“What do you see?” Cassidy asked.
Edie shrugged. “I think you’re right.” Just then, a dark figure walked across the back of the cabin and Edie jumped. She turned and ran back to Cassidy, who was already on her toes ready to flee.
“What? What did you see?” Cassidy asked.
“Someone’s in there,” Edie said breathlessly.
Edie squatted down behind an untamed hibiscus so that she could still see the porch through the leaves but felt obscured from anyone who might be looking out from the cabin. Cassidy did the same.
They watched for a long, tense moment as waves lapped languidly behind them. Edie felt close to standing and returning the way they’d come when a figure walked out onto the porch. The figure stayed in the shade just in front of the door and didn’t step out far enough onto the steps for Edie to see their face. Only their hands and wrists moved in the light. Thick white clouds plumed off the porch and the scent of cotton candy drifted past the women hiding behind the bush. A hand holding a vape pen appeared in the light, then the unidentified person turned their body to lean against the porch’s support beam and Edie saw a bare white arm.
Cassidy jumped up. “Daisy?”
Edie looked from Cassidy to the figure on the porch, who turned at the sound. Daisy locked eyes in their direction, released another plume of clouds, and ran back into the cabin.
“What the hell?” Edie shouted, but Cassidy paid her no mind and was already running through the patchy grass toward the porch.
You can’t trust these people,Edie thought fleetingly as she ran to catch up.
The inside of the cabin wasn’t much cooler than the beach. It was humid and dusty and her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. She followed the sounds of Cassidy’s steps toward the back of the structure and caught sight of her just as she ran through a door leading down to a basement. Only then did Edie stop.
Don’t be stupid. There’s never anything good in the basement.
She watched Cassidy hit the floor at the bottom of the steps and begin to round the support beam, but she stopped cold. A faint blue light fell across her face and tattoos.
“Apricot?” she called. Edie leaned into the doorway to see as far into the basement as she could from the ground floor. Then Cassidy’s expression changed to one of hurt confusion. “Rose?” she asked and turned her face up to Edie.
“Rose?” Edie echoed. She felt so suddenly lightweight that she could have flown down the stairs. Once she stepped in front of Cassidy, all the muscles in her stomach clenched in immediate regret.
Pale blue lights cast weak illumination throughout the room, which was much larger than Edie expected from the size of the cabin. Dark figures sat on couches along the walls and grouped at cocktail tables lit by candles that failed to brighten the room any more than the blue LEDs. One figure stood near the center of the room, drawing Edie’s attention to the nearby table. Daisy stood next to Apricot, who sat at one of the high-top tables with a man Edie didn’t recognize. Rose sat on the other side of Apricot, her torso half-turned to see the newcomers.
Another 50 or so people watched them in silence, as though they’d all been waiting for just this moment. In the dim light, it was hard to make out faces, but Edie thought she saw Missy Lauder and her ex-girlfriend Meggie. She didn’t have time to verify or fully feel the shock.
“What’s going on?” Cassidy asked.
“It’s fine, everyone. They’re with us,” Rose sighed, sounding disappointed to admit this to the room. This appeared to break the spell, and everyone’s attention returned to individual conversations in hushed murmurs. Rose waved her hand, indicating for Edie and Cassidy to join her table. The man seated there moved away before they had a chance to see who he was, and Edie lost sight of him in the back of the room.
“Oh my god, Rose,” she said, throat thick with tears as she threw her arms around her friend.
Cassidy individually greeted Daisy and Apricot, giving each of them hugs.
“Where have you been?” Edie asked. She tried not to sound accusatory but couldn’t help the way the words fell out.
“Sit down, both of you,” Rose told them. They did so, taking the two open chairs next to each other. Daisy remained standing next to Cassidy.
“You weren’t supposed to know about this place,” she said. The disappointment in her voice sounded more like petulance to Edie, who turned back to Rose in hopes of a more private reunion.
“Why didn’t you try to contact me?”
“Mobiles aren’t allowed down here. It’s a secret party,” Rose said.
“But you still could’ve toldme.I was worried sick about you.”
“James was supposed to tell both of you,” Apricot said. “He knows what’s going on.”
Edie noticed the dark figure seated at a table behind Apricot turned to listen in on their conversation. When she scanned around the room, she realized that everyone had once again fixed their attention on their table. While everyone else was speaking in hushed tones, she and Cassidy were nearly shouting.
She ducked her head in embarrassment. “You still could’ve told me,” she repeated in a near whisper.
