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“Umm, guys, she’s my friend.”
“Some friend,” Bhodi mutters, and although the others are trying to be sympathetic, I can see that they agree with him. It’s written all over their faces.
“Until I know for sure that she betrayed me. That she chose to do it, and that she wasn’t coerced or something, I’m going to keep believing the best in her.”
“Malia,” the professor says, drawing my attention from the other three and right back to him. God knows how I’ve managed to avoid looking at him when we’ve been in the same room as each other. I couldn’t look away from him now if my life depended on it. Something in his intense, dark stare causes my breath to catch, and he pauses a beat, a slight frown marring his beautiful face before he continues. “It’s thinking like that that could get you hurt.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, though my words are far from weak. “But it’s who I am. I can’t be any other way.”
“It’s one of the things we love about you, Mai-Tai,” Cove says reassuringly with a warm smile that makes my stomach flip.
“Is she…do you think she’s okay?” I swallow, not wanting to say the words. With so many bodies vanishing and turning up dead on campus, I can’t consider that Summer may be one. I can’t. I won’t.
“I’m sure she’s fine.”
It doesn’t reassure me.
“Can we try reaching out to her?” I cough. “I mean, can I? Can I call or text her?” They don’t need to know that I’ve already been trying to do that almost every day.
“That’s not a good idea.” The prof shakes his head but he does at least manage to look sorry about it.
“There must be something we can do. Please guys. I need to know she’s okay. She hasn’t even posted on her socials, and that’s not like her. She used to joke that if she didn’t update her socials hourly, I’d know she’d been kidnapped.” I grimace realising that the joke is in poor taste given all that’s happened, but it’s still true. I don’t know how else to convey to them how serious this is.
“Well, there is one thing we could do…” Reef begins.
“What?” I jump on his idea.
“Summer likes to party, right?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Met her at the beach the night we met.”
“Oh.” My cheeks tinge pink. “So?”
“What if there was an exclusive beach party. Would that be her sort of thing?”
“Definitely.”
“This is a really bad idea,” Cove says, shaking his head.
“Let him finish,” I say quickly, waving a hand at Cove to shush him.
“It’s Bhodi’s birthday next week. What if we were to host a party here at the beach – not the house, just the beach. Promote it on campus, spread the word. Would that be the sort of thing Summer would come to? Maybe with her…boyfriends?’
I nod. “That’s exactly Summer’s sort of party. She wouldn’t be able to resist something exclusive.”
“What do you say boss? We could draw her out.” Reef turns to the prof and I realise that they’re not doing this for me, but because for whatever reason they want to see Summer for themselves. That’s fine. I can live with that. So long as I get to her first.
I hold my breath while I wait for the prof’s seal of approval. Or not.
“I think it’s a horrible idea.”
My shoulders sag with disappointment and I sigh.
“But, we don’t have any others, so we’ll try it. On certain conditions.”
“Name them!” I cry, a little too loudly. The prof shoots me an amused look.
