Chapter 22

Once the small fire has been extinguished, we’re allowed back into the building. The whole thing lasted about an hour from start to finish. Fuller has officially banned all pranks, but there are only a few days left of school anyway, and no one cares about getting into trouble now.

Fuller is the least of my worries. I don’t even care if I’m not allowed to walk at graduation.

The longer this goes on, the less I care about anything.

I follow the crowd out toward my final class of the day, but I don’t get far before I’m shoved into an empty classroom. Spinning around, I face the person who grabbed me. I expect to see Rhett, but it’s Jesse standing in front of me.

“What are you doing?” I ask, my heart thudding so fast I’m instantly lightheaded.

“What are you doing?”

His eyes are wild, as if he’s been taking something, but I know him better than that. I’m terrified, but this change in him isn’t due to any substance.

He’s a killer.

“I-I’m not doing anything.”

“You’re lying. You’re going to open your big mouth.”

“No, I’m not. I don’t want this to get out either, Jesse. My future is on the line too.”

He squares his shoulders and breathes noisily through his nose. I want to take a step back, but I’m afraid to move. “Don’t screw this up.”

“I’m not going to, Jesse. Come on, we’re friends. We all want the same thing here,” I say, trying to pacify him. I just want out. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Damn right you won’t. I’m getting the hell out of here in a month.”

He shouldn’t be anywhere but prison. Arthur is dead. George is only just hanging on.

“We’re all out of here. We just need to hold it together and stick together.”

I’m flat-out lying now. I don’t want to be around him at all. He scares the hell out of me.

“I think we’re past that, Marley.”

“Why?”

“Why?” he snaps. “Because you can’t leave this alone. God, you’ve been talking to George and Rhett. You’re getting messages.”

“I’m trying to act normal. I always talk to George when he’s in town. How would it look if I suddenly stopped when his grandad goes missing?”

His eyes narrow again, but he knows I’m right. My friends are blaming me when all I’ve done is help them cover this up even though I feel so damn awful and guilty.

Surely we all feel that?

As I look into Jesse’s eyes, though, I can tell that he doesn’t.

Has he always lacked empathy and been so detached?

“We’re on the same side, Jesse,” I say, my stomach in knots because I don’t know if he’s buying it. He’s been absent from my life for days. I don’t know what he’s been up to or what he’s thinking. “We should go, or this will look weird.”

He steps to the side, blocking the door, and holds the handle. “Keep it together.”

I’m not the one spiraling out of control.

As soon as he’s out the door, I rush to the window, looking through the small square of glass until I see him disappear around the corner.

When I’m satisfied that he’s gone, I rush out and sprint to my last class.

Sitting down in the corner of the room, I watch as Mr.Goldman clears his throat, not seeming to care about my tardiness.

I listen to him as he begins to rattle on about morals and character, telling us how personal success is just as important as professional achievement. We should do our best in college and be our best selves everywhere.

His words are sandpaper on my skin.

My breaths are short and shallow, making me feel dizzy. If I had to stand up, I’d probably hit the floor.

My friends are setting me up.

It doesn’t help that I can feel Rhett’s eyes on me. My vision blurs, I can feel the walls closing in, crushing into me. Anxiety digs its claws into my stomach so tightly I don’t think I’ll ever get it out.

“I—I don’t feel well,” I say, interrupting Mr.Goldman’s sermon.

“Do you need to go to the nurse?” he asks.

I nod and place my clammy palms on the table as I stand, testing my ability to keep upright. The world tilts but I manage to walk out the door.

“Marley, wait up!”

I groan at hearing Rhett’s voice, only having made it a few steps out of the room.

“Leave me alone.” I walk straight past the nurse’s office and out the side door. I don’t care that my car is in the lot; I just need to walk, to get lost in the mountains for a while.

Rhett doesn’t listen. I hear his footsteps behind me. He could easily catch up, I’m not running, but he’s choosing to stay back.

“Please, go back,” I say.

“Not happening,” he replies. “You’re clearly not okay.”

“Why do you care?” I snap, stepping into the sparse tree line behind school. It’ll take a few minutes of uphill hiking before I reach the forest.

“You know I care,” he says.

“Funny you only say that when no one else is around. Stop acting like I still mean something to you and leave me alone.”

He catches up to me then, grabbing my wrist to stop me.

I wrench from his grip and throw my arms in the air, not wanting him anywhere near me. I can feel the cracks deepening, and I just need to be alone. “Get off! What the hell do you want?”

He steps closer, and I suck in a breath to calm my frayed nerves.

“What do you want?” I ask again, but even I can tell my voice doesn’t hold the usual contempt.

He opens and closes his mouth as if he’s going to speak but isn’t sure what to say. Then he takes a deep breath. “Okay, I need to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Do you know what happened to Arthur?” His voice is low, and it’s the first time I’ve ever heard him sound afraid.

I lick my dry lips and try to keep my face straight, while inside I feel like I’m dying. “He fell from the bridge,” I say, giving him the cops’ working theory.

I want to tell someone so bad, even him. I just want someone else to know, to help, to take the load off, because it’s too heavy, and I don’t have anyone. To open the wound and let some of the infection out.

He shakes his head and takes one step closer, now very much invading my personal space. It almost makes my legs buckle. “Why did you leave school?”

“I don’t feel well.”

“Where are you going?”

“Up the mountain. No one will know where I am.”

“I will.”

“Yeah, well, I never thought you’d follow me. I need to sit down,” I say, placing my hand over the thumping in my chest, close to passing out.

This is too much.

Rhett takes my hand and pulls me a few steps deeper into the forest, where we won’t be seen, to a fallen tree. We’re still ages from our spot, but I don’t think I’ll make it.

He sits beside me, stretching his legs out in front of him. Tilting his head, he looks up through the lush trees to the sky. Only slivers of blue can be seen through the leaves.

“You should go, Rhett. I’m just having a bad day and need some space.”

“Ruthie’s made a few snide comments about Jesse’s dare. She hasn’t said anything direct, but she’s implying that you guys hit Arthur.”

My gasp takes me by surprise, not at all inconspicuous.

Oh god, it’s her sending the messages. I close my eyes as a wave of nausea threatens to take me out.

I hear Rhett move. “You’ve gone gray, Marley. Are you…no.” The next thing I hear is something between a groan and cry of shock.

I squeeze my eyelids together tighter as if I could make myself disappear.

“It’s true,” he says, his tone hollow.

“Stop,” I whisper, folding in on myself and tucking my head into my knees. “Stop. Please.”

“Tell me what happened.”

Why isn’t he running away?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Please leave me alone.”

“I’m here and not at the station, Marley. Doesn’t that tell yousomething?”

“Go. Please.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Will you look at me?” He tugs my arm and I almost fall into him. “Tell me what happened.”

“Why don’t you just ask Ruthie?”

“I don’t care about her! God, how can you not see what’s right in front of you?” he snaps, scowling at me. With a sigh that feels like it cuts him, he lets go of my wrist. “Tell me what happened that night, Marley. Look at you, this is killing you.”

“It was the stupid dare, Rhett! The stupid dare that we just had to do. Jesse was driving, it was so dark, and he was going too fast.” I sit taller, my mind painting vivid images of what happened. “Luce, Atlas, and I were in the truck. Arthur came out of nowhere, walked into the road just past a bend. Jesse had no chance of stopping. He was just…there.”

“Keep going,” Rhett says.

“At first, we thought it might be a deer or some other animal. But I knew it was too big. We stopped and looked around. Found Arthur. He was already…gone when we got to him.” I sob.

“Please keep going. What did you do next?” he asks softly, sounding so much like my old friend that I almost cry harder.

I lower my head and wipe the tears from my face. “Jesse had gloves, a box of tools. You know, stuff to fix his car if it broke down.”

Rhett nods, encouraging me to continue.

“We put the gloves on, and Jesse and Atlas put him in the…bed. It was like he was nothing, lying there. Then…we dumped him.”

“I feel like you’re skipping over a lot of information. I don’t want just the facts, Marley. You were involved in a murder. You dumped a body. Stop giving me bullet points.”

“Oh, that’s not good enough? What do you want to hear, then? How it’s eating me alive? How I can’t stop thinking about it every second of every day?” I stand, throwing my hands in the air and shouting, “How I wish I could go back in time and call the cops? I never should have agreed to do what we did. I see him every time I blink, and I would do anything to make this right.” I choke on a sob. “I need to make this right, Rhett. I need to.”

He leaps to his feet and wraps his arms around my back, holding me so tight I think he might be able to keep me from splitting apart. “Hey, shhh, it’s okay.”

I struggle in his grip for a heartbeat, but then I feel my body give way like I don’t have one ounce of energy left, no more fight. I’m just done.

Rhett’s arms tighten, stopping me from hitting the ground, and I feel my body shake against his. I’m such a mess. “I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”

“It’s not,” I cry into his T-shirt. “It’s not.”

He holds me until I take the weight of my legs again. Then he pulls back, keeping my arms in his grip. I don’t know if that’s to prevent me from collapsing or running away.

“How does Ruthie know?” he asks.

That wasn’t the question I expected.

“I have no clue. None of us have said anything, and we especially wouldn’t to her. I can only guess that she saw us. It was late and dark, but that road is the one she’d use between the creek and her house. But her first message didn’t come until the day of the rainstorm. When did she leave the creek that night?”

“Before me, but I didn’t pay much attention. Her message?”

I run my hands through my hair, not caring anymore that I’m telling him all this. He can go to the cops. He can tell the world. I just want to stop pretending.

“She’s been messaging me. I mean, I think it’s her. We thought it was George first. Then I thought it was you. It’s why I agreed to camp with you.”

He lifts a brow.

“Now I think maybe it’s Ruthie. Maybe she’s targeting me because…” Because she thinks you like me. “Um, we don’t get along.”

He laughs but it’s cut short. “Yeah, that’s the reason. What happened to George?”

I shrug. “They won’t tell me exactly, but I do know that it was Jesse who set the fire. He’s been so different. Mean, controlling. He believes I’m going to crack. I mean, look at me. He’s not wrong.”

“He’s an asshole.”

“They started being weird with me almost right away, leaving me out of things, conversations. Even Atlas,” I say, my heart breaking as I admit that aloud. “I don’t know what’s going on, and it’s so scary.”

“This is so messed up.”

“It’s like they’ve just decided they don’t like me anymore…. They’re planning something without me.”

Hearing my words tears my heart to shreds. We were all supposed to have each other’s backs.

“What could they be planning?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure Jesse is responsible for Arthur’s house burning down.”

Rhett frowns. “Do you think he would hurt you?”

“I didn’t use to, but after George, it wouldn’t surprise me. He’s already freezing me out, right? That’s what he’s doing?”

“Possibly.” He scratches his head. “All right, we need to figure this out. Leave Ruthie to me.”

“What?”

“I can get her to shut up. Don’t worry about her, you need to focus on what your friends are up to.”

I shake my head, grabbing his arm. “Rhett, you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Actually, I do.”

“No, you really don’t. I can’t let you help me cover this up. You don’t want any part of this.”

“That’s not your choice to make. This is going to ruin the rest of your life.”

I shake my head. “I can’t cover this up anymore.”

“You didn’t hit him, and you didn’t dump him.”

“I helped dig the grave!”

His face falls. “Dig the grave? Marley, he was found in the river.”

I bite my lip and shake my head again. “We buried him first. In the forest, way off trail. But the first message told us the grave was sinking when we had all that rain. So…we moved him. Dug him up and dumped him in the river, let the current take him. Only he didn’t get as far as we hoped.”

Rhett’s face pales.

“So, you see why I can’t keep this in for the rest of my life.”

“Jesus, Marley,” he whispers.

“That’s who I am.”

“No, that’s what you’ve done.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Is there anything else?”

“That’s not enough?”

“It’s more than enough. You’re still not throwing your future away.”

“I think it’ll come out. Luce and I have the same handmade pin badge, bought it from this lady at the spring fair. It’s a little book that says, ‘Reading is a superpower.’ The night we stole that stupid watch, she dropped it down a floor vent and couldn’t get it back.”

“I’m not following.”

“Mine has gone missing. I noticed yesterday. They’ve all been to my house since. Atlas last night.”

Rhett frowns as he tries to follow my train of thought.

“I’m the one who’s losing it. They’ve been terrified that I’ll speak up and we’ll all go down. Rhett, I think they’re panicking now that Arthur’s been found, and they’re setting me up to take the fall.”