A tiny ping tapped the window. I jerked upright.
Ping.
Ping.
PING.
The last one was loud enough to make me flinch. I sat up too fast and cracked my head on the low wooden beam.
“Ow,” I hissed, rubbing the knot behind my ear. My fingers brushed my scar. The one that reminded me he was always watching.
I carefully peeked through the warped glass. Max stood there in the bushes, freckles dusted across his sunburned face, smiling like we shared a secret.
Max was my first friend here. On day one, a counselor had pushed me toward him. “Mackenzie, this is your camp buddy. You’ll like him.”
“Hi,” I’d said, trying to sound casual. I could be casual. Right? Or did I say, “Hi, I’m Mackenzie. My Daddyis a killer, and I’m in witness protection. Did you know this camp is being watched?”
But I couldn’t say any of that.
“Hi!” He’d grinned and offered a Fruit Roll-Up like it was a peace treaty. I’d taken it, unrolled the paper, and popped the end of the strawberry tail into my mouth. His smile was… comforting. There was something about him, about his voice. It felt familiar in a way that made my chest ache and relax at the same time.
We had nothing in common. He loved baseball, bugs, and country music. I hatedStar Wars,and he quoted it daily. But he was funny, and when he laughed, it made me forget the sound of my Daddy’s voice.
When Max looked at me, I was just Mackenzie from Marigold, Georgia. But I still wondered if that other girl—the scared one who’d seen her dad covered in blood more times than she could count—was still hiding inside me.
I looked at Max’s beaming face through the window. He motioned for me to come outside.
I slid into my worn tennis shoes and crept past the sleeping girls, tiptoeing between their beds. Someone snored. Someone mumbled in her sleep. The cabin’s screen door pushed back as I nudged it open, letting out a soft whine that made me hold my breath.
The night smelled sharp. Smoke and citronella bit at my lungs in a way that now felt almost like home.
“Max?” I whispered.
“Right here!” he hissed. Hands clamped down on my shoulders. “Boo!”
I yelped and socked him in the gut.
“OOMPH! Trouble… you just rearranged my organs alphabetically,” he wheezed.
I couldn’t help laughing. He was the only person who called me Trouble. He said it was because I didn’t bring trouble; Iwas trouble. I hadn’t liked the nickname at first, but it was growing on me.
Our shoes crunched on the rocks as we walked down the gravel path.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
The black night pooled at the edges of the trees, and I got that crawling feeling that something was following us. I got it a lot in the dark.
Almost like he could sense it, Max handed me a flashlight. The bright beam bit through the darkness.
“Why didn’t you bring yours?” he asked.
“I didn’t know I’d need it.” My voice came out small.
“It’s kayak night. How could you forget?”
But I had forgotten. My brain had been skipping over things lately.
And honestly, I was a little terrified to go out on the water.
