Chapter 4

Jesse pushes the door nearest him open, and we burst inside like water overflowing a dam. He closes it quietly and presses his finger to his lips as if he thinks the rest of us are about to break into a freakingsong.

I turn around, breathing as shallowly as I can get away with.

Atlas looks at me wide-eyed.

Luce tiptoes closer to the door and presses her ear to the wood. “I can’t hear anything,” she whispers. “Find the stupid watch and let’s go.”

I turn back and pad across the room, keeping on the large, threadbare rug as much as I can. This must be Arthur’s room. There’s a simple metal-framed bed and half-drunk cups of water on the nightstand.

He doesn’t have curtains, which makes this easy, the light from the bright moon and stars guiding our way. His dresser is covered in even more dust. An empty packet of socks is strewn on top along with a couple of items of unidentifiable clothing that I so don’t want to touch.

I feel a pang of sadness and a heavy dose of guilt as I look at his musty old things. Most of them look forgotten.

“This feels wrong,” I murmur.

Atlas throws an arm over my shoulder. “It is wrong, babe.”

“Come on, you know what I mean. I don’t like this. Can we justgo?”

“None of us like this but we don’t have a choice. We’re going to make it right, remember? We’ll bring it back.”

I nod, pressing my arm to the thick anxiety weighing heavy in my stomach.

“Find the damn watch so we can get out of here!” Jesse says, his voice low and tight. Screw Rhett for making us do this now rather than wait until Arthur wasn’t home.

“Well, there’s a watch,” Atlas says, pointing to a yellow gold watch that looks more brown than anything. It’s sitting in a dish on the dresser with some other jewelry that needs a good cleaning.

“Will you three hurry up!” Jesse snaps.

“It has black dials,” I say, reaching out and scooping it up. I shove it into the pocket of my hoodie, wincing as the other jewelry in the dish clashes together.

“If you’ve got it, let’s go,” Luce says, her voice laced with apprehension. She spins around and flings her hand up, hitting her chest. We’re all quiet, so we hear the tiny clink as something hits the wall and falls to the floor.

“What was that?” I ask.

Luce pats her top and gasps. “My pin!”

“What?” I ask.

“The one we bought at the spring fair. It’s gone,” she says, moving to the wall where we heard the noise. She crouches down, and I follow.

Jesse groans. “Hurry up!”

“Either help or shut up!” Luce snaps, gently patting the floor in front of her.

“Um, I don’t think you’re going to find it,” I say. “Look at that vent.”

Just by my feet, in the floor, is a broken vent. Two of the yellowing plastic bars have been snapped off as if someone’s stood on it.

“No, no, no,” she says, shoving her hand down the hole.

“Brave. You don’t know what’s down there,” Jesse says, standing over us.

I whack his leg with the back of my hand. “Not helpful.”

“I can’t feel it and I can’t reach the bottom.”

Atlas pushes between us. “Are you sure it went down there?”

“It’s nowhere else!” she says, her brows almost touching in the middle.

“Calm down, Luce. It’s not like he’s going to look down there, is it? We should leave. We’ve already been here too long,” Atlas says.

Jesse places a hand on Luce’s shoulder. “He’s right, babe. Arthur isn’t going to look down there, look at how messy the place is. It’ll never be found. Come on.”

Luce takes one last look and then stands. I get up with her. They are right. I don’t think Arthur is suddenly going to clean the vents when he doesn’t even vacuum the floor or dust the surfaces.

Atlas pulls my hand, getting me to move. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Who was in that bedroom across the hall?” Jesse asks, his hand hovering over the handle. “Wasn’t Arthur downstairs?”

“The TV was on but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t come up for something. The bathroom maybe,” Atlas says.

“Why wouldn’t he pee downstairs?” Jesse replies.

“Probably broken. Look at the state of the place—it’s a miracle the whole thing hasn’t crumbled to the ground.”

“Who cares where he pisses, okay? Let’s just get the heck out of here!” Luce hisses. “I can’t hear anything now, so I think the coast is clear.”

Jesse opens the door slowly. It creaks like everything else in this place, protesting over being used. He looks back over his shoulder and mouths, “Come on.”

I hold my breath as I step onto the landing, and I’m drawn to the room where we heard the noise. I can’t remember what’s in there. I was only up here once, and it wasn’t for long.

Silence.

We need to get out of here.

Jesse points to the stairs and we move, tiptoeing on the threadbare carpet, the edges a reminder of how bright the red-and-gold patterns used to be.

Luce goes first, and then Atlas pushes me and Jesse in front of him, holding his finger over his lips. Why does everyone think I’m going to shout?

I roll my eyes and take the first step. That’s as far as I get because another noise thuds from the same room, like a door being slammed shut.

We all startle and look up.

“Should we just run?” Luce whispers, her eyes so wide they look like they could pop straight out.

“Wait…. No, I can’t hear anything else. I don’t think he’s coming out here,” Atlas replies. “Keep going. Be quiet.”

My heart pounds as I take another step down. I can see the front door from here, and I long to be outside already.

We creep, descending lower until we’re all standing on the first floor. I look back, listening to the sound of the TV, laugher drifting through the house from the speakers. There’s something not quite right about it, like it’s warped.

Luce opens the front door slowly. I turn sideways to slip through the small opening; any farther and the door will creak. Atlas follows me and then we’re all outside.

“Crouch down and go back the way we came,” I say, lowering myself to my haunches and shuffling along the burnt grass.

Once we reach the tree line, we stand and run. I look over my shoulder, losing my footing on the uneven ground and almost hitting a thick trunk.

I pause, leaning against a tree once the house disappears through the forest.

Atlas stops too, placing his hand on my back. He’s not breathing as heavily as I am, but he trains for longer with the football team than I do for volleyball, so he’s fitter.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

I nod. “Yes and no. We could’ve been caught.”

“But we weren’t,” Luce says. “As terrified as I was, I kind of like the rush it’s given me.”

“Great,” I mutter, not wanting to admit that I don’t hate the adrenaline spike I’m currently experiencing either. It makes me feel alive, and I finally understand why previous seniors went along with the edgier stuff, even before the blackmail forced them to.

Jesse chuckles, grinning wide. “Yeah, that was a close one. Come on, let’s get back to the creek.” He tugs Luce behind him, both of them laughing now that we’re safe.

Atlas tilts his head and smiles. “It’s over now.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Well, this dare is.”

“What would’ve happened if Arthur had walked out of that room?” I ask.

He shrugs as if he hadn’t even considered that. I saw his face back in the house—he was as scared as the rest of us. “He didn’t.”

“Atlas.”

“We would’ve run. Okay? We would’ve gotten the hell out of there.”

“And when he noticed the missing watch, he would’ve known it was us. Being arrested for breaking and entering and theft isn’t going—”

He takes a step closer and says, “Marley, breathe. That didn’t happen. Besides, did you see how much dust that stuff was covered in? I don’t think he wears any of it. We’ll return it and he’ll have noidea.”

“We should follow the others and give that idiot the watch he wanted so badly,” I say.

Atlas laughs and we walk to the creek.

By the time we get there, Jesse and Luce have joined another group, laughing as Jesse recounts our story. He’s making it sound like he wasn’t scared. I roll my eyes but don’t call him out.

“You want to shove that in his face alone, don’t you?” Atlas asks, spotting me shooting daggers at Rhett.

I nod and he takes a sharp turn, heading to our friends. That’s one of the things I love most about Atlas: he seems to know exactly what I need. He knows that no one will get more satisfaction from shoving this watch at Rhett than I will.

Rhett probably assumed we’d chicken out and that’s why he gave us the first dare. I want to throw the watch at his head, but I’m reluctant to do anything that might heighten his already overinflated ego.

He stops talking to his group when he sees me. Ruthie’s face falls as he pushes past her to walk my way. She folds her arms, tilting her nose to the sky.

I bet she tried to convince him to dare me to move out of the country. That’s one dare I wouldn’t mind doing right now, to be fair.

“How did it go?” he asks, smirking as if I’m about to confirm his assumption. “If you weren’t able to do it, I can give your friends something else to do alone. They’ll be able to go through with it without you holding them back.”

I grit my teeth, reach into the pocket of my hoodie, and hold the watch up in front of his face.

It takes a second, but his eyes leave mine to look at the piece of dirty gold crap in my hand.

“Nice.” He smiles as if he’s genuinely proud. He takes it from me. “Which one of you grabbed it?”

“Me.”

“I’d hoped so,” he replies. “Just didn’t think you had it in you anymore.”

We were little daredevils back in middle school, so I don’t know why he thought I wasn’t brave enough. I’m not the one who changed.

“Are we done here?” I ask.

“Not yet.”

I narrow my eyes, growing impatient with him. “What else do you want?”

“I’m just about to give Ruthie and her friends a dare. You should stick around.”

“What’re they doing? Robbing a bank? Stealing an old lady’s litter of kittens?”

He chuckles, lifting his brows. “You want in on handing these out? Think of what we could do with the contents of a bank’s vault and kittens.”

I tap my chin. “Let me think. Do I want to ruin people’s lives with you? That would be a massive no. You and your dumbass brothers can go to hell, Rhett.”

“Feisty tonight, aren’t we?”

“Rhett, come on,” Ruthie shouts. “Why’re you still talking with her?”

“Better run along. Your spiteful, jealous girlfriend wants you back.”

He doesn’t acknowledge her at all. Instead, he shoves his hands in his chinos’ pockets, hiding the watch at the same time, and smiles. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Good for her. And I mean that with absolutely no sarcasm whatsoever.”

His smile spreads, amusement glowing in his evil eyes. “Atlas also has a jealous streak, I see.”

He’s looking behind me. I’m not about to do that. “He’ll just be worrying that I might catch something being so close to you. He knows he has nothing to worry about, especially with you.”

That smug smile tightens, twisting into hate. His eyes move from Atlas back to me. “You guys should get ready for your next dare. I think you’re going to enjoy it much more than taking the watch.”

“Can’t wait,” I reply smoothly, though underneath the fake smile, I’m kind of worried. They always escalate.

“Awesome.”

“Awesome,” I bat back, playing a super-juvenile game of trying to have the last word.

He raises his hand, waving goodbye while standing two feet away from me. I salute, our last-word game morphing into charades.

I hate what I turn into when I’m around him. The arrogance and entitlement roll off him in tsunami-sized waves. He’s the product of his environment, but how could anyone be proud to have sons who think they can get away with anything?

His parents must know about the dares. They’re probably ready with the checkbook, waiting to bail him out of whatever mess he gets into over the next few weeks.

“Later,” I snap, turning around so I can no longer see him.

I get three steps when I hear him reply, “Speak soon, babe.”

Atlas laughs as I reach my friends again, and my shoulders lose the tension I held in them. “What’s funny?” I ask.

“You look like you want to kill him,” he replies, pulling me into a hug that I really need. The adrenaline is wearing off, leaving me feeling a bit flat. Do I want to do something stupid again to get it back, or go home and forget it happened? Even I can’t tell.

I lay my head against Atlas’s shoulder, feeling his warmth and worrying that it doesn’t quite have the same effect on me as it used to. “I just hate who he is.”

And, more than anything, I hate who we used to be. It makes me miss him. One day he just changed, no longer called and pretended I didn’t exist for, like, two months.

He realized what he could be with money, and none of it included being a decent person.

He bought into the hierarchy, and being rich and confident put him right at the top.

It was the summer that Rhett turned into his older brothers, his parents.

I’m just scared of how far he’ll take this game to get to me.