“Go already,” Kate said, rolling her eyes, and poked Aubrey hard in the side.
Slowly, tentatively, Aubrey made her way over to the steps and emerged from the pool, water dripping from her long hair. It almost hurt to watch as Aubrey wrapped herself in a towel and walked bravely over to Griff’s lounge chair, sitting down gingerly on the edge. If only Kate could ease Griff out of her own life and into Aubrey’s, she’d be doing everybody a favor. Griff looked past Aubrey’s shoulder and tried to catch Kate’s eye. She dove under and swam a few laps, but when she came up for air, he was still watching her, barely paying attention to what Aubrey said. Meanwhile, Lucas lay in the last bit of sun with a towel over his eyes, indifferent to everything around him. He hadn’t spoken a word since they arrived at the house. Jenny and her friend Drew were wandering around taking photographs of the view.
After a while, Kate got out of the pool and went to lie on the lounge chair closest to Lucas. Samuel came out and lit the tiki torches. Their acrid, lighter-fluid smell reminded Kate of summers of her childhood. Ethelene called them to the veranda, where a feast of jerk chicken with rice and beans had been laid out on the long mahogany table. Citronella candles flickered up and down its length, giving off their sweet scent. They ate in their wet bathing suits and bare feet, drinking chilled sauvignon blanc and talking about how crazy school was. They all loved and loathed Carlisle. At some point during dinner, Marlon came by and put a brown paper bag in Kate’s hand conspiratorially.
“Pipe’s in there,” he whispered. “Papers, too, take your choice. And those special extra treats you asked for. Be careful with those, they mess with your head.”
“I can handle it.”
“All right, all right. Just wait till the old folks gone inside so we don’t have no fuss.”
“Will do. Thanks, my friend,” Kate said, and kissed his cheek.
After laying waste to the food, they were ready to go back to the pool. A glorious sunset spread out to the west, the sky glowing in brilliant hues of orange, red, and violet. The mosquitoes were coming out, even though they were way up in the hills. They wrapped fluffy, striped towels close around them and huddled together on the chairs in the cooling air.
“Beautiful night, but I can think of a way to make it better,” Kate said, and pulled out the paper bag Marlon had given her.
“It’s getting chilly,” Jenny said, standing up. “I think I’ll go inside. Anybody want to come?”
Kate gave her a withering look but didn’t try to stop her. Then Lucas stood up.
“I’m beat,” he said.
“No,” Kate said. “Sit down.”
“But—”
“Jenny can leave. Not you.”
Everybody stared at Kate, and she stared right back. Her blue eyes, rimmed with purple liner smudged from the water, were defiant and wild.
Jenny shrugged. “Be careful,” she said, to no one in particular, and walked off toward the house.
Lucas remained standing. He glowered at Kate, saying nothing. His whole moody routine was getting less cute by the minute. Kate filled the bowl of the pipe, lit it, and took a deep drag. As the THC hit her bloodstream, she could tell that this was some powerful shit, different from anything she’d smoked before. It would loose chaos upon their group, but she was ready for that.
“Here,” she said, and held out the pipe to Lucas.
14
On the second day of the trip, Aubrey woke up alone in a lounge chair by the pool, in terrible pain from a sunburn. She had no sense of what time it was but the sun hung low enough in the sky that she suspected late afternoon. She sat up stiffly, every move agony. How had she let that happen, when she knew her pale skin blistered in the sun? She couldn’t remember a thing. The drugs and drinking last night had left her mind a blank.
Desperate for some aloe vera gel and needing to pee, she stood up on shaky legs and forced herself to go into the house. Her eyes burned and her stomach felt funky. Aubrey found a bathroom, then wandered the empty rooms of the first floor for what seemed like a long time, looking for her friends, who’d vanished into thin air. At least it was cool in here. The floors of the large rooms were made of white tile, and the heavy shutters were drawn against the sun. But the silence unnerved her. She felt like she’d stumbled into some vast, ghostly mansion, like she might walk here forever without encountering another soul.
When finally she heard a murmur of voices, she followed the sound to the kitchen. The housekeeper, Ethelene, was gabbing away in incomprehensible patois with the young girl who had cleaned up dinner last night. They looked up suspiciously as Aubrey poked her head in.
“Look at you now,” Ethelene said, clucking her tongue as she took in Aubrey’s lobster-red skin.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any aloe vera gel by any chance?” Aubrey asked timidly.
“We don’t got no drugstore fancies. I can give you a banana peel.”
“A—what?”
“Banana peel. Rub it on your skin, it take the pain away.”
The young maid giggled, which made Aubrey think Ethelene was making fun of her. Still, a banana peel was better than nothing.
“Okay, sure. Thank you. And I’d like a banana to eat, too, if that’s okay.”
“That’s just fine.”
Aubrey took what Ethelene handed her, and backed out of the kitchen.