Page 75 of Beach Bodies

‘There’s an ambulance on the way,’ says Serena, but I’m already running down the jetty, jumping from rock to rock, back inland. I scramble down the rocks on to the beach, and the second my feet hit sand, I run flat out. The jolt of Serena’s footsteps is right behind. The buzzing is gone, the numbness a distant memory. I’m fully present. I can feel the cut of the wind and the painful, anxious thumps of my heart.I don’t know what happened to Skylar, but I can guess: teenagers aren’t supposed to be dosing themselves with potent laxatives.

All I can think as I run is,Not like Jessica. Don’t let this be like Jessica.Down the beach, back to the place that takes, and takes, and takes.

Chapter Twenty-six

My lungs are on fire as Serena and I crash on to the scene playing out in front of the Riovan.

The hotel’s circle drive is a chaos of activity, people and vehicles and flashing lights, but all I can see is the stretcher bearing Skylar, carried by two paramedics. They have an oxygen mask over her face. I run up to them. I have to make sure she’s alive—

A forearm shoots up like a guard rail, blocking me at chest level from getting any closer.

‘Mademoiselle,’ says a man in a navy blue uniform with reflective strips on his jacket. ‘I’m going to ask that you stay where you are.’

‘You don’t understand.’ I clutch his arm. Tears fist in my throat. ‘I’m her—’

He waits with a look of beleaguered patience.

Her what?

I shake my head as a hot fog fills my vision. I remove my hand from his arm. Stumble back.

‘Sorry.’

I have no legal standing here. No legal standing with Jessica either.

The medics load the stretcher bearing Skylar into the back of the ambulance. She’s so small under the blanket. I know without asking that it was the stuff Serena gave her that did this– the CleanSlim. What else could cause a perfectly healthy teen to go into a spontaneous health crisis? In her eagerness to drop weight and please her mother, Skylar could easily have taken way too much—

The ambulance lights are flashing silently, in bursts of red like a pulsing heart, just like the lights flashed that night. It was after midnight. It was cold. I was still in my suit from the conference, and my nice eggshell silk blouse. They let me ride with Jessica. She had an oxygen mask on, too. I worried the hem of my blouse. The silk was splattered with blood.I’ll have to get it dry cleaned, I remember thinking, incongruously.

‘Is she going to be OK?’ I kept asking, in the ambulance and then when we arrived at the hospital, but no one would tell me. Her eyelids looked so delicate.Open, I wished at them.Open.

I feel a hand on my arm, and my entire body jolts.

‘Lily, why don’t you head back inside—’

‘Vic,’ I say, spinning around, seizing his upper arm and shaking him. ‘It’s that brand... CleanSlim– Skylar took it.’

‘Sorry– what?’ He seems genuinely confused.

‘She was crying in the bathroom… they didn’t see me– I mean, Serena or Skylar– I was in a stall, I think Serena thought she was alone. Skylar’s mom was on her about losing– losing—’ I gesture towards the ambulance, aware I’m not telling Vic the story right, but my head is a hot scramble. Imake an erasing gesture with both hands and shake my head. ‘Sorry– what I’m trying to say is, Serena—’

‘Shhh,’ he says, grabbing my shoulder and giving it a few firm pulses. ‘I can see you’re upset, Lily, and understandably so. You’ve been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours. Let the medical professionals do their job, and you and I can talk later about… whatever you’re trying to tell me.’

‘You don’t understand—’

‘Sorry, I can’t talk now,’ he says firmly, his attention tearing away from me as he waves at someone across the drive. ‘Eric! Thank God. Over here—’ And he’s off.

I crouch down, suddenly lightheaded.

‘What’s wrong with my daughter?’ Beth Ann is shouting.

No, it’s Skylar’s mom shouting.

What’s wrong is that you’ve infected her with the idea that she has to be thin to please you. She wanted to make you happy. And now look what you’ve done.

I hear Serena’s voice and register that she’s standing next to Skylar’s mom by the open back of the ambulance. ‘All our thoughts and prayers are with you,’ she’s saying, loud and saccharine above the running engine. Does Serena know what she’s done? Does she know this is her fault?

The ambulance doors slam shut.

---