by Laura Wolfe
Two uncomfortable seconds ticked by before Jenna responded. “Yeah. Especially if help doesn’t show up soon.” She snapped out of her trance, raising her eyebrows at me. “What is it?”
“The car accident. Back in college. It stole so much from you, and I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have made you come with us to the store that night. I wish I could go back in time and not pass that car. I know your injury was my fault and I’m so sorry. It’s my fault Pete broke up with you.”
Jenna shook her head. “Like I told you back then, there’s nothing to apologize for, Megan. It was an accident. I made my own decision to go to the store that night. No one forced me. End of story.”
“Really? I mean, you’re not even a little bit mad at me?”
“No.” Jenna set down her can of soda and rested her hands on her knees. “Okay, maybe for a week or two after it happened, I was a little bit mad. But you felt so horrible about the whole thing. You must have apologized to me a thousand times. I knew you didn’t do it on purpose. And Pete was bad news anyway. What kind of guy dumps his girlfriend right after she gets seriously injured? Even if we had ended up together, I’m sure we’d be divorced by now. The accident forced me to move on and focus on my studies. I might not have gotten into law school, otherwise.”
I nodded, relief swimming through me because she hadn’t mentioned the other thing. Or was she leaving it out on purpose? Was it possible she was acting again? My reckless driving hadn’t been my only betrayal of my friend’s trust. I’d lied about the mug, and I’d made other mistakes, too—errors in judgment I’d never been able to forget, no matter how much I tried.
It was early March, over a month since the car accident that shattered Jenna’s leg. I blew out a puff of air as I languished in the library flipping through pages of my Abnormal Psychology textbook. There were only two days until the second-to-last exam and so much material to cover. My back pressed into the hard chair as dusk descended on the other side of the wall of windows. Jenna wasn’t the only one whose boyfriend had dumped her. Last week, Dan had shown up to my bedroom door, shoved his hands in his pockets, and asked if we could talk. I knew right then it was over. He said I’d changed, that I was preoccupied. He couldn’t see our future together. I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded like a cop-out.
When I’d told Sam and Kaitlyn about the breakup, they had ordered a pizza and insisted the five of us watch Kaitlyn’s well-worn VHS tape of Titanic together. We’d all been single for a brief moment in time, and our solidarity was comforting. I spent the days that followed struggling to banish Dan from my thoughts.
Now, though, I was distracted as I sat in the library and reread the highlighted paragraph in my psychology textbook. I was unnerved to find Jenna’s ex, Pete, sitting one table over, diagonally across from me. I’d accidentally made eye contact with him three times already, each time looking away as quickly as possible and swearing under my breath on Jenna’s behalf. My uncooperative eyes bounced toward him again. Pete was staring at me and a smile twitched in the corner of his lip. He stood up and came over.
“Hey.” He hiked the strap of his backpack further onto his shoulder and motioned toward the empty seat next to me. “Mind if I sit?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
He pulled out the chair and sat down, setting his books and pen in front of him. “How’s Jenna doing?”
I raised my chin, my skin bristling. “How do you think she’s doing?” Jackass.
Pete scooted forward and rested his forehead in his hand before looking at me. “Listen, I know you probably think I’m a jerk.”
I focused on a barren tree outside the window, unwilling to disagree. A woman sitting a few seats away cleared her throat and glared at us.
Pete lowered his voice to a whisper. “I just. It’s just that…” He stopped talking and ran his fingers through his hair, leaving it standing on end. “Things weren’t that great between Jenna and me. She’s a lot to handle. I was already planning on breaking up with her even before the accident. Once she was injured and stuck in bed, I felt even more trapped.”
“You could have waited.”
“Yeah. I know. It was selfish.” He lowered his head and faced me, forcing me to look at him. “I’m not a bad guy. I want you to know that.” He straightened his muscular shoulders. Pete was much taller and sturdier than Dan. “I’ve always liked you, Megan.”
I stared at Pete, not sure what he was getting at. I got a weird feeling he was flirting with me. His sea-blue irises shone in the overhead lights. Movement rippled through my chest, and I instructed myself to ignore it.
“What are you studying?” he asked.
“Abnormal Psychology.”
“Me too.”
“Shh!” The woman a few seats down frowned at me.
Pete shook his head. “Do you want to grab some coffee with me? We can review the materials together?”
My fingers tightened around the edge of the hard chair. Going out for coffee with Jenna’s ex-boyfriend felt wrong, but it wasn’t a date. Pete and I were in the same class and had an exam in two days. It would be a relief to get away from the disapproving woman at the other end of the table.
“Okay. Sure.”
A few minutes later, we found a corner table inside a brick-walled cafe. The lights were dim and jazz music floated through the air. Pete bought me a vanilla latte. We covered most of the course material by asking each other questions and recounting various experiments, chapter by chapter. We joked about our tendency to self-diagnose each one of the mental illnesses as we studied them. Pete had an easy way about him, and I could suddenly see how he might have felt diminished by Jenna’s need to be the center of attention. I laughed more during that study session than I ever had with Dan. Once or twice, Pete’s eyes hung on to mine for a second too long. I could understand how Jenna had fallen for him.
It was nearly midnight when we left the cafe. Pete insisted on walking me home. The city streets were dark, and there’d been a recent rash of late-night muggings near campus, so I didn’t object. After several minutes of strolling and talking, we approached the front door of the house on 14th Street. Later, I would wish I’d kept my voice down.
“Thanks for walking me home. And studying for the exam with me.”
He smiled. “We’re going to kill it.”
I raised my hand in a goodbye wave, hoping he’d get out of there before anyone caught us together. Instead, Pete stepped forward and pecked me on the cheek. He paused, locking eyes with me. My cheeks flushed and I couldn’t help grinning. He turned on his heel, practically skipping down the sidewalk.
I shuffled backward, stunned by the kiss but also thrilled. My sudden attraction to Pete was confusing. Electricity traveled through my veins, but guilt drew my eyes upward toward Jenna’s bedroom window. My knees almost buckled when I spotted a shadow behind the dark glass, her pale face peering down at me like a ghost.
“Shit.” The sight of my friend extinguished any euphoria I’d felt at the unexpected kiss. I fumbled for my keys, unlocked the door, and raced up the stairs to explain myself. The hallway was dark, and a muffled conversation seeped from Sam’s room, but Jenna’s door was closed. I paused outside her bedroom. “Jenna?” My knuckles rapped against the wood. “Jenna?” There was no answer.
I turned the handle and peeked through the crack. Jenna sat on her bed with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. Her bedside lamp cast long shadows across the room.
“It wasn’t what it looked like.”
“What the hell, Megan?” Jenna’s icy stare speared through me. “Haven’t you done enough?”
The loaded question sent another dagger through my heart. I balled my clammy hands into fists and steadied my voice. “I ran into Pete by chance. At the library. He’s in my Abnormal Psych class, so we reviewed some stuff for the exam on Friday. That was it.”
“Ha.” Jenna turned away from me.
“I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I wasn’t thinking.” I lowered my
eyes toward Jenna, but she wouldn’t look at me. “There’s nothing between us. I promise.”
Jenna bit her lip, then sneered at me. “You and Charlotte can fight over Pete, for all I care. He’s a complete asshole. He’s dead to me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want him. Not after what he did to you. I’m sure Charlotte doesn’t want him either.”
Jenna arched an eyebrow at me at the mention of Charlotte, causing us both to chuckle.
“I’m so sorry, Jenna.” My eyes traveled over her bandaged leg. “For everything. I’ve been such a crappy friend. Can you forgive me?”
Jenna released a breath and closed her eyes. The tense muscles in her face softened. “Let’s forget about it.”
I sat down and hugged her. I’d been stupid to fall victim to Pete’s boyish charm, to let him put a wedge between us. The fleeting attraction had been nothing more than a childish reaction to Dan dumping me. I pulled away from Jenna, feeling both relieved and jittery as if I’d narrowly missed being run over by a train.
On Friday, I turned in my exam and exited the auditorium. I’d seen Pete sitting on the opposite side of the room when I’d arrived and had purposely avoided him. Still, I couldn’t deny the fluttering of my heart when he raised his eyes toward me and smiled. He’d been hunched over his paper when I’d left. Now, I hurried down the sidewalk, happy it was 5 p.m. on Friday. Hunger gnawed at my stomach, and I debated whether to run into Campus Café and grab a chicken sandwich and some fries. I deserved a treat after all the studying I’d put in.
“Megan, wait up.”
My feet stopped at the sound of Pete’s voice. I cursed under my breath, wishing he would forget about us. A mixture of annoyance and yearning rushed over me.
Pete jogged up next to me. “How’d it go?”
“Pretty well, I think.”
“Yeah. Me too.” He matched my pace.
I kept walking, gluing my eyes ahead as Friday traffic lurched beside us.
“Want to get something to eat?”
“I shouldn’t,” I said, although I was starving. “Jenna is one of my best friends.”
He hurried along next to me, touching my arm. “You don’t have to tell Jenna. It’s only a meal to celebrate our test being over.”
“It’s not a good idea.”
“Have you ever been to The Old Cantina? It’s downtown, just a few minutes away. Best enchiladas you’ll ever eat.” Pete grinned. The stubble on his square jaw was rugged and handsome. I paused. Before I knew what was happening, Pete raised his arm and flagged down a cab. He opened the passenger door.
“Get in. My treat.”
My stomach rumbled again.
“Come with me just this once and I’ll never bother you again. I promise. No one will ever know.”
I realized Pete might be right. A dinner with him wasn’t going to hurt anyone. We’d be downtown, across the highway from campus. The chances of running into anyone I knew, particularly Jenna, were slim.
“Okay. Fine. Jenna can never know about this, though.” I ducked into the taxi, feeling guilty but enjoying the heat of Pete’s body next to mine.
The restaurant was dark and loud, but a hostess seated us right away. Mariachi music echoed through the cavernous room, where every nook and cranny housed another table. We sat in a booth in the corner. I was thankful for the secluded location but couldn’t stop myself from scanning the faces at nearby tables. We spent over an hour at the restaurant, eating chips and salsa and drinking margaritas before ordering the main course. Our conversation quickly turned from the exam to other things, like our families and funny people we’d known in high school. When the food no longer looked appetizing, Pete ordered another round of drinks and gazed at me. “You’re too far away.” He got up and walked around to my side of the booth, repositioned himself next to me. His arm slid around my back and he kissed my lips. My body stiffened at first. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t stop him. The margaritas had impaired my judgment and lowered my inhibitions. I liked the warmth of his lips on mine and I kissed him back. I didn’t think about Jenna.
The waitress neared our booth, and Pete and I pulled away from each other, pretending we’d only been sitting there. She set down our drinks and walked away. A strange sensation tingled up my neck and over my scalp. I scanned the room again, my gaze snagging on a dark pair of eyes leering from a booth in the opposite corner. My mouth went dry as my stomach turned. I’d been caught.
Frida stared at me from across the room, her unflinching eyes surrounding me like a net. She was with someone unfamiliar, a lanky guy with acne scars across his cheeks. A basket of chips rested between them. Frida frowned, her pale face pinching in disapproval; she made it clear that she’d witnessed the kiss. I worried she would report back to Charlotte, who would then tell Jenna. Jenna wouldn’t be so quick to forgive me this time. My secret was exposed, and this second betrayal would be the end of our friendship. I wanted to look away from Frida but couldn’t. The grip of her stare felt like hands around my windpipe.
“We should leave.” The words stuck in my throat as I struggled to turn away from Frida’s lurking silhouette. Instead, I glimpsed something dark and unsettling behind the strange woman’s eyes, like two stones sinking into the mud.
Jenna tapped her fingers on the photo of herself on the soccer field as I smothered the memory of my betrayal. The photo was the same picture she’d been staring at the other night.
“You looked so happy,” I said.
“I was. I’m still happy.” Jenna waved her hand in the air. “Or, at least I was before we arrived here.”
I registered Jenna’s words, hearing the authenticity behind them. If she was acting, she deserved an Oscar.
My mind tumbled back to my betrayal that night at the Mexican restaurant. As far as I knew, Jenna had never discovered the illicit date, but I could still feel the burning judgment from Frida’s stare.
I pressed my palms into my thighs. “Who else knows we’re staying here? I mean, besides our families.”
“Huh?”
“What if Marlene and Ed didn’t kill Kaitlyn? What if Travis didn’t kill Sam?”
Jenna’s jaw slackened. “I don’t understand. You think one of us—”
“No.” I held up my hand. “Not one of us. Someone who wanted to be one of us.”
“I still don’t follow.”
I stared at Jenna as the memory of Frida’s knowing eyes burrowed through me. “Frida King.”
A spark of understanding flickered in Jenna’s pupils, but she didn’t speak.
“Charlotte said she posted our weekend reunion plans on Facebook. She and Frida are Facebook friends. She would have known exactly where to find us.”
“You think Frida followed us up here after twenty years to murder us? That’s a little far-fetched, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. We always excluded her from our group. I didn’t give it much thought back then, but that must have been painful for her. Maybe her life has gone downhill. Maybe she saw the Facebook post and snapped.”
“I just don’t see it. None of us have even spoken to Frida since college. Even Charlotte said they’d lost touch after Oliver was born.” Jenna shook her head and thumbed toward the window. “The terrorists next door seem much more likely suspects.”
I stared through the glass at the thrashing tree branches outside. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. It sounds crazy now that I said it out loud.”
My suspicions of Frida and Jenna had all but eroded. My eyes stuck on the door Charlotte had exited hours earlier, and I couldn’t stop another treacherous thought from leaking into my head. I pulled the album closer and examined the photo of Charlotte dressed in black, in what we referred to jokingly as her “morbid phase.” Was it possible Charlotte had a hidden dark side that was now surfacing? She and Reed were having marital problems. While it seemed that Charlotte had gained confidence in herself after her first divorce, she’d always had a habit of pouring her self-worth into the han
ds of men. Maybe her marital issues with Reed were having a more severe effect on her than I realized. Then there’d been Charlotte’s insistence on driving all of us to the remote cabin. A cabin she wanted to rent because of her supposedly tight financial situation. Then again, I hadn’t offered to drive, and Charlotte was the only one of us with a minivan.
It was risky to share my theory with Jenna, but I couldn’t keep the troubling suspicion contained. Still, if there was ever a time to think outside the box, it was now. I leaned forward, softening my voice. “What if Charlotte planned this?”
Jenna’s eyes popped. “Are you insane? Strait-laced, church-going, doe-eyed, girl-next-door Charlotte who has never spoken a swear word in her life and is trudging through the forest in a thunderstorm to find us help?”
I bit my lip as I felt my cheeks redden.
“Why would Charlotte suddenly decide to kill her friends?” Jenna asked.
“I don’t know. She and Reed are having problems. Charlotte thinks he’s lost interest in her.”
“Wouldn’t she go to marriage counseling or file for divorce from Reed, then, and not murder two of her closest friends?”
I aimed my eyes on the floor, acknowledging my flawed logic. I couldn’t think of any reason Charlotte would want to harm Sam or Kaitlyn, much less kill them. “Yeah. You’re right. Being cooped up in this wooden prison is messing with my head.”
Jenna’s eyes tightened on me. “I know this whole thing sucks, Megan, but I don’t get you sometimes. How could you even think that one of us is capable of this? You must have a pretty low opinion of your friends.”
Her words felt like a slap in the face. My mouth pinched closed, and I couldn’t form a response. I’d offended her. Jenna didn’t want to consider the idea the killer could be someone other than Travis, Marlene, or Ed, but I hadn’t expected such an extreme reaction. I blinked my eyelashes. When I looked back at Jenna, the disdain on her face pinned me to my seat.
In my attempt to talk things through, I’d made the situation even worse. Jenna’s features appeared altered in the shifting light. Shadowy flecks in her eyes had risen to the surface, and a tendon strained along her neck. For a second, I didn’t recognize her at all. I shuddered and gulped for air, feeling as if I’d been thrown in the lake. My loyalties shifted again. Now I wasn’t sure if a hell-bent murderer was locked inside the cabin with me while Charlotte lay somewhere in a ditch. My gaze traveled back to the deer head on the opposite wall. I wondered if the peaceful animal had known it was going to die in the moments before it was shot.