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kept me up last night was still bouncing around in my head: would he still love me after all of this was over? I couldn’t be sure. I could only cling to my hope that I’d be back in his arms before long.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Trina leaned over the table across from me, her green eyes taking in my face. “Seems to me like you’re taking care of everyone except yourself. What about you? Don’t you need someone to care about what you want?”
It was about as abrasive of a speech as I’d ever heard come out of my sweet friend’s mouth. I sighed and rubbed my fingers over the tensed muscles in my forehead. If there was another way, I’d do it. It just wasn’t possible.
“Jayden knows it’s only temporary. Charlotte has a short attention span. She’ll move onto something better soon and it’ll all be forgotten. Then, I can take care of myself.”
The way Trina’s lips pressed together told me she wasn’t convinced. But the interruption of Audrey arriving breathlessly at our table put an end to the conversation.
“Mandy...your sister...” She clasped at her chest, her eyes bugging. “Sarah...and the girls...”
I stood from my chair. “What about my sister?”
“They cut class this morning,” Audrey said with a deep inhale. “I heard some of the other cheerleaders talking about it. They went to the Cascades. And Charlotte went with them.”
Horror and disbelief rained down on my head. There was no way Charlotte had gone with them. Not after what had happened this weekend. Not after everything I’d done to keep her away from them.
“I have to go get her,” I said, staring blankly at Audrey. “I have to bring her back.”
She nodded sharply. “I’ll go with you.”
“And I’ll drive,” Trina added, rising from the table with her tray.
We slipped out the back parking lot and hopped in Trina’s car. I sat in the front passenger seat, going over in my head the whole way there just exactly what I was going to say to my sister to let her know how badly she’d messed up. I couldn’t believe that she’d flipped on me so quickly. It didn’t make sense. Why did she think any of this was okay?
“We’re here.” Trina pulled into the gravel parking lot at the Cascades.
“Is that...?” Audrey pointed out the windshield. “Is it my imagination, or is the river a lot higher than the last time we were here?”
My gaze swept over the river. It was definitely higher and flowing faster than it had been at the Polar Plunge. The rainstorm from yesterday had left it swollen and angry. No one would be swimming in it today.
I hopped out of the car and marched down the river toward the group of ten or so kids I could see on the shoreline ahead. Despite the warm sun beaming down on us, they had a campfire going and the scent of hotdogs hung heavy on the air. And as I got closer, the sharp scent of alcohol from the cans of beer scattered around the ground filled the air.
Charlotte’s brunette head was nowhere to be seen, but my focus easily latched onto one familiar sight. It was Sarah, with her perfectly wavy hair and condescending smirk, standing in the middle of the crowd of sophomores. I marched toward her with my pointer finger outstretched, all the rage I felt spilling into my snarl.
“Where’s my sister?” I demanded.
Sarah hardly blinked. Instead, she chuckled and took a slow sip from her can, her cold gaze taking me in. “I don’t know. She’s probably throwing up somewhere around here. The girl seriously can’t handle her beer.”
“You really are the worst, you know that?” Blood rushed to my face. I’d never met anyone so unfeeling. And I’d met Audrey’s cousin Savannah, so that was saying something. “She never did this kind of stuff before you came along.”
Sarah’s dark eyebrows arched and she cocked her hip. “It’s not my fault she’s a sloppy drunk. I’m not her babysitter.”
As much as I wanted to yell and hurl insults, I didn’t have time to put her in her place. With a frustrated growl, I turned to continue the search for my sister. It wasn’t until I spotted a flash of brown wavy hair did I get a glimmer of hope. But when I broke through the crowds and finally set eyes on her, my stomach dropped to the ground.
Charlotte had gone halfway across the rocks on the top waterfall—the same rocks where I’d slipped and sprained my ankle over two weeks ago. She was wobbling on a particularly crooked one, using her arms as counterbalance. Normally, it wouldn’t have been an issue to be crossing over, but with the river running much faster, there was no way she’d be able to keep her footing if she slipped. It would sweep her down into the deeper pools below and there was no telling if she’d be able to come back up to the surface.
“Charlotte!” I scrambled toward the shore, shedding my shoe in one fluid motion and hopping on my boot as I tried to disengage the straps and free my other foot. “Come back!”
She turned when I called her name. Even from this distance, I could see the blurriness in her eyes and the goofy smile she got when she drank too much.
“Mandy! You’re here!” She stretched out her arms and nearly slipped. A pang of panic shot through me. Righting herself, the smile melted from her face and instead she pouted. “Look. I almost fell. Just like you.”
“Please don’t fall. Don’t hurt yourself.”
My foot came loose from the boot and I set it tenderly on the ground. No pain. That was a good sign. If I was going to have to go out on those rocks to convince Charlotte to come back with me, I’d need both my feet.
“I’d deserve it, though.” She pushed her lower lip out farther. “It’s all my fault you can’t run.”
