by Hannah Jayne
Addie arched an eyebrow. “I really need to find better friends.”
Maya grinned. “You know you love me. And you look amazing.”
Addie caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror in the Briggses’ foyer and almost didn’t recognize herself. Short skirt. Knee-high boots. Flimsy shirt that showed off a little too much cleavage. She squirmed, but Maya pinned her with a stare and brushed her hair over her shoulders. “Stop. You really look incredible. Give yourself a little credit. Spencer is going to go nuts.”
A little shiver went through Addie.
She told Maya that all she’d ever wanted was Declan Levy—straight from the pages of Gap Lake. And it was true—because she didn’t want to be in love with Spencer Cohen. She did her best to dismiss him and his chiseled water polo shoulders and his Mediterranean perma tan.
She read about Declan and dreamed about Declan, but she knew he wasn’t real.
But Spencer was.
She didn’t want her heart to speed up when he looked at her, didn’t want her temperature to ratchet up ten degrees when he grinned. Every time he walked by, her body betrayed her—and she didn’t hate it.
He had chestnut-colored hair. It was just shaggy enough on top that Addie could push it out of his hot-chocolate-colored eyes. She imagined him batting his long lashes at her, then dragging his tongue over his full lips…
“Addie, Addie! Earth to Addison!”
“Oh. Hi. Wait. What?”
“He’s right there. Are you going to make your move?” Maya jutted her chin toward the open sliding glass door. The pool glistened in the darkness and standing there, framed in the brilliance, was Spencer. He blinked when he saw Maya, but grinned when he saw Addie, raising the red plastic cup in his hand.
Addie melted. She smiled so hard her cheeks hurt and tried to offer a casual wave in return.
The smile dropped from Spencer’s lips.
“Oh,” he mouthed. “Not you. Sorry.”
Addie felt the brush from the girl behind her. A whiff of jasmine-scented perfume. The swish of perfect blond locks.
“Spencer!” Lydia Stevenson stepped in front of Addie and beelined toward him, rushing into his arms. Spencer hugged her tight, but offered a crooked apologetic smile toward Addie.
She swallowed hard, feeling the heat rush through her body, burning the tops of her ears. Somewhere behind her, she heard the snickers. The whispers. Everyone saw it. Everyone saw her wave to a guy who was waving to another girl.
“Can we go?”
Rumors swelled that Lydia had gotten sloppy drunk that night and gone skinny-dipping before being carried home by Spencer. But now…
Addie shot shampoo in her hand and rubbed it into her hair, closing her eyes against the suds. But each time she did, she saw Lydia, saw her hunched over the desk, the blue-white of her skin.
Lydia was gone.
Dead.
There would only be stories, only memories.
Addie shivered even under the hot water. She turned it off and stepped into the steam-filled bathroom, wrapping herself in a fluffy pink towel from the rack. The steam started to clear, leaving bubbles of condensation at the edges of the fogged-up mirror. That’s when she saw it. Eye height. Crude letters finger-scrawled across the steamy mirror.
I’M HERE.
Six
Addie’s heart started to thud, and she found it hard to breathe. The steam was thick, choking, and she started to cough. She clawed for the door, but it wouldn’t open.
“What? What the—oh God.” She started to pound. “Help me! Help me! Dad? Dad?”
The door was snatched open from the other side and Addie went barreling to the ground, towel in a heap around her. She was panting and crying and Maya was staring down at her.
“Oh my gosh, Addie, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“Someone was in the bathroom with me! I was in the shower and when I got out there was a message on the mirror!” Tears streamed down her face and she was heaving—then immediately stopped, dropping her head in her hands. “You went in the bathroom, didn’t you?”
Maya bit her lip, nodded sheepishly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I wrote it.”
“You wrote ‘I’m here’ because—” Addie rolled onto her butt on the carpet and adjusted the towel around her. “Because you’re here. Oh my God, I’m so lame.”
She started to giggle, and Maya sat down next to her. “You kind of are. But in your defense, we’re both really freaked out. Someone was murdered, Adds. Someone we know. And we”—Maya sucked in a slow, painful breath—“found her.”
Addie’s eyes widened. “We don’t know she was murdered. We don’t know that for sure. Did your parents say something?”
Maya shook her head. “No, they won’t talk too much to me about an ongoing case, especially one like this. But what else could it be? People our age don’t just up and die.”
“It could have been drugs. Right? An overdose or something?”
“I honestly don’t know what to think.”
“Every time I close my eyes…” She started to pace, her hands rubbing along her crossed arms. Addie felt the gooseflesh rise. “I mean, if someone did do this, why? And who?”
“Maybe Mr. Moreau.”
Addie gaped. “The journalism teacher? No. No way.”
Maya scooched over. “Here’s the thing. Most people are killed by people that they know.” She started ticking off each finger. “Spouse or boyfriend, sibling or parent.” She eyed Addie. “Employee or teacher.”
“That’s not true.”
“Where was Mr. Moreau when Lydia was murdered?”
“I don’t know. But he drove up after we found her. Like, right after, so he was probably at—I don’t know—home or something, or wherever teachers go. And if not being there makes someone a suspect, then we’re all suspects. You, me, and Colton.”
Maya shook her head. “Colton couldn’t have done it. He’s too enormous.”
“That’s a defense?”
“And no motive. But Mr. Moreau…”
Addie rolled her eyes. “What would his motive be?”
“Love. Greed. Sex.”
Now Addie ticked off on her fingers. “Mr. Moreau got married last year, Lydia worked at The Gap, so I doubt she was rolling in cash, and sex with a teacher is so beyond gross I can’t even dignify that with a response.”
“Fine then. Grammar?”
“As a motive?”
Maya blew out a sigh. “I’m out of ideas.”
Addie pulled on some clothes and then wound her towel around her head. The pressure felt good against her throbbing temples. “So, earlier, when I was telling you about R. J. Rosen?”
Maya rolled her eyes and flopped down on Addie’s bed. “Are we seriously going to have a fangirl discussion?”
“I’m serious, just hear me out.”
Maya straightened up and eyed Addie anyway. “I’m sorry. Spill.”
“It’s weird that right before this happened Rosen sent me a snippet of the new Gap Lake book.”
“Yeah. It was pretty juicy. You said there was more. Is it as good as what you read me?”
Addie stood up, then started to pace. “Yeah, I guess.” She bit her lip. “So the part that I read you…Jordan goes into the school auditorium and that’s where she finds Luxe.”
“Why was she at the auditorium after dark? I mean, in the first book, Crystal went missing when she was at school after hours. That’s kind of dumb.”
“We were at school after hours.”
“Yeah, but we’re real people. We were working on the school paper.”
“And we found Lydia. So it’s pretty realistic—”
Maya’s face was grim. “Life imitates art?”
Addie’s stomach roiled, bile itching at the back
of her throat. “Or art imitates life.” She shivered. “So Jordan went back to the school auditorium because she’s in the play and she left her script behind.”
She waved at the air. “There was a whole backstory. That’s not the point, okay? Just listen. So Jordan is at school after dark, and she goes to get her script and she finds Luxe. Her body.”
“Okay.”
Addie pinched her lips. “Just listen. She walks out to the auditorium and she sees Luxe, lying on the stage.”
“Okay?”
“But first she smells something swampy and muddy.”
“Well, that would make sense since they live in Gap Lake.”
“They don’t live in the lake. But listen: a wet, muddy smell? A swampy smell? The heroine is at school after dark?”
Maya rearranged the pillows on Addie’s bed and melted into them. “I’m getting all that. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. Be shocked? It’s a story, Addie. It’s a dead character in a series that has a history of dead characters. All the books are the same. Some young chick dies and another chick finds her.”
“Do I have to spell it out for you, Maya?”
“I think I’ve made it pretty clear that you do.”
“We were at school after dark. And we found”—here, her voice cracked—“a body. Don’t you see the similarities? It smelled in the journalism room. It smelled, and I used that exact word ‘swampy.’”
Maya held Addie’s eye for a long beat and then shrugged. “So?”
“Don’t you see? I get this passage from R. J. Rosen and right afterward, right after we walked in and found Lydia, I get a text from him that says, ‘Did you like my surprise?’” Addie held out her phone, the offending text open. “Don’t you see?”
“I do not.”
“R. J. Rosen wrote about it and then it happened. We basically walked into the book.”
“So you’re telling me that R. J. Rosen is trolling us? And what, plotting the murder of teens to sell more books?”
Addie flopped down next to Maya. “When you say it like that, it does sound really dumb.”
“I’m sorry, hon, but when you say it any way it sounds dumb.”
“It’s just so coincidental.”
“It’s a very vague coincidence. Like, what exactly makes the Kardashians famous vague.”
“Addison! Oh my gosh, Addie! Are you okay?” Addie’s father was at her bedroom door, crossing her room in two full strides. “Honey, why didn’t you call me?”
“I did. I left a message on your phone.”
Morton Gaines strode into the room and gathered up his daughter in his arms. Addie hugged him back, loving the familiar smell of her dad’s aftershave, the way the office smell hung on his suit.
“I’m so sorry. I was in a dinner meeting with some clients from—well, it doesn’t matter. Hello, Maya. I’m really glad you’re here with Addie. You’re a good friend.”
“Thanks, Mr. Gaines.”
“Did you call your parents? Are they working on the case?”
Maya half shrugged, half nodded. “My dad was working tonight anyway and my mom went in after I said I was coming here.” She grabbed Addie’s elbow, gave it a possessive squeeze. “I didn’t think Addie should be alone out here.”
Mr. Gaines dismissed Maya’s comment and began pacing the room. “I just can’t believe the school administration didn’t call me. And the police shouldn’t have been allowed to talk to you without an adult present.”
“They tried to call you too, Dad. And it was fine. They just asked us questions about…her. About finding her.”
“Are you okay? Both of you? Do you need anything? To talk, anything?”
Addie and Maya both shook their heads. “We’re fine.”
Addie licked her lips. “As fine as we can be.”
Then, when Mr. Gaines left, Maya leaned in. “It’s so nice how concerned your dad is.”
Addie snorted. “You’re kidding me, right? I left four messages on his phone. We’ve been home for hours. I think he’s more concerned that he may have missed an opportunity to sue the police than anything else.”
“Addie, you know that’s not true.”
Addie shot her best friend a glance.
“Your father is a money man. He would have much rather let the police department settle out of court than go through a lawsuit. Way more money that way.”
“Go to bed, jerk.”
Seven
Addie tried to sleep, but all she could see was Lydia, hunkered down over her desk. She kicked off the covers and tiptoed around Maya, grabbing a Gap Lake book and trying to read, but her mind kept crowding out the words, kept stomping out the story.
What had happened to Lydia? And what did R. J. Rosen mean—Did you like my surprise? The thought still gave Addie chills and shot out bat wings through her gut. He must have meant the next part of the story, but it still didn’t sit well with her. She grabbed her laptop and curled into her window seat, first taking a sweeping look out the window.
There were no lights on in the houses across the street, the black windows like gaping mouths and boring eyes. She was going to pull the curtain when she saw the warm yellow glow from Colton’s bedroom window next door. She watched until his curtain fluttered and he stepped into the window, reaching down to shut it. Addie could see that he had on bright-green Hawthorne High sweatpants—they were enormous and bunched at his waist. He caught her eye, then smiled, offering her a finger wave.
Addie could feel the blush in her cheeks—she had been caught staring into a boy’s window! But it was Colton Hayes, and he had lived next door since freshman year. He and Addie threw the occasional pebble at each other’s windows, met outside here and there to talk about Gap Lake or nothing at all. Colton picked up his phone and pointed at it.
Addie grabbed hers, answering just before the first ring went through.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she said, whispering so as not to wake Maya. “I think it’s weird that you don’t text.”
Colton leaned into the window, and Addie could see the enormous, ancient phone he had pressed to his ear. “Landline. My parents have this ‘lock up your cell phone’ after nine o’clock thing.”
Addie nodded. “That’s actually kind of nice.”
Colton snorted. “If you want your parents to talk to you or whatever.”
“I guess.”
“So…are you as freaked out as I am?”
Addie swallowed the lump that started in her throat. She could only nod, then finally force out a meek “uh-huh.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
Tears were rimming Addie’s eyes. “I don’t know. I just…” She sucked in a breath. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I got a message from R. J. Rosen. And—”
“Wait,” she could see Colton frown from his window. “The real R. J. Rosen? Like the author?”
“Yeah.”
“He contacted you? Through your blog, or did he call you or something?”
Addie sucked in a slow breath. The excitement was still there, but it was tempered by the shock of the evening. “He sent me a message through GapLakeLove, and then I responded from my email so he emailed me there.” The familiar thrum of excitement rolled through her and she could almost imagine that all she had was good news. “It was kind of cool. He wants me to be a part of his launch activities for the new book.”
“That’s awesome, Addie! You’re going to be famous.”
She felt heat in her cheeks and shook her head, dark hair bobbing around her shoulders. “Maybe. I doubt it. I’m just a fan.”
“A fan who probably writes better than the author.”
“Nobody thinks that, Colton.”
“Hey, I’m just saying. People are totally talking about your blog at school. You know who even sa
id something? Spencer.”
“Spencer Cohen?”
Colton snorted. “Right? I didn’t even know he could read.”
Addie tried to tamp down her excitement. “I didn’t know he was even into Gap Lake.”
“Yeah, apparently Lydia makes him read—” Colton’s words dropped off, the implication hanging there between them. “Lydia made him read them, I guess…”
Gap Lake. The entire school was obsessed with it. The entire town maybe.
Obsessed enough to kill?
Addie sucked in a steadying breath, her insides feelings as though they were going to collapse in on themselves. “What happened tonight…this…it sounds like it came right from the book.”
“What are you talking about?”
Addie sighed again, glancing at Maya sleeping so soundly on the bed. She was on her back, covers to her chin, snoring softly. Addie wished she could sleep like that, but her stomach was in knots, her world in pieces. “Meet me downstairs and I’ll show you.”
Addie pulled on a sweatshirt and walked out the front door. She didn’t have to worry about an angry sibling or a parent really caring that she was walking out of her house at ten o’clock at night. It took Colton a good ten minutes to make it out of his and when he did, he was dressed in all black and moving like a cat burglar—be it an enormous, lanky, and inelegant one.
“What’s with the outfit?”
“If my parents spot me, I’m dead. Well, even more dead than I already am. I’m grounded.”
“Because?”
Colton shrugged, sliding in a bit of cool nonchalance. “What do you think? Please say something cool like you’re pretty sure I knocked over a liquor store or got caught running an online gambling ring.”
“I’m betting you either blew your entire family’s data plan playing something stupid like Pokémon Go or your grades are bad.”
Colton frowned. “It’s sad how well you know me. Anyway, what are you talking about with ‘it came from a book’? That’s weird and ominous.”
Addie worried her bottom lip, trying to decide how much to tell. “Not a book. Gap Lake.”
“I don’t think there’s a murder like Lydia’s in any of the books. Definitely not the first one.”