She shrugged off my arm and stood up, walking down the steps and pacing in the yard.
“Are you just socially awkward and don’t know how to make friends? Because Toby and Josh are already my besties, but there’s always room for more. Wanna be besties, Thea?” I asked, smiling.
She stared at me, her face all disgruntled looking.
“We can pinky promise to always be there for each other. We can make friendship bracelets and everything,” I joked. “We can stay up late and do our nails and talk about cute boys. Or cute girls, if that’s your jam. Or cute anyones. We can even do mud mask facials!”
Thea’s face was appalled, and I couldn’t help it—I doubled over in laughter, clutching my sides as I giggled uncontrollably. The crows all cawed along with me, and it felt like we were all laughing together, which only made me giggle harder. When I was finally done, I wiped my eyes and looked at Thea, who was standing with her arms crossed in front of me.
“What’s up, buttercup?” I asked.
“You are… I don’t get you. At all,” she muttered.
“What’s to get?” I asked, holding my arms out. “I’m a nurse, I’m an awesome friend, and I’m a ray of sunshine. I know that annoys some people, but it’s their loss. I think you secretly like me, anyway.”
“Are we friends?” she asked, and I could tell she was serious.
I put on my serious face, too. Something was bothering Thea, and I didn’t want that. “Yeah, Thea, we’re friends.”
She was staring at me, and I sighed. I thought I knew what this was about.
“You wanna know about the kidnapping,” I stated.
Thea sat down next to me on the steps again. “You told the cops…” She trailed off, staring at me.
“Yeah, I didn’t exactly tell the cops everything I knew,” I said softly.
She breathed out, and I saw her shoulders relax. I put my hand on her arm. “I didn’t know you were this stressed about it, Thea. I thought maybe it was just better to not talk about it, you know? It’s over and done with. Case closed. They were bad people, and they’re gone now, and that’s all that really matters. I thought maybe it was better to just move on.”
“I can’t forget about it,” she said softly.
“You did the right thing, Thea,” I assured her.
She looked at me a little oddly. Ugh, we were totally going to have to have a whole conversation about it. I really didn’t want to relive it, mostly because I was kinda stupidly embarrassed, but I also didn’t want Thea stressing.
“Sebbie, what happened?” she asked. “Will you tell me? Please?”
I groaned. It was the “please” that got me. I was a people pleaser, and I knew it. So I launched into the story from the beginning, explaining that when I’d gotten home from working my shift at the hospital, Josh’s ex had been a crumpled and bloody mess in front of my porch. I was on the phone with Josh at the time, and despite him telling me not to, I’d gotten out of the car to try to help Rick. Then the cult lady had shown up with her assistant, announced that she was “Death,” and they had hung up the phone on Josh.
Thea was nodding along, because she knew that part.
“Then, well, kidnapping isn’t really as exciting as the movies make it seem,” I told Thea, making her smirk. “They threatened to kill Josh if I didn’t go with them, and then they put me in that room with that old guy, and it was mostly just a lot of waiting around for you guys to show up. I felt really bad that the old guy was so obviously sick and dying, but other than that, I really didn’t feel worried. That probably sounds strange. Maybe it wasshock—I don’t know.” I shrugged, thinking that it had been kind of weird. I guess it was better than panicking, though.
“Then we showed up,” Thea prompted.
“Yup. You guys all filed in, along with the cult lady and her minion, and there was a lot of talking at that point.” I blushed, because I hadn’t really been paying attention to the talking.
“You didn’t see any other cult members?” Thea asked.
“Nope. I know you guys said there were more, but I never saw them. I would’ve told the police if I had. I didn’t realize until that night when Josh mentioned it that there were more of them. I asked him if I should let the police know, but he said no, so I didn’t.”
Thea was just staring at me, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to end there. I blushed again, because this was the embarrassing part. “So, ah, I wasn’t really paying too much attention to what was going on at that point,” I admitted.
“Because…” she trailed off, letting me fill in the blank.
I groaned and put my head in my hand. “You’re really gonna make me say it?”
She put her hand on my back. “It’s okay, Sebbie. You can tell me.”
