“Of course,” I say quickly.
Olivia presses her lips into a smile, and we both duck our heads as Anjali’s email comes through. But even with this distraction, I can’t stop wondering why Olivia thinks Ethan and I kissed. I push my tongue into my teeth, pressure spreading to the roof of my mouth. When she broke up with me, she never gave a concrete reason, only said we were through and that she wanted a clean break. I tried to get her to explain, but she stonewalled me.
Suddenly, a lump forms in my throat as a thought pops into my head: If she thought I kissed Ethan behind her back, maybe that’s why she dumped me. But she would have had to hear that information somewhere. Who would have told her the lie that changed everything?
Frankie
“Look what I got!” I hold up Erica’s purse by its thick strap and let it dangle from my finger in front of Alex. I would have been able to take just the camera if I hadn’t knocked over the entire pizza tray tower at Billy’s shiva, but when Millie basically bombarded me, I had to slip Erica’s purse behind my back and smuggle it out of the house. Thankfully, it’s one of those tiny ones, and when I looked inside, I only found the camera and an old lip gloss.
Alex and I are sitting cross-legged in the sunny spots on my bed, the afternoon sun warming my cheeks.
“You didn’t!” Alex leans forward to grab it, but I yank it away.
“Idid.” I unzip the bag and pull out the camera, presenting it to Alex in both hands. “You should thank me because I waited to go through the photos with you.”
Alex’s brow knits in worry, and he shakes his head forcefully. “I don’t think we should look at that,” he says. “It’s not ours.”
“Seriously? I thought you wanted to do this.” I frown, taken aback.
“Youwanted to investigate.Iwanted to go swimming. And I still do. We only have a few hours of sunlight a day when we’re not inside the shack. We should be out in the pool or the ocean instead of…” He motions to the bag. “Whatever this is.”
“You’re not the least bit curious?” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Fine. Let me see it.” I toss the camera to Alex, and it lands in his hands but then bounces off my comforter and onto the hardwood floor with abang. “Shit, sorry. Do you think it’s busted?” Alex asks.
I jump down and retrieve the camera, inspecting it. “Dude, you dented the corner.”
“Whoops,” Alex says. “Sorry.”
I frown and press the power button. “Aha! It still works. Wanna see?”
Alex begrudgingly scoots down to the floor beside me, and we both lean back against the bed.
I start scrolling through her most recent photos, seagulls and clouds and selfies Erica must have taken with her arms outstretched. In one, Lucy kisses her cheek as Erica sticks out her tongue.
“You can see the date,” Alex says, pointing at the screen. “These are from before Billy’s party.”
I detect a hint of relief in his voice, which annoys me. I wish he were as into this as I am.
“Looks like she didn’t take any photos that night,” Alex says. “Can we get in the pool now? It’s like ninety-five degrees outside.” He points to the window, where sun is streaming in.
I keep staring at the camera, flipping through old photos, full of party shots from other kickbacks. If Erica documentedthoseparties, there’s no way she would have left her camera at home for Billy’s. “Maybe you were right,” I say. “After Billy died, maybe she didn’t want anyone to see what happened that night. Maybe she deleted them.”
Alex looks like he’s about to protest again when there’s a knock on my door. Millie pokes her head inside.
“We’re all gonna hang at your pool, Alex,” she says. “You guys wanna come? Trevor’s setting up the waterslide.”
Alex stands up and dusts off his shorts. “More than anything.”
But I’m not ready to give up on this camera. Not yet. And based on Alex’s desperation to get away from me, he won’t be any help. “You guys go ahead. I’ll be over in a few. I gotta…take a dump.”
Millie rolls her eyes. “Gross, Franks.”
“We all do it!” I call, but they’re already gone. Once their footsteps recede, I turn Erica’s camera over in my hands. There’s a little button on the back, and when I push it, the SIM card pops out.
I reach for my computer and dig deep into my box of wires to pull out the dongle that connects the SIM card to my computer. It only takes a few moments before the folders load, and when I double-tap it open, I see a slew of images, the same ones we saw on her camera, and miraculously, a trash folder.
There’s a quickening in my chest as I click the trash icon and dozens of images load. “Bingo,” I whisper. My heart beats fast as I scroll down to the date of Billy’s party and see there are fifty photos.
