The Thrashers(44)

“Could someone have taken it?” he whispered.

“No, look.” She pointed to the fifth row of benches where the purse had been. “It’s too high to climb this way.

Lucy’s hacking was getting worse. Zack ran back around, joining Julian on the benches, searching for the inhaler that Jodi knew in a dark part of herself wasn’t there. She used her phone’s flashlight to search the dirt under her feet and found nothing.

She ran back around the bleachers. Paige was sitting on the first bench next to Lucy, her wheezing thin and labored against the corset of her dress.

“What do we do?” Paige’s voice was pitched high.

Jodi reached down and started untying the laces at the front of her dress. “It’s okay, Lucy. It’s okay.” They were knotted too tight. “Julian!” Jodi called. “Pocketknife?”

He reached for it and tossed it down to her. Jodi fumbled with it and ripped through the satin laces.

“It’s okay, Lucy,” she repeated. “Just breathe.”

“We—we need to call an ambulance, right? EMTs?” Paige started packing Lucy’s purse back together.

“Lucy.” Jodi started ripping open her dress, loosening the corset until Lucy’s sticky bra cups were the only thing covering her. She placed a hand on her stomach and told her to breathe into it. “Lucy, what do we do?” she said calmly. “Do you have one in your locker?”

She shook her head, her breath coming like reeds sliding against each other.

“Ambulance? We call 911 for asthma and they’ll bring an inhaler?”

Julian jumped down. “We’ll have to ditch the bottles and the pot—”

“That doesn’t fucking matter!” Jodi snapped.

“We can’t be in the news again, Jo,” Zack said softly, his voice almost begging.

“She can’t breathe!” Paige screamed at him.

Lucy grabbed Jodi’s wrist and tried to talk. Her dark lips looked bluish.

“Paramedics will take time,” Zack said. “Is there someone in the gym—”

“I’ll run back,” Julian said. “I’ll get a teacher and tell them all the shit was mine.”

Jodi sat up, an idea sparking. “Zack, sit with her. Keep her calm.” She scrolled through her phone to the number she’d used more often in the past two months than all of high school combined.

He answered, and the sounds of the dance were still in the background.

“’Lo?”

“Oliver? Do you have your inhaler on you? Your—your Albuterol? Do you still take it?”

“What?”

She walked away from the rest of them, under the bleachers. “I need an inhaler on the football field.”

There was a pause, and then the background noise disappeared like he’d slipped into a hall. “Yeah, I have it.”

“Can you bring it to me? The far side, close to the concession stand they don’t use anymore? The accessible seats—”

“I know where you guys hang out.”

“Can you—can you run?”

Tears were falling down her face. Lucy wasn’t coughing anymore, and she didn’t know what that meant.

She heard shoes slapping against linoleum through the phone. After a handful of heartbeats, the footfalls were coming from her left. Jodi flashed her phone screen at him to signal their location.

He was running—that same gait that got him teased in seventh grade. The inhaler was in his hand, and he was shaking it up as he reached her. She jogged with him through the bars and to the field. Oliver didn’t ask a single question; he went straight to Lucy and helped her sit up straight, helped her grip the inhaler.

The hiss of the Albuterol was like music to her ears. Lucy held her breath, her cheeks blowing out. She exhaled that rickety sound and puffed again, holding it longer this time.

Jodi felt her body start to relax. She felt like she had been the one to run the football field, ready to collapse.

It was silent as Lucy held her breath. It wasn’t until she reached up and started tugging the front of her dress back together that Jodi felt things were going to be okay. She was still wheezing, but the inhaler would work.

Lucy turned to Oliver with wet eyes and mouthed, thank you.

“Thank you, Oliver,” Jodi echoed. “We didn’t know what to do for her. Her inhaler was here a second ago…” She trailed off as she caught Paige’s expression.

Her blue eyes were glued to the lamppost that had flickered out, her skin pulled tight around her mouth. Jodi looked up. The emergency light flickered once and then stayed on.

Paige moved next to her, reaching for Lucy’s clutch. She opened it with shaking fingers and looked inside. A laugh burst from her lips, and she dropped the purse.

They all watched as Paige’s cackling slowly melted into tears. She turned, walked five steps, and vomited raspberry vodka onto the grass.

Jodi picked up the clutch and looked inside. Lucy’s inhaler was there on top.





Chapter Thirteen





Reagan Matthews and Jake Flynn were crowned homecoming queen and king. Emily Mills earned junior princess, posthumously.

But they didn’t need to tiptoe around Paige with it. Paige wasn’t concerned with homecoming anymore. Paige was calling her aunt to ask about the medium she saw. Paige was buying crystals on the internet that kept vengeful spirits away. Paige was refusing to get together just the five of them, as she believed that was what Emily was mad about.