I gestured to the hallways. “It might take us a while to get out of here. We might get lost.”
“Ha.” Summer flashed a grin and held up her phone again. “He texted me directions for that, too. Okay. Hold on. I’m going to be brave and turn off the lights. Don’t leave without me.”
As if that was really a question.
After she turned off the lights, she hollered from across the gym, “Okay. You’re smart. This is going to take longer than I thought. Being in the dark was a whole lot scarier.” As she kept talking, her voice grew louder and louder. She was slowly coming back to me. “I’m about ready to piss my pants. And I’ll never watch another scary movie in my life. I don’t think I’ll even watch Supernatural. Oh my god—” Her voice started to veer off.
I interrupted, “Turn back. You sound like you’re going to the left of me.”
“Oh.” A second later, she said, “Is this better?”
“Keep talking.”
“Not a problem.” A nervous laugh was there. “If anyone had night-vision goggles, they’d be pissing their pants, laughing at me. I’m stretching out my arms and legs in front of me, so I won’t hit anything. And I’m waving my phone around, too. So far, the light hasn’t helped with shit.”
She was getting closer.
I could see the little light of her phone. “I can see you. Keep coming.”
She snorted. “That’s what he said.”
I grinned, wiping off some of the sweat from my forehead. “Is this the wrong time to ask if you have two phones?”
The light stopped. Her voice dropped. “Why?”
Logan would be so proud. “Because I’m seeing two lights. Are you waving one behind you, too?”
Her light turned off. “Do not joke with me. I know where you sleep.”
I was holding the laughter in and cleared my throat. My voice was calm as I said, “There’s a light behind you.”
She screamed. Her light was swinging back and forth, as if hitting someone. As she kept coming toward me, she yelled, “I don’t see anyone.”
I kept quiet.
“Sam!” Her panic picked up a notch.
I still said nothing.
“Oh my god!” Her feet sounded like a stampede, and she was sprinting for me now.
Her phone grew in size, and then she was right next to me. She grabbed my arm, and like before, she dragged me after her. We were both running through the hallways.
She kept chanting, “Oh my god, oh my god,” under her breath as she was trying to read Dex’s directions. “Go left here. Now, right.” She yanked me with her. “Oh my god, oh my god.”
No one was there, but her fear was intoxicating. It started to creep into me, too, and I pressed her to go faster. We were at the door, and we burst through it. I stopped to make sure the door would shut. Summer didn’t. She hightailed it to her car.
Getting there, she saw I was still by the gymnasium, and she pounded on her car’s roof. “What are you doing? Get in the car.”
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. My blood was buzzing from the adrenaline, my run, and Summer’s terror. I folded over, and the laughter poured out of me.
“Wha—” She stopped.
Crap. I needed a ride. I tried to muffle the laughs as I went to the car.
Summer was glaring at me. Her hand crumbled over her keys and she choked out, “Do not tell me that you were fucking with me.”
I got inside and secured my seat belt. She couldn’t kick me out. I looped the strap around me a second time to make sure. I’d hold on to it like it was the only thing anchoring me in a tornado.
I waited until she got in and did her own seat belt. I said, “I might’ve been lying…”
She sucked in her breath.
I finished, “About the second light.”
She was silent.
Then the screams came. “I actually pissed my pants! How could you? Oh my god!”
I waited it out. She kept screaming, but the hysteria slipped a notch, and she started her car before turning out of the parking lot.
Two blocks. I kept telling myself that. We can make it two blocks.
Summer kept ranting, “I’m going to make your life hell. Buckets of water when you’re not expecting it. Your coffee’s always going to be cold. And your shampoo. You’d better hide your shampoo somewhere else because, every chance I get, I’m pouring hair dye in there.” She belted out a harsh laugh, turning into our parking lot. “So bad, Samantha. You’re going to pay so bad.”
She quieted as we got out.
I snuck a look. “I don’t know what came over me. I think I channeled Logan. I’m sorry. I didn’t know how scared you would get.”
Her shoulders loosened, and a short laugh slipped out. She shook her head, her mouth curved up into a rueful grin, and another burst of laughter jerked from her. She shot me a dark look as we entered our dorm. “Oh, man. I’m calmer now. I abhor being scared. Hate it. Hate it with a passion. My boyfriends used to do that shit to me all the time.”
My lips twitched. I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t dare.
She cursed under her breath. We started up the stairs to our floor, and she motioned for me. “Go ahead. Let it out. I might’ve overreacted.”