Page 75 of Reckless Girls
By now, Brittany is on deck, wringing out her wet hair, and all five of us stand at the port side of theAzure Sky, looking at the open water.
“What? How? I didn’t even hear anything last night,” Jake says in confusion. “Although, I guess we were all pretty out of it.”
He turns to Amma. “When did you last see Nico?”
I’m unprepared for how much this stings. For how quickly Amma has become The One Who Would Know Where Nico Is, because clearly, I sure as fuck don’t.
“On the beach last night. The moon was pretty, and I was, you know.Superhigh, so I swam out. Got kind of confused and climbed up here, went to sleep.” She shrugs. “It’s all kind of a blur, honestly.”
I look back to where theSusannahshould be, like I can somehow will it to reappear. Last nightwasa blur, and we were all fucked up. Is that how Nico was able to sail away withno onehearing him?
I stand there, hands gripping my hair, and my stomach somersaulting. Jake steps forward, taking my arm. “Hey, hey, hey,” he says in a soothing voice. “Don’t panic, okay? He’s probably justgone for a sail. Maybe he wanted some time alone on the water to clear his head.”
“This is not a fucking Jimmy Buffett song, it’s real,” I snap. “And if something happens to him out there—”
Jake’s Cool Guy thing is irritating. Yesterday, I’d found his laid-back charm refreshing and more than a little sexy. Today, I just wish someone would panic with me a little bit.
But no one is going to.
Brittany is tugging at the ends of her damp hair while Eliza has her arms folded over her chest, simply watching this all play out.
Amma scrubs her hands over her face before reaching into a canvas bag at her feet. She pulls out her phone and I feel this immediate, instinctual surge of relief. Yes, we’ll call his phone, we’ll callsomeone—
“Fuck,” she mutters.
Brittany looks over and rolls her eyes. “You know there’s no signal here.”
Giving a frustrated sound, Amma tosses her phone onto a stack of striped towels on the deck. “I know, but I just thought… I don’t know, I thought I’d try.”
My throat closes up, sweat prickling along my spine. Being off the grid, fully disconnected—it had felt so freeing at first, but it feels like a trap now, like there are jaws closing around us. No radios to contact the outside world, no way to even contact each other if we get separated…
We’re on our own.
And while that thought had once filled me with something close to elation, now there’s only panic.
Amma runs her hands through her hair, looking around, and then she’s over the side of the boat, her long arms cutting smooth strokes back to the beach.
The fuck?
“Lux, listen,” Jake says now, stepping forward again but keeping his hands to himself. “If he’s not back in a few hours, we’ll worry. But for now, let’s just relax and assume he woke up feeling as fucking rank as the rest of us, and thought getting an ocean breeze would help.”
It’s perfectly rational, but the mood on the island has been uneasy ever since Robbie showed up, like there’s a storm about to break, and I just wish it would already. I wish I had an excuse to scream and lose my shit.
Instead, I nod. I’ll keep it together a little longer. I’ll wait.
ISWIM TO THE BEACH,hoping to catch Amma, but she’s already disappeared.
I sit on the sand and let it trail through my fingers as I watch the horizon. Jake is right, Nico probably just needed to stretch his legs, so to speak. Maybe even get his head straight about me and Amma. The islanddoesfeel small, cramped. Like it’s closing in on us.
Even now, as I look back over my shoulder, I swear the jungle feels closer than it did yesterday. I turn my attention back to the lagoon, trying to ignore the feeling that something—or someone?—is watching me from the trees.
He’s on the other side of the island,I tell myself.He’ll be back any minute now.
The water laps against the shore. When we first got here, I found that sound so peaceful, so comforting. Now, it grates on my nerves.
The day wears on. Brittany comes to bring me some water and extra sunscreen, sits with me for a bit, then eventually heads back to Jake and Eliza’s boat.
Soon, the sun is setting, turning the sky that same blaze of brilliant orange and pink that enchanted me my first night here.Seeing it now makes my stomach twist in knots. Sunset means night is almost here, and if Nico isn’t back by the time it’s dark…
