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Jessica threw a cheese snack at Billy, and he swooped down, catching it in his mouth. He chomped on the bright orange puff, then opened his arms wide. “Let’s take this meeting to my bedroom, shall we?”
We followed him past the tiny pantry area to the master bedroom. Nothing was masterful about it, but it was the largest room in the trailer.
Billy flicked on a small lamp as we walked in, heading to his bed. Jessica walked to the front of it, taking a seat out of the floor. I pulled out a chair from a small desk, offered it to Kyrie, and took a seat on the floor in front of her. It was … cramped, stuffy in the room. A small breeze rushed through the window, and streamers taped to the glass extended as the cool fall air passed through.
Billy leaned against the wall, eyeing me. “So what’s the plan, fearless leader? What’d the red-haired witch have to talk to you about?”
The blush was immediate, and I was transported back to the pool for a moment, to the things Sorina and I did.
She taught me things with her touch, let me taste her, then left me on my doorstep, bewildered.
Billy’s face morphed into a salacious grin. “You dog …”
I heard Kyrie shift behind me. “What?”
“You hooked up, didn’t you?” he asked.
Jessica leaned forward. “With the Romanian chick? Dalton is gonna be pissed.”
“Dalton Wakefield?” Nicole asked.
Jessica nodded her head. “Yeah, she’s all he talks about in math, because he has English with her, and he will not shut up about her.”
I’d never talked to Dalton Wakefield, but from what I’d gathered, he was one of the most popular guys in school. A junior like me, he was the captain of the basketball team and the baseball team’s pitcher. That’s about all I knew.
Behind me, Kyrie placed her palm on my shoulder. “Did you?”
I didn’t brush her hand away, and I didn’t answer her question. Instead, I stood up, running a hand through my hair. “I don’t think we’re here to talk about my … life. We’re here to talk about ourplan.” I felt territorial about Sorina, protective of our moments. I finally had something private, something my own.
“Okay, what is it then?” Jessica asked.
I glanced at her, my eyes quickly moving to Nicole. There was something in the way she looked at me. Like she’d been watching me for a while. I would later learn she had been since the first day of school.
Though I’d told Sorina I would leave the house on Archer alone, I couldn’t. My friends wanted this, and Kyrie was scared. The information Sorina had given me on the Archer house hadn’t quelled my curiosity. It only worked to fuel it. I wanted to know why Sam went into the house, and if it had anything to do with her disappearance. I cleared my throat. “We go to the house at night. Different nights. We have to see if anyone is going in.”
“All of us? Like every night?” Jessica asked.
“No, we’ll take turns teams of—”
“Two,” Nicole said.
“That doesn’t work,” Jessica countered.
“She shouldn’t go,” Nicole said, pointing at Kyrie. Her voice had that same haunted sound it did at the Nest when she mentioned the house, causing us to go down this path.
“Why?” Kyrie asked, and though I knew she had no desire to enter the house, she sounded curious now that she was being told she shouldn’t.
“Do you want to go in?” Jessica asked, leaning forward.
Before she answered, Nicole, continued, “Isn’t she why we’re here? You’re afraid you’re next, right?”
Kyrie nodded.
“And I want to find out if something happened to Sam,” Billy said from the bed, his voice a little deeper.
“Okay, let’s make a schedule,” Jessica said, standing from the floor and tossing the bag of Cheetos to her twin.
And so began our dumbass plan.
