Page 16 of Dark Roads
“Where are they?”
“Vancouver. I only talk to my sister.” She was still holding my hand, but I could tell by the tone in her voice, something fragile and achy, that it hurt her to say it out loud. “I ran away.”
“Serious?”
“Sort of. They know I’m here, but they’re angry that I dropped out of school, and for partying, dating girls.” She met my eyes. “They found Jesus when I was a kid, started going to church twice a week, prayer group. I got so sick of it—the lying, how fake everyone was. I was going to the Yukon to meet friends and stopped here for gas. Mason had a sign in the window.…” She shrugged.
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen last month. Anyway, let’s not talk about serious stuff, okay?”
I scuffed my sandal against the picnic table. Why did I have to go and wreck the mood? I could feel her body cooling beside me, the light in her eyes dimming. “Sorry.”
She hooked her finger under my chin and drew my face toward her. “I just want to think about you.” Her finger was warm, her voice husky. She leaned forward, and I realized she was going to kiss me. There were voices in the campground. People could see us, but she didn’t care, and then I didn’t care—because this beautiful girl wanted me.
Her lips were soft and tasted faintly of peach from the cider we’d shared. I lost myself in the velvet of her mouth. I felt a little high, a little drunk, a little bit of all the good things in life.
Vibration, against my hip. My phone on the table. I ignored it. Tried to lose myself again. The phone kept going. She paused and pulled back. “Do you need to get that?”
“No.” I shook my head, and the vibrating stopped. My phone chirped with a text message. Jonny was probably at the racetrack. What if he’d gotten hurt?
“Just a second.” I picked up my phone, swiped my finger across the screen.
We need you to come home and watch Cash.I stared at the sentence. Vaughn. I didn’t want to leave Amber. I set the phone back down, but it chirped again.
Amber was watching my face. She frowned. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Vaughn. They want me to babysit.”
“I guess you have to go.” She didn’t say it like a question. She must know what Vaughn was like, and for a moment I was tempted to tell her everything. Maybe she would understand.But then it might change how she acted around him at the diner. He would get suspicious.
“Yeah, I should.”
She slid off the table, brushed pine needles from the back of her towel. We’d left our shorts on the hood of her car to warm in the sun. “Okay.”
We drove back in silence. Her car was a silver Mazda with a sun-faded dashboard and ripped seats, but it was tidy and smelled like her coconut suntan lotion. A small stuffed unicorn hung from the rearview mirror, white with a silver horn. I made it twirl with my finger. I wanted to tell Amber that she made me feel like magic, floating and spinning, but I kept quiet.
When we passed the billboard, she made the sign of the cross. “I think about her,” she said. “That Shannon girl. I hope she didn’t suffer.”
“Me too,” I mumbled, but after what Vaughn said, I knew Shannon had probably died in a lot of pain. She must have been so scared. That was the part that upset me the most. Wondering what she thought about in those last moments. Did she give up? Did she fight all the way to the end? I glanced over at Amber. “Don’t travel this road alone, okay? And don’t stop for anyone.”
She gave me a nervous look. “You’re freaking me out.”
I didn’t like that I’d said almost the same thing to Vaughn, but this was different.
“It’s important. Promise me.”
“Okay.” Her voice was soft, her eyes wide. “I promise.”
We were at the road near my aunt’s house. “Can you let me out here? Vaughn…”
“Sure, totally.” She pulled over, put the car in park. “Text you later?”
“Yeah.” I hoped she might kiss me again, but then another text message chirped. I pulled my phone out of my side pocket and turned it off.
“Are you going to be in trouble if you don’t answer?”
“No, he’s just telling me to get home.” I shrugged and gathered my backpack, acting like it happened all the time. “Talk to you later.”
