Nagging thoughts of this plague me as I shuffle back to where the boys are still sleeping in the sand. Cline’s snoring is so loud I’m afraid he could set off a car alarm. But Elliot is resting on his side, his arm outstretched toward my pillow like he’s been searching for me in his sleep. My chest aches at the sight, so I look away, reminding myself that we’re all here as friends, on a mission to find answers for the sole reason of getting info on me for Elliot’s game. And along the way, I will find the courage to talk to Cline. Then I can go about my life, and Dr. Stark can get off my back about this little Eight Steps to Happiness bullshit she’s been pushing at me for the last year.
Elliot stirs and his eyes blink open once, then twice, before he sits up and holds a hand to his forehead to shield his face from the sunrise. “Hey.”
“Can I have your keys?” I reach out my hand like I’ve casually been waiting for him to wake up.
He digs in his pocket and holds them out to me, and I take them quickly. “You might want to wake up The Beast over there. I’m sure they’ll start patrolling once the sun is up. We should get outta here.” I give a quick nod and rush as fast as I can through the sand toward his car. Given the short amount of time I have, I open the passenger door and struggle to pull my purse from beneath the seat where I had it stashed away just in case anyone looked inside the windows overnight.
With shaking fingers, I locate the flower-printed bag and pull out my array of bottles. With precision I’ve perfected over the years, I take the tops off of them one at a time and replace them quickly before moving onto the next. Five bottles in all in the morning. The pills are all lined up along the car seat as I step around the back to grab a water bottle from the trunk, and when I turn to walk back to where the passenger door is open, Elliot is standing there, staring at my line of prescriptions.
His eyes hold no judgment as they meet mine. “How many of those do you take?”
I push down the fear of what he could possibly be thinking about me as I move to stand by him and then angle myself in front to scoop the pills into my hand. They all go into my mouth at once, and I have them swallowed with one gulp of water from the bottle. Facing him, I give the best smile I can manage. “Not enough to get full. We should get breakfast. Is Cline up?”
“I got a campsite for us at Devil’s Fork, but we have to stay for a minimum of two nights. I told them two was fine.” Elliot pockets his phone as he gets back into the car. The rest stop isn’t packed, but there are enough people around that sitting in the car has kept me entertained while the boys have been doing their business.
“I’ll pay you back for the campsite,” I say, and I mean it. I’ve never expected anything from anyone.
Elliot smiles and starts the car, the beauty mark next to his ear raising a little in the process. “Just fill up the next tank and we’ll be even.”
Cline rushes across the parking lot, still zipping his pants, practically tripping over himself before he launches his large body into the car. “I got tapped.”
“What?” I turn in my seat to look at his face and he’s gone almost completely white, sweat beads trickling from beneath his stupid hat.
“I was taking a shit and the guy next to me tapped my foot. He TAPPED MY FOOT.”
“Maybe he just had a wide spread,” Elliot offers as he begins to reverse out of the parking lot.
“Maybe there was a glory hole in the wall that I was unaware of. Don’t act like you don’t know about the tap at rest stops.” He slides sideways and rests his head on the pillow he has in the backseat, tipping his hat forward in the process. He’s breathing heavy, and his cheeks are bright red, but after about a full minute of silence he shrugs and pulls out his phone. “I don’t really blame him, though. I mean … look at me. I’m ridiculously good looking.”
I start to say something, but Elliot’s hand on my knee stops me. He has a wry grin on his face and closes his eyes for a second while he shakes his head like I should just leave it. So I do. Because I trust this boy and I have no idea why.
Devil’s Fork is, in a word, gorgeous. The campsite is small and on the water, close enough to the bathrooms that I could find them without a flashlight, but far enough away that I don’t smell them being downwind. Lake Jacosse spreads out before us, peaceful and astoundingly clear. I’m on the edge of the water, taking in how different this is from the ocean we were just staring at around six hours ago. The boys are setting up the eight man tent directly behind me, and there’s another small popup tent to my left that looks empty at the moment, leaving my mind to wonder about its inhabitants.
“Where is this rock that your mom jumped off of?” Cline calls from his lazy stance, holding one of the rods while Elliot threads it through the loops at the base of the tent.
I shrug and point off into the distance. “We need a way to get over there to the waterfall.” Wendy’s diary says that she snuck into the park after hours and found a group of people her age sitting around drinking and just asked if she could stay with them. They were the ones with the boat. Her entire rebellion hinged on the fact that people weren’t going to murder her.
My once-best-friend comes to stand next to me and crosses his arm, his large frame blocking out the sunlight coming through the trees. “Do we have a boat?”
“No.”
“Were you planning on getting a boat?”