The backs of my eyes burn, and I blink the tears back, furious at them, at myself, at the very earth for continuing to spin through space.
“You’re allowed to hope he’s okay for reasons other than Nora. You’re allowed to want it for you,” Margot says.
Before I get the chance to reply, which I’m not sure I’m even capable of, Nora’s little Volkswagen bug, pastel blue with the little flower still attached to the antenna, turns onto our street.
Fingers slip into mine. Margot. I meet her eyes, and she gives me a reassuring smile.
“Ready for this?” she asks.
“Not even a little bit,” I say.
—
No one speaks as we drive; the anxiety of being in a vehicle combined with what we are about to do is enough to make me vibrate. I gnaw on the inside of my cheek until my mouth tastes like metal.
I have no clue where we’re going, but Nora does, pulling off the road that gets thinner and more overgrown the deeper into the darkness we go. We’re probably the first car to cross the rickety bridge over the creek in years.
We’re driving in to avoid having to swim back—more specifically, to avoid having to swim back with four rescued teenagers in tow. Who knows what condition they’ll be in if we can find them, let alone get them past the fence.
Even knowing all that, I’m doubtful as Margot and I exit the car and follow Nora into the trees, three flashlight beams cutting through the black night.
“You do know where you’re going, right?” Margot calls, voicing my concerns.
“For the fourth time,” Nora replies, a few feet ahead, “yes. Unless you’d like to take over?”
Margot looks my way, but I can’t make out her expression in the dark. I can barely see more than a foot in front of my face.
“There should be a clearing up ahead. It hugs the creek. From there, we follow the path back to the power plant.”
Sure enough, after only a few more minutes of stumbling through the dark, we break through the tree line into a sparser area, the bubbling creek a few yards down.
“Oh, thank god,” Nora says.
“I knew it,” Margot says.
“Hey, I got us here,” Nora says.
Margot rolls her shoulders, gripping her backpack straps tight. “We’re all going to get arrested,” she says.
“Positive thinking, Margot,” Nora says.
“I think being arrested is the best-case scenario,” I say.
“And worst case, we join Finn, Sloane, and Aisha’s TV schedule rotation,” Margot says. A tiny laugh slips out of me, aching as it comes.
“TV rotation?” Nora asks.
“Yeah, they take the good TV really seriously,” I say. “If you so much as glance at the remote when Sloane is watchingThe Great British Baking Show, you’re toast. No pun intended.”
Margot brings her hands together in a soft clap. “All right, let’s do this,” she says.
I give her a level look. “For the record, you are not doing anything.”
Margot’s eyes narrow. “Pardon?”
“You,” I say, “are on watch. I doubt anyone’s out here, but ifthey are, I’d really like to know about it before they’re on us. Even if there’s nothing in this building, we’re trespassing. Unless you want to have to call Mom and Paige from the police station.”
Margot opens her mouth to protest, but I don’t give her the chance. “I’m not losing anyone else. Least of all you.”
