What was I supposed to do with that?
“Putain de merde,” I muttered under my breath as I nearly burned my forehead wrapping the last strands of my hair around the barrel of my curling iron. As I winced and poked at the hot spot where the iron had almost made contact, there was a familiar rapping sound from my door.
“Coming,” I yelled, trying to quickly fluff the pieces of hair around my face into place. When I opened the door, Autumn was dressed to kill, like always.
Today, she had on a periwinkle faux suede parka lined with white faux fur, under which she wore a pleated skirt in a vibrant plaid of white, black, and neon pink, white knit tights, and white platform boots that seemed ambitiously high, given that there was snow on the ground again.
She’d gotten bangs on her last trip into the city, and while I thought they looked adorable on her, she was currently experiencing a bout of regret.
Her eyes were locked on her phone, and she didn’t seem to notice me standing right in front of her
“Earth to Autumn?”
“Mmm?” She looked up with a dazed expression before shaking her head and meeting my eyes. “Yes, sorry, was just chatting with Simone.”
“And how is the beautiful Simone?” I said with a smirk, baiting her.
Autumn turned scarlet, twisting the silver ring she had worn on her thumb today. “She’s good," she said coyly.
As we headed for the elevators, I surreptitiously looked around. Since the woods, I was all too aware that there were more sheep lurking on campus.
Nothing out of the ordinary caught my eye as we went down to the parking lot beneath the building where Autumn kept her custom lavender Audi RS7 Sportback. I knew next to nothing about cars, but I collected details like pennies for a rainy day.
“Have you heard from Melody?” Autumn asked as we pulled out of the underground lot.
“Not since before winter break.” It was true.
Melody’s body still hadn’t been found. Or if it had been, the police weren’t saying anything, even to the Blackwells.
Regardless, it wasn’t as though I could tell Autumn that our former friend had been brutally murdered by the same serial killer I believed she’d been working with to stalk and harass me.
“I hope she’s okay,” Autumn said, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. “I’m worried about her with Aaron’s death. By the way, Hale was asking about how you’re doing.”
“Hale?” I couldn’t remember speaking more than five words to Melody and Aaron’s friend, having only met him once, so him asking about me was weird. I tried to remember if he had been in the photos from Halloween night.
Add him to the list.
We parked behind Dos Hermanas, Shady Harbor’s one and only Mexican restaurant. As someone who’d spent half of her childhood in Texas, it was a stretch to call it authentic, but it was tasty nonetheless.
It was a Wednesday night and the restaurant was slow, so the hostess was happy to put the two of us in a cozy booth, placing a basket of freshly fried tortilla chips and pico on the table just minutes after we were seated.
Picking up the simple laminated menu, I read it over as though I didn’t have it memorized and hadn’t looked up it on the way over as well just to be sure.
“What are you getting?” asked Autumn, her eyes on her own menu as she picked at the cracking plastic corner.
“My usual, the chicken enchiladas. What about you?”
I’d learned this was part of the routine of going out with a friend. We both pretended to read the menu and consider our options and even asked each other what we were getting, but we both ordered the exact same thing every time.
“Carne asada tacos and an elote.”
The server returned, took our order, and let us know it would be out shortly.
Sipping on my fountain soda, I savored the burning of the bubbles on my tongue while I figured out how to begin talking to Autumn about Alister. “Someth—”
“Simone and I are dating,” she blurted out.
I stalled for a second, processing her words. When I didn’t react immediately, Autumn blanched, and I realized how my silence sounded to her.