I snap my diary closed before I finish that thought.
I lie back on the white bedspread and close my eyes, trying not to think about who’s on the other side of the wall.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
JUNE
By evening we’re all settled in the living room, except Tyler, who is MIA. Carter is stretched across the far end of the sectional, scrolling through his phone and nursing a beer. Cinna and Aubrey are sitting cross-legged on the floor, and Cinna is asking Aubrey questions like she’s administering some kind of personality quiz.
“Would you rather know when you’re going to die or how you’re going to die?” Cinna asks.
Aubrey is laughing and answering like it’s a game, and I guess to her it is. But I know Cinna, and I shoot her a look across the room. She catches it and gives me an innocent smile.
I send Aeron a message:You’d love the lighting here! If you change your mind, I’m sure Mom will let you borrow her car.
I send him some pics I took of the property as extra incentive. Honestly, I’m worried. He passed on coming at the last minute. Normally, I’d think it was my same-old brooding brother, but he’s been more withdrawn lately, quieter at home, skipping dinners. I keep telling myself it’s because I caught him with the weed a few weeks ago and he’s still embarrassed, and that he justneeds space. I’m giving him space because that’s what you do. You give people space and they come back when they’re ready.
Still, he seems a bit extra broody.
Carter lets out a loud “hah” but doesn’t share whatever made him laugh on his phone.
“Every person on Earth is in a room with two buttons. Red and blue,” Cinna says to Aubrey. “No one can communicate. The rules are, if 50% of the world picks blue, everyone lives. But if the 50% goal isn’t met, only people who pressed red live and all the blue-button people die. What button would you pick?” Cinna glances at me and I roll my eyes at her.
“Um, do I have to?” Aubrey asks. “I’d like to pass on that whole experience.”
I smile because that’s a great answer.
Zoning out their conversation, I check the time. Tyler has been gone for hours. We ate dinner without him. Dorien disappeared into his room after we ate, claiming he needed an “evening nap.”
I message Tyler:Where r u?
Tyler:ur psychic! I was just texting. Come outside?
I leave Cinna to her investigation and exit through a sliding glass door. I find Tyler on the deck. His cheeks are flushed and he’s swaying a little, and I can smell beer on him from three feet away.
“Where have you been?” I ask. The outside chill seeps through my thin long-sleeved top.
His eyes light up. “Okay, so. I went walking, right? There’s this huge cabin like a mile up the road, full of people from frats and sororities at Syracuse. They’re already in their Halloween costumes and they’re wearing different ones all weekend. Everyone, different every day. Cool, huh? They invited us to come stay there. They’ve got a pool.” He’s practically bouncing.“I came back to grab my cop costume because they’ll think it’s hilarious. And to get you. Let’s go.”
I cross my arms. “What’s wrong with my friends? You don’t even know them.”
“No, no, it’s not that. I’m sure they’re cool, but there’s way more people over there. Way more to do. And aheatedpool. It’ll be fun.”
The word “fun” makes it sound like my people are lame. Like this, me, my friends, the cabin I love already, the weekend me and Cinna planned, isn’t enough. I look at him and feel the distance between what I wanted this weekend to be and what Tyler is offering me instead, and the distance is a canyon.
“No,” I say. “I’m happy here.”
He looks conflicted, his mouth opening and closing. He glances in the direction of the other cabin, then back at me, and I can see the struggle behind his eyes: the girl he likes versus the party full of strangers in costumes.
I sigh. “You should just go.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Bet.” He squeezes my shoulder, jogs inside, grabs his bag and his police costume, and is gone in under three minutes. I stand on the deck and listen to his footsteps crunching down the gravel until they fade.
The sliding door opens behind me. “What was that about?” Cinna says.
