Page 95 of As You Walk On

Likeeverything’son the line.

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Jayla’s nowhere. If I were a cheerleader who loathed my boyfriend’s best friend, where would I hide?

Clearly, I didn’t think through this search-and-rescue plan.

When I got back inside the Campbells’ pad, I checked all the obvious places: couches in the main room. The dance floor. Sparkling water station in the kitchen. Downstairs where the STEM nerds had officially taken over the ping-pong table for a complex game of drunken Scrabble.

Nothing.

On paper, this dare was simple. In execution? Far from it.

As I cross through the kitchen again, careful not to bump into anyone who wants to talk or needs me to hold their hair while they barf, I swipe through Instagram stories on my phone. Maybe someone tagged her. But I barely make it through two before my screen goes black.

Shit.

My battery is officially dead.

I turn a corner and decide there’s one final spot to investigate: the pool.

Jayla can’t swim. An almost fatal incident where Jay playfully shoved her into the shallow end at a summer kickback last year led to a two-week breakup no one dare speaks of. She avoids all bodies of water.

“Jayla!” I shout the second the night’s warm, muggy air hits me.

I’m met by wide-eyed, strange looks, but she’s not here either.

“Theo?”

I swing around. Kendra’s lounging on a wicker chair, legs folded under her. I sprint over. “Have you seen Jayla?”

“Like an hour ago? She and Jay had another one of their fallouts.”

Everything at the party fades. My brain fails to upload Kendra’s words. Nothing processes.

“Wh-what?”

Kendra unlocks her phone, taps away, then shows me the screen. It’s a video of Jay and Jayla arguing in Chloe’s front yard. Whoever’s recording is too far away to capture quality sound. Jayla’s gesticulating with her hands. And Jay’s having a tantrum beforegroveling, only for Jayla to stomp away.

The video ends.

“She peaced out after that.” Kendra says it so matter-of-factly, I barely put everything together.

Jayla’s gone. And Jay knew. I walked right into the dare. Never questioned whyIwould be the one to convince her to meet him.I assumed it was because Jay knew it’d be a hard, but not impossible, thing to pull off.

“Theo? You okay?”

Kendra’s voice is a fuzzy noise in the background of my thoughts.

I let Jay play me. Again. I left behind a group of people who wanted nothing from me but honesty and authenticity, for someone who couldn’t define either of those words if they were bolded, highlighted, and font size 72.

Now I’ve ruined a chance with them and failed another dare.

“Hey. Theo?”

I stare off to the pool. The water’s surface is still. It’s an almost perfect reflection of the sky—shadowy and endless and full of possibility. I want to fall headfirst into it. Smash that image. Sink to the bottom. Feel the burn in my lungs. I want the pressure to dull the noise and empty out my thoughts.

Until I don’t remember what it’s like to feel wanted like I was by Luca and the others.

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