I can’t stop smiling as I walk through the tree, snow falling from the sky like a heavenly blanket. I wrap his hoodie around me, savoring his scent and the way it feels against my flush skin. And as I walk out onto the path, something catches my eyes.
I squint, and in a matter of seconds, elation evades me and dread takes over. I pick up my pace, rushing through the trees as I approach the clearing near the cliffs.
“Seren,” I gasp frantically. “What are you doing up there?”
I stop at the end of the path, keeping a few feet between me and the girl who is teetering on the edge of the steep cliff, her arms spread out on either side of her.
She twists her head to the side, her back toward me and in the darkness, I can only make out the shadowed outline of her body, but the silver glow of the moon illuminates her enough for me to see a smirk curl on her face.
“Oh, ya know,” she chuckles darkly. “Just feeling the wind beneath my wings.”
My heart lurches when I hear mania layering her tone. Something’s not right.
“Seren, that’s not safe. Can you get down from there please?” I take a step forward and a wicked laugh rips through the air.
“Why? Do you think I’m going to jump?” She turns her whole body around and she slips, arms flailing in the air. I jump, reaching out for her before she steadies herself and giggles.
“Ha! Gotcha,” she shouts insensitively as she rights herself, standing firmly on two feet.
“That’s not fucking funny, Ser,” I let my anger drip from my tone and a sourness twists in my gut.
The wind kicks up, causing her hair to fly around her head and she tilts her head back.
“What are you doing out here?” I ask, eager to get her to come toward me, but I'm scared that if I take another step, she’ll feign another slip.
“Just gaining some clarity I guess.” She shrugs her shoulders “I’m not really sure.” She seems manic and calm all at the same time and that combination causes me to raise serious concern for her well being.
“Listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” I say to her, hoping that maybe she’ll snap out of whatever spell she seems to be in and listen to me. Maybe she’ll step away from the ledge and we can talk.
But she laughs instead.
“What’s funny?”
“Oh, spare me. I already fucking know, Olivia. You thought you were so good at hiding that secret from me. Turns out you’re just a backstabbing whore.”
She turns to the side and mimics walking a tight rope, one foot in front of the other with her arms out. My heart races, hearing her words and watching her movements, not sure which should concern me more.
“You don’t mean that,” I start. Realizing that she knows about Trace and I. Realizing that she might have known for a while and all my efforts to not betray her could have been for nothing, hiding away my love for her brother while she silently knew the whole time.
She stops her footsteps and drops her hands dramatically at her side.
“Do you know how hard it is to pretend to be perfect? How hard it is to act as if the whole town actually fucking likes me?” She chuckles. Dark and broken. “They like me because I refuse to allow them not to. But on the inside, I know they find me just as fucking annoying as you do.”
I gasp, her words gaslighting me. I know she doesn’t seem to be in her right mind right now but where she came up with the idea that I thought she was annoying, I truly have no clue. “I never said that, Seren. You’re my best friend,” I say to her, letting my tone drop to something more sincere instead of concerned but she just laughs as she turns to face me.
“Oh, right. You might have never said that, but your actions say it all, Olivia.”
My heart sinks. I know I’ve been distant, but that’s only because I was trying to find a way to tell her about Trace. I was tired of lying to her. But now I feel stupid for it because as it turns out, she’s known all along.
“I didn’t mean to make you feel that way,” I say, unsure if anything I say will be the right thing in this moment.
“They never do,” she responds and my brows nosedive, confusion plaguing me.
“Who?” I ask.
“Oh, just the voices in my head. They actually talk to me, unlike the rest of the fucking world.”
My body experiences a scattering of chills, spreading like wildfire. She’s suffering from something and I want to understand what. She seemed fine earlier? She came to the bonfire and ate breakfast. She was laughing with the other girls and even after the incident at truth or dare yesterday, she seemed okay.
