The Thrashers(53)

But just as Jodi could have guessed, Zack’s name was everywhere.

Zack Thrasher invited me to hang out with them!

Zack told me he liked my orange Converse!

I asked Zack what kind of music he listens to, and I’m going to download absolutely every song by Frank Ocean.

But nothing was jumping out to her as something that could help Zack or her friends. She wished she’d had the date that Emily said she’d had sex with Zack. She could have flipped the pages right there. Jodi checked the clock. It was almost midnight. She still had a term paper to write. Rubbing her forehead, she went to make coffee in the kitchen.

Her dad was asleep in his chair, snoring over the Food Network. When she’d gotten home from the Millses’, she’d shown him the paperwork from the DA’s office explaining that she wasn’t indicted. He’d breathed a sigh of relief and offered to grab celebratory tacos. He’d returned with a six-pack of Corona as well. Jodi watched TV with him for an hour before excusing herself to her room to go over Emily’s journal.

She could at least hope that no more lawyer fees would mean that things between the two of them could return to normal again. As she watched the coffee drip, she tried to decide what to do about her other problem.

There were five “Thrashers,” and only four of them were in trouble now. Jodi couldn’t pretend she wasn’t thrilled that she might still have a shot at college, but how could she be happy about that when her friends’ futures were at stake? How was she supposed to break the news to them?

More importantly, how could she hide the subpoena from them?

That night, Jodi dreamt she was in an unfamiliar bathroom, attempting to take a bath, but every time she started the taps, rusty water splashed down. The door was locked from the outside. She screamed for someone to find her, but there was a party happening on the other side of the door. When she got into the tub, clothes on, her left arm was throbbing. She looked down to see why and found a hand holding hers.

She jerked awake, in her own bed. She had no feeling in her left arm. It had been stuck under her shoulder at an odd angle.

She shook feeling into it, but it took hours to feel right.



* * *



“I’m sharing my birthday with Paige,” Lucy said one morning, after joining Jodi at her locker. “She didn’t get an eighteenth birthday party, so we’ll share it.”

“Okay,” Jodi said. “And she doesn’t think the ground will open up and swallow us into hell if the five of us are in the same place at the same time again?”

“Oh, she does,” Lucy said with a grin. “But it won’t just be the five of us. It’ll still be small, but I’m inviting more people. Do you want me to include Spencer Gordon?”

Jodi shut her locker and blinked at Lucy. “Oh. Uh, yeah, okay.”

Aside from a few waves in the hallway, she hadn’t talked to him this semester. She hadn’t thought about him, either, until Julian had brought him up at homecoming.

“Cool,” Lucy said, winking at her before walking off to class.

Upon hearing there was an exclusive Thrashers party being thrown, Reagan Matthews promptly announced a rager at Folsom Lake for the same night. Lucy said it didn’t matter to her, but Jodi saw the way her jaw tightened and eyes narrowed every time someone said they were “busy.”

It wasn’t until Jodi arrived at Lucy’s house that she realized Zack had invited Kiera. A short girl with a tiny waist and pretty green eyes was in the kitchen with Zack and Paige, listening to Zack’s story with bright interest. Her light brown hair was curled with those beach waves Jodi always failed to get right. She watched as Zack nudged her ribs, and Kiera giggled.

“So,” said a voice from just over her shoulder, “what are we gonna do?”

Julian sipped from his red cup, eyes on Kiera and Zack.

“Nothing.” Jodi swallowed and tore her eyes off them. “It’s not our business. That’s what got us into this mess.”

She remembered the way Emily used to stand at Zack’s side and listen to him talk as if he were giving the Sermon on the Mount. It had seemed clear to them then that Zack was being friendly, and Emily was taking things out of context, but now …

Zack offered Kiera another drink, and she shook her head demurely. He pointed outside, and she agreed, following him closely through the back door.

“He can’t sleep with her,” she blurted out. Wincing, she turned to Julian. “I mean, like with the case, not because … of any other reason.”

“Sure,” he said slyly.

“Seriously though. How old is she?”

He nodded, agreeing with her. “She’s a junior.”

Jodi shook her head, her hands running through her hair. “Is he stupid enough to do it? Does someone actually need to tell him why hanging out with this girl is a bad idea?”

“I’m handling it.” He took a long swig of whatever was in his cup, staring out to the patio where Zack, Kiera, and a few others were in the hot tub.

“‘Handling it?’” She scoffed. “What are you gonna do, seduce her?”

He lifted a brow and looked down at her, almost a full-foot difference in their heights.

Jodi’s brow matched his. “Seduce him?” she teased.

“The places your mind goes, Dillon, I swear to god…”