. Zack had to step in and order an Uber for himself and Jodi, letting Julian do whatever he pleased.

Jodi managed to buckle just before the truck zoomed backward. They had only a handful of minutes alone together. Maybe Jodi could get something out of it.

“When is your arraignment scheduled?” she asked him.

Julian reached for the volume knob and blasted the music as they squealed away from the Denny’s parking lot, ending the conversation.

Two minutes later, they pulled into the long line of cars queueing for the ticket booth, and when the car in front of him didn’t pull up, Julian smacked his hand down on the horn.

“Was that necessary?” she said, leaning her elbow out the open window.

He glared straight ahead and then clicked the button to roll up her window. She jerked her arm back inside.

When they pulled up to the ticket booth, a pimply guy a few years older than them passed a cursory glance into the window and said, “Two?”

“Yep.” Julian popped the p . “Stephen King double feature.”

Jodi groaned. Zack said she’d hate it, and he was right.

“Starts in a few minutes. Lot 3.” He glanced over at Jodi as he printed the receipt. “Date night?”

Her lip curled. Julian said, “You betcha.”

“Have fun.” He handed over the receipt.

“Doubt it. She’s a virgin.” His grin spread across his face, and the truck squealed forward, heading for Lot 3.

Jodi crossed her arms, a blush crawling up her neck. “You don’t know that,” she bit out.

“I know that.”

“You don’t. I haven’t talked to anyone for two weeks. I could be having tons of sex. Skipping class, doing it in the parking lot, in the art supply room—”

“You’re not.”

He slowed for the rocky, unpaved road of the lot, and she chanced a look at him. The corner of his mouth was curled upward. He drove to the front row and flipped around to shine his brights at every car that had gotten there early, pulling in so the truck bed faced the screen.

“You’re an asshole. This is inconspicuous?”

He ignored her, finally turning off his lights after a lot of honking, and tuned the dial to the movie audio. Jodi slid out of the truck, throwing apologetic looks to the cars around them. Julian was sticking out a lot. Paige, Zack, and Lucy were tossing the tarp off themselves and laughing about the ride. Jealousy coursed through her, but she buried it as she grabbed the sleeping bag and blankets tucked behind the passenger seat.

“Are there any fries left?”

“Yeah, but they’re soggy.” Paige handed the box over and pulled out a Stanley cup that probably held forty ounces of vodka. Lucy grabbed her pack of glass Coke bottles from the front and started mixing the vodka into them for her and Paige.

Jodi took a handful of limp fries and climbed into the bed of the truck. She hated scary movies, but what she hated even more was being vulnerable while watching them. Tucking herself into the center of the truck, she leaned back on the rear window and grabbed a blanket as the music for It started. Paige slid up next to her, and Lucy and Julian left for the bathroom and concession stall, respectively. Zack lit up Julian’s pipe.

“What’s the second one?” she asked Paige.

“ It Chapter Two .”

“Fuck.”

Paige laughed and wrapped an arm around her. There was a child talking to a sewer grate by the time Lucy got back. She jumped up into the truck with a graceful twirl and leaned back on Paige’s thighs.

“What did you end up changing fourth period to, Jo?” Lucy asked.

“I stuck with drama.”

“Really?” Paige turned to her sharply. “Is it fun?”

“Well, I chose to be on crew. So I’m not gonna be playing Juliet or anything.”

“You should! Damn it, I wanted to take that class,” Paige whined. “Fucking Tunisia.”

Jodi laughed. “Is that your Model UN nation?”

Paige nodded and finished the end of the fries. Zack was fully invested in the movie, watching with a slack jaw as the three of them chatted. Julian returned with only a Diet Coke for him to pour the contents of his flask into.

“So kind of you to offer to grab us something, Julian,” Paige said pointedly. “I would have loved some nachos, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome, Paige,” Julian said, hopping up on the truck bed. He sprawled out longways, stretching his legs over the girls’ and leaning back on the side of the truck.

Jodi started a game on her phone to keep her eyes from watching the screen. Lucy and Paige passed the vodka back and forth, while Zack smoked and Julian drank. It was nice to just all be in the same place again. She might not be able to watch the screen, but she would much rather hear Paige complain about AP Calculus and Julian do impressions of the teachers. She’d missed this.

Paige leaned into her after twenty minutes of a terrifying soundtrack and whispered, “I can stop drinking after the first movie if you don’t want to drive my car home.”

“No, I’m good. But can we walk back to Denny’s if Julian is being a dick about it?”

Paige nodded, but Julian spoke up with his eyes on the screen. “I will let you drive the truck to Denny’s if it means you’ll shut up and let me watch the movie.”

“And we’ll sit down and order something to sober you up?” Jodi raised a brow at him.

“Sure.” He wrapped his lips around the straw.

“I can’t wait that long,” Zack said, turning to them with clouded eyes. “Anyone want snacks?”

“Red Vines,” Lucy said immediately.

Paige must have been fighting with her mom again, because she asked for her nachos with extra cheese. Julian was fine with his spiked Diet Coke, but after eyeing his glassy gaze, Jodi asked for a popcorn bucket for them all to share.

Zack waved her off when she offered to go with him, so Jodi stretched out, lying on her stomach facing the screen, but not really seeing it. The angle was better this way for her to ignore the freaking clown and just focus on the game of Yahtzee she was playing against her Aunt Rosa. The music was giving her the chills.

They’d gone to the drive-in with Emily once. In March as soon as the weather turned. Julian drove his truck with Paige and Zack in the bed, and Jodi rode shotgun with Lucy, who threatened to put Emily in the trunk if she couldn’t keep still under the blanket in the back seat.

Jodi didn’t remember the movie, because Emily talked the entire time, asking personal questions, burrowing deeper. She wanted to know what concealer Paige used, Lucy’s favorite Olivia Rodrigo song, and whether Jodi liked Peanut M&M’s or Reese’s Pieces. The following week, Emily showed up to school wearing concealer two shades too dark. Her locker was filled with cut-out lyrics from “vampire.” Whenever Emily sat down next to Jodi, she whipped out a packet of Peanut M&MS, ripped them open, and said, “Want some?”

Whether Emily ignored Julian because he was also ignoring her, Jodi didn’t know. He was just shy of cruel with her—talking over her in conversation, purposefully miscounting to exclude her. He’d been that way to Jodi forever of course, but it was intensified and targeted when Emily was around. Would Jodi say that Julian was bullying Emily? Probably. But Emily was also unable to take a hint.

Something must have happened on the screen, because the people in cars started yelling and laughing. Jodi forced herself not to look, afraid she’d have nightmares for months, and instead her eyes were drawn to the lamppost on the other side of the screen, toward the highway. The bulb flickered to life, then sputtered out. Over and over.

A creak thundered from above. The sound wasn’t from the speaker in the truck. She came up on her knees, looking for the source of the sound of wood groaning, a crunching, grating. The film flickered, moving off the screen, up, up. Someone screamed in the distance.

It wasn’t the film. It was the screen. Coming forward.

“Jodi!” Paige’s scream pierced her ears.

The movie screen was falling forward, headed right for them. She froze, but something warm slammed into her back, sending her down hard on her chin. For a moment there was only screaming and the movie score, breath against her neck as someone pressed her down to the truck bed.

Then the earth rumbled. Glass shattered. Paige was screaming and where is Lucy and car alarms blaring.

She tasted metal on her tongue and listened to Julian’s heavy groan of pain. It was dark. She could only see the black truck under her. A delayed crunch, and something shattered behind them. Paige was still screaming.

A hundred people were.

Jodi couldn’t breathe. Pain throbbed in her ribs, her chin. She turned her head, her eyes wide and searching for anything. The screen was on top of them. Lucy’s shoe was two feet to Jodi’s left.

“Lucy!”

“We’re here. We’re fine!” Paige yelled.

“Julian?”

He took a shaking breath against her back. He’d covered her. Was he injured?

“Julian!” she tried more forcefully.

He shifted against her and yelled, “Fuck!”

A pop! like a gunshot to her right, and she jumped as the truck bed tilted. The tire had exploded.

“Can you get out?” Lucy’s voice shook.

She heard Paige whimpering. The shift of their bodies. Lucy whispering to her to move with her.

Jodi had her phone in her hand still. She opened her flashlight with shaking fingers and laid it facing up, giving them light. She could only tilt her head a tiny bit, but the screen was above, white and vast, angling up to the remains of the cabin of the truck.

The truck creaked, like it would give out and collapse at any second.

“Julian, let’s move, okay? Let’s get out?”

She felt him nod against her neck. Lucy was shimmying down the truck bed on her belly next to them, cooing softly to Paige.

Jodi shifted out from under Julian’s shoulders and was able to turn on her side to him. Behind her, Lucy thumped down onto the dirt. Jodi’s mouth was wet. She wiped her arm across her face and it pulled away bloody.

“What hurts?” she asked Julian. “Can you move?”

When he didn’t respond, she tilted her flashlight at him. His eyes were squeezed closed. His left shoulder was curved oddly, like a tennis ball was lodged underneath it.

Dislocated.

Paige slid off the truck bed, dismounting with a thunk and a sob. Jodi flipped over to them, about to make a plan to get Julian out. She felt dizzy when she saw them.

Blood matted Lucy’s hair, dripping down her neck to stain her shirt. She was lifting Paige up off the ground, crouched low under the screen. Paige hopped up on one foot, her ankle held gingerly in the air.

Lucy and Paige started for an opening out—light shining in from the highway in the distance, between the bottom edge of the screen and the dirt ground. It was about twenty feet away.

“Julian, you got her?”

It took her a moment to realize the “her” was her. “Go,” Jodi said.

She grabbed her phone and held the flashlight up as she slipped down off the truck bed, sliding through something wet.

“Come on. You can do this without a shoulder.”

“I can’t… can’t breathe,” he gritted out. “Maybe my ribs.”

Jodi knelt in front of him, hissing as the rocky dirt dug into her knees. She dropped her phone on the ground, flashlight up, and reached under his arms. As soon as she started tugging, he screamed against her ear—like nothing she’d heard before.

“Julian—”

“Stop.” He panted. “Leave me. Jaws of Life will come.”

He had his face buried into his good shoulder, refusing to look at her.

She considered it for a heartbeat, crawling out alone and begging anyone nearby to go back for him.

The other tire popped. Jodi jerked, falling on her backside. Julian groaned as the truck tilted, the movie screen creaking above them.

She heard sirens in the distance. Just a little longer.

Jodi turned her flashlight into the truck. Wet, red blood sparkled back at her. Lucy’s? Or was Julian more injured than he thought? There was enough space above his waist for her to get her arms around him.

“Dillon, go.”

“Don’t be a martyr, Julian. It doesn’t suit you.” She climbed up into the bed of the truck. “You can feel your legs and all that, right?”

“Yeah.” He bent a knee. “I can’t use my—my core.”

“Stop talking about your abs, you asshole,” she tried to joke, and she thought she heard a puff of breath in response.

Jodi wrapped her arm around his hips and tugged him sideways, sliding him so his legs could face the end of the bed. He yelled out, and she kept pulling, looking for puncture wounds.

“Jodi!”

They both froze. Zack.

“Julian!”

His voice came from the front, near the opening where Lucy and Paige escaped. The sirens blipped and beeped from their right.

“Go,” Julian said again.

“Jaws of Life won’t be here for like an hour.” She tugged at him again, and his legs fell off the truck. He yelped but dropped his feet to the ground, slipping himself from the bed without using his ribs or shoulder.

Jodi grabbed her phone and shone light toward the opening. It was dark, like maybe the projector had stopped. She could barely see the escape route, but Julian grabbed her flashlight and took her arm. She let her legs follow, feeling like jelly.

Zack met them just as they crawled out, Julian panting in short breaths.

“They’re here!” he yelled over his shoulder.

He reached for her first, but she shook her head. “Julian’s worse.”

Zack reached for him and tugged just in the wrong way, but managed to pull him out.

Jodi was blinking hard, wondering why it was so dark. She swayed. She’d crawled through something wet. Her knee was drenched in it.

A stranger in a white shirt appeared next, reaching for her with a “Miss?” He helped her out, and as soon as she stood up tall, she looked back. The spindly back of the screen, punctured and cracked, hung by a few wooden beams where it was still connected.

The EMT dragged her away, even as she said, “I can walk.” The words were thick.

Julian was sitting on a stretcher to her left, his eyes wide and mystified, fixed on her. He looked like he had seventy questions to ask but only a breath to do so.

Someone was yelling. Zack was next to her as she was lifted on a stretcher. She pointed to Julian.

“Dislocated shoulder. Ribs, too. He says he can’t breathe.”

They didn’t listen to her. There were five people over her, forcing her to lie back. Someone wrapped something around her thigh. She looked down.

The right leg of her jeans was black. No, not black. Red.

A few inches above her knee, a shard of glass as big as her hand stuck out of her like an iceberg in dark water.

Oh.

Jodi lay her head back on the stretcher as they wheeled her to the ambulance. Her head jostled and turned to the left.

The movie was still playing, projected onto the trees behind where the screen used to stand. A streetlamp winked at her. And then went out.