Thorn unzips the tent and climbs out.
Whydid we zip it in the first place? That’s not suspiciousat all.
“What’s going on?” I hear Thorn ask.
I tighten my ponytail and straighten my shirt, making doubly sure it isn’t inside out, and then I follow his lead.
Parker looks panicked, frantic.
“Um…we’ve got a problem?”
26THORN
It’s whiplash, going from Sadie to…this.
Parker’s all over the place. I can hardly keep up.
“Emma finally got brave enough to try rappelling, but only after I went back up to give her a pep talk,” she’s saying, full of nervous energy. She keeps glancing over her shoulder, back toward the climbing site. “By the time she started going, none of us realized Matteo wasn’t down there anymore, and something happened about halfway down, and now Emma’s stuck—Trey says the rope is twisted, or caught on a branch or something, and—and—”
Her words get caught in her throat.
“Is she okay?” Sadie asks.
It’s a good thing she’s here, becauseof coursethat should have been the first question on my mind, too. NotWhere the hell is Matteo?
“I mean…defineokay?” Parker says. “She’s hanging in there. Literally. But, like, freaking out?”
I leave for twenty minutes and all chaos breaks lose.
And seriously—where the hell is Matteo?
“Let’s go.” My words sound like I’m spitting fire.
Trey has the climbing situation under control by the time we get back—he knew exactly how to fix whatever snag caught Emma up on her way down, and must have done a good job keeping her calm enough to finish her descent.
He shouldn’t have had to. That’s nothisjob.
“Thanks, man,” I tell him. “You shouldn’t have had to take over like that.”
He waves it off. “I don’t mind. I’m just glad I knew how to help. How’s Sadie?”
It takes me a minute to realize he’s asking about her hand. Every thought of Sadie, right now, involves the things we were doing when we were interrupted.
“Better,” I say. “Got her all fixed up.”
Got her all fixed up, and then—and then—
I swallow down my desire, my guilt. As much as I enjoyed it, and as much as I wish Parker had never cut into our time together, I never should have let myself get sidetracked like that.
And I never should have trusted Matteo.
His words haunt me, even if he’s lost all right to have any say whatsoever about being responsible:You need to get it together, man. You’ve been distracted out here.
I thought I could do both. As much as I hate to admit it…I accept that, maybe, he had a point.
“What happened with Matteo?” I ask.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Trey says. “None of us noticed he was gone until Emma was stuck and he wasn’t around to help.”
