Jamie nods. “I knew Sunny would tell my parents about the drugs and report Brett to the dean,” Jamie says.
“Because it was the right thing to do,” I say, defending my best friend. Sunny was a light, a force for good in the world, and she was right to turn them in. But she never had a chance.
“Maybe, but I couldn’t allow her to tell on me. Everything I’d worked so hard for all my life would be ruined,” Jamie says, her voice stronger. “I spent the entire trip trying to figure out a way to talk her out of it, to make her see what it would do to me and my future if she told anyone about the drugs or the stealing. But it was our last night of spring break, and I still hadn’t madeany headway. I thought I’d have a chance to corner Sunny before dinner and beg her one last time to reconsider, but she never showed up at the restaurant. I guess we know why now,” she adds, gesturing in Roxy’s direction.
A chill rolls down my spine, as outside, a swaying tree creaks in the wind.
“I was so frustrated, restless. I gave up trying to sleep around three in the morning and decided I’d take a walk outside to see if I could clear my head,” she says. “I ended up by the pool. I was going to sit in a lounge chair, and I don’t know, look at the stars, enjoy my last evening of freedom, and not think about my ruined future.”
Something slams into the window, a piece of debris that broke loose due to the wind during the storm, and Roxy lets out a yelp. “This night is going to be the end of us.”
Dramatic as always. Then again, today has been a dramatic day. I turn my attention back to Jamie.
“You walked to the pool. And you saw Sunny,” I say, another chill rolling down my spine.
“I saw something, someone, floating in the water,” Jamie says, her voice little more than a whisper now. “As I got closer to the pool, I realized it was Sunny. I recognized her favorite ponytail holder when it sparkled in the moonlight, and her diamond tennis necklace twinkled at the back of her neck. I went into shock, I think.”
All of us fall silent, imagining the scene, the horror of it all.
“What did you do, Jamie?” Amelia slurs. “Did you help her?”
“I don’t know how long she was in the water before I got there, but I think,I thinkshe was still alive,” Jamie says. Her blue eyes are wide with fright, with the still-vivid memory. “I thought I saw her hand twitching, but it could have been my imagination. I’m sure it was my imagination.”
“Oh my God,” I say, clutching my throat as if I were the one who was drowning. I find myself gasping for breath, my throat tight, restricting.
“What did you do?” Roxy says, her eyes as wide as Jamie’s.
“I swear I started to dive in, to save her I swear I was going to. But something stopped me. There was this voice in my head whispering that saving her would ruin me,” Jamie says. The windows of the dining room rattle with another wind gust.
We all stare at Jamie, the admission soaking into our souls, our hearts. Mine is breaking again for Sunny. My beautiful friend deserved to be saved.
“So you did nothing? You let her drown?” I say, shaking all over. “You’re a doctor, you were pre-med. You have a duty to help.”
“Wow, Jamie,” Amelia says as she walks drunkenly over to the cooler and pours herself another glass of wine. “That’s kind of diabolical. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Jamie stares out the window. The swimming pool isn’t visible from here, even if it weren’t nighttime and the landscape weren’t covered in dust. I know what she’s seeing: the pool, that pool, again. Sunny floating face down, dead, or maybe not yet.
Jamie turns and looks directly at me. “I chose my future over hers, Beth. And there’s not a day that’s gone by since that I haven’t known I made the wrong choice.”
39
Roxy
Well, if this doesn’t change everything. I didn’t kill Sunny, Jamie did. Hallelujah. I mean, sure, it’s still sad and horrible, and sure, she most likely ended up in the pool thanks to the margarita à la Roxy, but I wasn’t the one who stood there and watched as she drowned. Relief washes over me, and as it does, I feel something else: a glimmer of myself returning. And that feels fabulous. I need to find Ryan and tell him the news.
It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill Sunny after all.
“Well, this has been such an evening, and we haven’t even had dinner yet,” I say. “Shall I ring the bell and ask for the rest of the meal to be served?”
“You can’t seriously be hungry right now,” Beth says, staring at me accusingly. A tear spills from her eye and works its way down her cheek.
“Maybe not, but Amelia must be famished. You lookanorexic, by the way,” I tell her. And she does. It’s been bothering me this entire weekend. I’m supposed to be the thinnest and the richest. Anyway, I digress.
“I’m not anorexic,” Amelia slurs as she manages to return to her seat. “Nice try, though. You’re still in the hot seat, Roxy, even if Jamie killed her.”
“Well, we’ll agree to disagree, as always. But the fact is you also should be relieved, Amelia. You might have lost your cash cow in me, but now you’ve got a new golden goose to extort.” I point to the only doctor in the house. Ironic that she killed someone.
“Why would Jamie pay me?” Amelia says. “Oh, because she didn’t save Sunny, and she doesn’t want anyone outside this room to know it. Gotcha.”
