Lake. She was the only one who knew where I was last night. That I was innocent—at least of what they were accusing. But there was no way in hell, none, I’d be bringing her into this. I couldn’t put her through it, and I was pretty sure it’d do more harm than good anyway.
I swallowed for what felt like the millionth time in an hour. My throat was raw. “I think I’d like to speak to a lawyer.”
24
Lake
Everybody went about his or her business as if nothing had changed.
As if Manning hadn’t been gone almost two hours.
As if taking away an innocent man in a police car was normal.
I helped every girl in the cabin pack her things, leaving mine for last. The cabin was messier than I realized. Hannah and I worked in silence to pick up, strip beds, empty the trash. The girls sat outside in the sun on their packs.
“Can we turn on the radio again?” one asked.
“No.”
They were quiet after that, and even though I wanted them to be, it didn’t help. My hands were busy, but my mind wandered. Manning had said I wasn’t involved with why they’d taken him, but I couldn’t see how that was possible. I’d been there every step of the way. The officer had to have seen something and gone back to the station with it. Would they come for me next?
I hoped so, that way I could explain everything. The sneaking off, the driving, the swimming, the almost-kissing—if the alternative was Manning getting in trouble for being with a minor, I’d tell them the truth: it was all me. I was responsible for all of it. I’d make sure they knew that, even if it meant being grounded for life. Even if the result was ruining myself in my dad’s eyes.
When the cabin was clean and all the girls had their bags in hand, Hannah looked at my bunk. “We’re supposed to take them over now.”
I wiped sweat from my brow. I wished I’d showered, because I was sure after all that labor, I smelled like a swamp. “It’ll only take me a second to pack. Let’s get them situated.”
Kids were everywhere, bees buzzing around a hive, as we walked the girls to the buses. I searched the area for anyone who might have news. Manning wasn’t back yet; I could sense his absence.
I spotted Gary before he saw me. “Start loading your things,” I said to the girls, and to Hannah, “I’ll be right back.”
Gary looked up, waving his clipboard at me. “Hey, Lake. You girls ready to go?”
“Yes. What happened?”
He made a note. “What?”
“With Manning? Where is he?”
Gary glanced around the immediate area. “He’s still at the station.”
“Why? What happened?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Did Tiffany go?”
“No.” He looked back at his list. “In fact, go check on her for me. She isn’t here yet, and we have to stay on schedule.”
My mouth dropped open. “We can’t leave him here.”
“We have no choice.”
“But he’s by himself with no way of getting home.”
Gary dropped the clipboard to his side. “What am I supposed to do? Keep the campers here all weekend while we wait to hear if one of our counselors is getting arrested? How do you think the parents would feel about that?”
Arrested. The word hit hard enough to make me step back. “But we can’t just—”
“I think you ought to get your sister. I need her girls here, and . . . she’s probably more upset than you, don’t you think? He’s her boyfriend after all.”
Anger rose in me like a wave. Tiffany only cared about Manning when it was convenient for her. I was the one who cared. She had no right to be upset. I did.
I wanted to explain all that to Gary, but my frustration must’ve been written on my face. Gary put a hand on my shoulder. “You have to calm down, Lake.”
“I need to see Manning.”
“You can’t.”
“Then I want to talk to his lawyer.”
“Why?”
“I can’t say.”
Gary frowned. “I’m starting to get concerned.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.” We stared at each other. “Should I be concerned?”
It probably looked as though I were overreacting. Gary didn’t get why this was so important to me, but making him understand could get Manning and me in more trouble. I’d promised Manning I’d keep my mouth shut. “No,” I said with a deep breath. “He’s just been a good friend to—us. Our family. And Tiffany.”
“Okay. So you’ll go check on her?”
There was nothing left to do. It wasn’t as if I could go into town and talk to Manning myself. At least Tiffany could drive. Once again, she was my only link to Manning.
* * *
Tiffany was frazzled. She’d thrown her hair up in a messy bun, and her bangs stuck to her forehead. “Kimmy, why are you taking everything out of the bag we just packed?” she asked.
“I can’t find my Walkman.” As Kimmy dug around, her dirty socks jumped onto the floor like fugitives on the run. “I need it for the bus.”
“But you guys wouldn’t shut up on the way here!” Tiffany began shoving Kimmy’s things back into the duffel. “You didn’t even listen to music.”
I put my hands on Kimmy’s shoulders. “We have games planned for the bus. You won’t need your Walkman. Right now, I need you to do a job for us.”
Kimmy pouted. “What job?”
“Go around to every bed that doesn’t have a sleeping bag, yank the sheets off the mattresses, and pile them in the middle of the cabin. Sounds fun, right?”
I’d given her permission to cause mayhem. She sprinted the two feet to the nearest bed. “You make it too hard on yourself,” I told Tiffany.
“If I ever, ever mention having babies, remind me of this experience,” Tiffany muttered. “I’m just glad Manning isn’t here to see me like this.”
That’s because he’s with the police, I wanted to snap at her. But that wasn’t the way to get through to Tiffany. “What’d he want?” I asked. “When I sent you to talk to him.”
“Iris!” Tiffany gaped behind me. “Are you kidding me?”
I looked back to find Iris grinning in red lipstick. She made kissing noises. “Oh, Manning. I lo-o-o-ve you.”
I recognized that lip color—it was Chanel. This wouldn’t go well. I was about to intervene when Tiffany stood up. “Come here,” she said to Iris.
Iris took a step back.
“You did it wrong. I taught you guys the other night how to use lip liner. You should’ve put that on first because now the lipstick is bleeding. You look like a hooker.”
“Tiffany,” I said through my teeth.
“What?” she asked me. “Do you want her to look like a hooker?”
Iris narrowed her eyes and then went to Tiffany, digging the lipstick from her pocket. She handed it over. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Tiffany popped off the cap, inspected the lipstick, and muttered under her breath, “This would cost you a month’s allowance, but it’s okay.”
If I hadn’t been so concerned about Manning, I might’ve fainted with shock. Somehow, at some point, Tiffany had been struck with an ounce of patience. Though it made me happy to see her try, I needed her to focus. “Tiff? What’d he say?”
Tiffany capped the lipstick, sat on the ground, and put it in the mesh pocket of her luggage. “Who?”
“Manning.”
She blinked up to me. For the way she’d just screeched at Iris, her voice was eerily even. “He’s in trouble because he left camp last night.”
I scratched my elbow. I shouldn’t feel guilty about lying. How many times had Tiffany lied to me or omitted information to get her way? “Do you know why?” I asked.
“Don’t you? You talked to him.”
My palms sweat. I didn’t know what she was talking about. “When?”
“This morning. You were the one who told me to go to his cabin. Didn’t
he tell you all this?”
“No. He said it was . . . adult business.”
Tiffany arched an eyebrow and laughed. “You’re an adult, aren’t you? You’ve been trying to act like one lately. To be like me.”
My face reddened. “What do you mean?”
She looked away. “Manning doesn’t think it’s a big deal, whatever the police want. But he wasn’t sure how long they’d keep him, so he might need me to come pick him up later.”
“That’s a long drive to get back here.”
“Who else is going to do it? You? His family? He wants me there.” She sat on her overstuffed suitcase and tried to pull the zipper closed. “All I know is it has to do with something that happened last night. He wouldn’t tell me more.”
I knew it. Either he’d lied by saying it didn’t involve me, or there was something else going on. Manning wanted to protect me, he’d made that clear since we’d met, but at what point was he making things worse? I didn’t exactly feel safe with him in custody, unable to talk me through our next move.
“Can I come with you to pick him up?” I asked.
Tiffany yanked on the zipper so hard, her fingers slipped, and she flew backward. “Fuck.” She shook out her hand. “God, that hurt. And I broke a goddamn nail.”
“Tiff?”
“I’m so sick of this place,” she said. “It’s dirty and loud. I only came for him, and now he’s . . .”
“What?” I asked, every hair on my body prickling.
“Never mind—”
“What else did he say?”
“Nothing, I already told you.”
“But if there’s anything else, anything—I need to know.”
“What do you want from me, Lake?” she said, pounding her fist on the suitcase. Surprised, I stepped back. “I have no idea what’s going on. He wouldn’t tell me shit. I don’t know what to do or if I should do anything or just . . .”
Her body shook with the threat of a sob. I was so shocked by her tears that I got on the floor next to her. She rarely cried if it wasn’t to get something out of my dad. I pulled her hands from her face to put my arms around her. “It’s okay.”
She pulled away. “Don’t.”
“Why?”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “You’re the reason we’re in this mess.”
It seemed to me Tiffany and Manning were adult enough to decide whether or not they wanted to be here, but when had Tiffany ever taken responsibility for her decisions? “Whatever, Tiffany. I came here to check on you and Manning, not fight.”
“What if he gets in real trouble?” she asked. “How will you feel then?”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“Innocent people don’t go to jail.”
She looked at me hard. “What if he’s not innocent?”
“He is,” Gary said from the doorway. “Manning’s a good guy. Whatever happened, I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.”
“Take us to the station, Gary,” I said. “Please.”
“I can’t. Not only would it not help, but Manning specifically asked me to keep you two out of it.”
“But I’m his girlfriend,” Tiffany said.
“He’s trying to protect you.” He sniffed at us, his eyes roaming over our faces. We must’ve looked as bad as we felt, because he conceded, but not without an eye-roll. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll come back as soon as I can and check things out. Once everything at home is sorted, I’ll drive back up here on my own and make sure Manning’s all right.”
It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I could see it was all we were going to get. It was better than Manning being alone. “Thanks,” we said.
“But I have one condition—relax. You girls are too young to worry about this sort of stuff. Actually, I have two conditions. Pack up your shit and get over to the buses now.” With a poor attempt at an angry-face, he turned and walked off.
Tiffany looked exhausted. I could tell she was thinking about leaving her stuff behind just so she could stop packing. Considering there were designer purses in there, she must’ve been desperate.
“I’ll sit on the bag, and you zip,” I said. “I’m heavier than you.” I might’ve been, if I’d had the boobs and butt she did, but it was exactly what she needed to hear. She inhaled a breath and stood so I could take her place. After wrestling with the zipper, she got the bag closed. Her face and eyes were red, her hairline sticky with sweat. I couldn’t help wondering what’d happened just now, before Gary’d interrupted us. Tiffany was clearly distraught. Was it possible she actually cared about Manning?
With that realization, a new fear settled over me. Not for Manning or even myself. If Tiffany found out I’d snuck off with her boyfriend, she’d be furious. Embarrassed. Hurt. What I’d done, I’d done without considering how it might affect my own sister. It’d been easy to convince myself it wouldn’t matter to her because she didn’t have real feelings for Manning. But did she?
“I’m sorry this week was so bad,” I said sincerely. “I’ll go to the mall with you when we get home and buy you something.”
She wiped her nose. “With what?”
“I have some allowance saved. Probably more than you.”
She turned around and climbed onto her bed to remove pictures of her and her friends she’d taped to the wall. “You know I can have almost anyone. Manning’s lucky I’m still around.”
I wasn’t sure where that was coming from, but there was only one way to answer that if I wanted to get out of here alive. “I know.” I waited for her to continue, but she just picked tape off the corners of the photographs. “Did something happen with him?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Are you thinking of breaking up with him?”
“Maybe.”
So many things ran through my mind at once. If they broke up, Manning would be out of her life. But would he then be out of mine, too? No. He and I had to find a way. We knew it’d come to this. It wasn’t as if I’d expected her to stay with Manning for two whole years until I turned eighteen.
“We’ll see how it goes if I pick him up,” she said.
I didn’t know which way to encourage her. It was a very real possibility that without Tiffany, Manning and I would be separated until I turned eighteen. That was two excruciating years away from him. But the thought of them together felt like having a piece of glass lodged in my chest—I couldn’t go very long without being reminded it was there.
Manning and I needed Tiffany, but at the same time, there was no denying—she was also in the way.
25
Lake
By Tuesday morning, three long days since they’d taken Manning away, I could no longer handle doing nothing. This time next week, I’d be back in school, even more helpless than I already was.
I went through the bathroom, knocked on Tiffany’s door, and entered.
“Rude much?” she asked. Tiffany lay on her stomach, reading Cosmopolitan, blowing on her nails. A bottle of purple polish sat precariously on her white comforter. “I could’ve been naked.”
“I’ve seen you naked.”
“What do you want?”
Tiffany’s room was the personification of a rundown childhood. In elementary school, Mom had redecorated it with white wicker furniture, ruffled bedding, and pastel walls. She’d helped Tiffany and me paint tulips along the bottom. But as Tiffany had gotten older, she’d tacked concert posters around her bed. Paint chipped off the wicker desk where she’d thrown her phone at it. She’d glued pictures of celebrities to her vanity mirror. One tulip head had been covered with a glittery sticker that said “Goddess” and another with a cartoonish MTV logo. Her shoe collection had overflown from the closet, floral Doc Martens sprouting from her plush, white carpet.
I turned the stereo volume down. “Did you get ahold of Gary?”
“Hey. That was Alice in Chains.”
“Did you?”
She sighed.
“He called last night. Manning robbed someone. That’s why he’s there.”
But that made no sense at all. “Are you sure?”
“Yup.”
There were so many ways to tell her Manning couldn’t have committed any crime that night, but how? I’d have to admit I was with him, and I’d promised I wouldn’t tell. “What . . . who do they think he stole from?”
She looked up at me. “Guess.”
“How would I know?” Her eyes stayed on me so long, it was as if she actually expected me to respond. “Another counselor?” I asked.
“No.” She returned to her magazine. “He didn’t take anything. Just broke into some house in the suburbs during an alcohol run. Nobody, not even Gary, knows what happened between when he left and morning. At least, nobody has come forward.”
My throat went dry. There was no robbery. There was no house. Just a truck, a lake, and infinite stars. Manning was innocent. “Does Gary think he did it?”
“No. Neither do I, obviously.”
I tried to feel relieved. Gary and Tiffany were adults—they knew better. They’d handle this. “What else did he say?”
“Manning meets with his lawyer this week, and they’ll go before a judge. I forget what it’s called, but Gary says that’s when he pleads ‘not guilty.’ We’ll know more after that.”
“But what happens until then? Is Manning coming back?” Either my chest was caving in or my heart had begun to swell. I couldn’t picture him held at the station for days, just waiting, thinking of all the things he would’ve done differently that night. Maybe, even, regretting our time together. “Or is he already back?”
Tiffany carefully flipped a page and checked her polish. “I don’t know. I guess he’s in jail.”
On her desk next to her phone sat a pink, lined notepad with hearts doodled in the margin—and notes in her handwriting. “Did Gary give you the name of the lawyer?”
Something in the Way: A Forbidden Love Saga: The Complete Collection Page 25