The Thrashers(82)

Conversation seemed to pop in and out of her ears as they discussed where to go. She didn’t want to talk about the deposition. She didn’t want to tell them that Emily had died like her mom.

Jodi felt like she’d lost sensation in her legs as she walked with them toward the cars.

“Nuh-uh,” Lucy said, pausing them. “Let’s have a girls’ car.” She pushed Zack toward Julian’s truck, away from the front seat of Kiera’s Camry that he’d been moving to. Lucy gave Jodi a sly wink.

Jodi slid into the seat behind Lucy as Paige rambled about student council to her from the next seat. She watched Kiera triple-check her mirrors and say “Lucy had to parallel park for me” in a perky voice. It took her a handful of seconds to figure out she was talking to Jodi. “This is just my practice car. My dad is buying me a new one for my birthday.”

Jodi looked at the car. It was perfectly fine, even if it did have manual locks and manual windows. In a haze, she realized Kiera wanted to make sure they knew she was rich. She was “one of them.”

They took off, Julian’s truck just behind them in the rearview mirror as they headed for the J Street bridge. Jodi couldn’t concentrate on the conversation. All she could do was focus on keeping it together.

You’ve been told that you were in the tub with her?

If her mother had killed herself, Rosa would have said something. She ranted all the time about her dad. Something would have come up.

Jodi cataloged the insults over the years, coming up with a few moments of Don’t really blame her for wanting out or Stupid choices, always stupid choices with that girl or Your mother was selfish. Wonderful, but selfish.

The construction on the bridge over the river had finally ended—overnight, it seemed. The orange signs had been taken down and both lanes were finally open.

Jodi stared out the window to her right as Lucy turned up the Rihanna. Kiera sang along, shouting the words and making Paige laugh. Kiera with the brown hair, tiny waist, and trust fund. More of a Thrasher than Jodi would ever be.

Why do you think you’re friends? Harding had said. What do you think you add to the dynamic?

Maybe she should let Kiera have them.

Jodi blinked slowly, a pricking between her eyes.

Maybe she was always meant to be Thrashed in the end. She was the final project. The long game.

“Are you okay, babe?” Kiera’s eyes were on her in the rearview mirror. Green. Beautiful. Already calling her babe, like Paige.

Jodi nodded and took a deep breath, ready to shake it off. Her gaze landed on the streetlamps along the bridge. They were already flickering to life, even though it was hours from sunset.

Kiera gasped.

The car swerved left into oncoming traffic. Paige screamed as Kiera overcorrected.

Jodi’s hands shot out, bracing herself on the back of Lucy’s seat and the window as the crunch of steel ground through her bones.

The car was in motion in the air, and the sound of four girls shrieking pounded through her eardrums all the way down. She saw the sky through the window, and then the car hit the water.





Chapter Twenty-Three





Water lapped at their windows. Jodi sat facing forward, feeling the seat belt dig into her collar and breathing hard.

They were in the river.

They were going to drown. Emily would win.

“Shut the fuck up!” Lucy yelled, and only then did Jodi realize Paige was still screaming.

She blinked away her fear and saw Lucy pressing her airbag away from her.

“We have to—to get out!” Paige shrieked. “We have to open the doors—”

“Don’t!” Lucy twisted, reaching out for Paige’s knee as she grabbed the door handle. “Wait. We have to … we have to do it together.”

Jodi’s voice was hollow to her ears when she said, “The water can slosh you around, move you away from the doors. We should wear our seatbelts.”

It was only then that she looked up and found Lucy pressing her fingers to Kiera’s neck, holding her palm under her nose. She was slumped forward in the driver’s seat, head pressed against the steering wheel and blood sliding down the curve of it onto her knees. Lucy shook her softly. She didn’t move.

“Is she dead? Is she fucking dead?” Paige said, breath thin.

“She’s breathing,” Lucy said, but she didn’t sound confident.

Jodi looked out her window. A line like the horizon split the view from water to sky.

“We have to wait,” Lucy whispered. “We have to submerge.”

Jodi didn’t think that was right.

“We can’t wait! We have to get out! We can’t just sit here!”

“Paige, this river isn’t deep. It’s fine. We just—we just need to wait for the car to go under—”

“What the fuck are you talking about! I can’t wait! I can’t sit here! Right, Jodi?”

Paige turned wild eyes on Jodi, and she saw the red blot of blood on Paige’s window and the blood staining her blond hair pink.

Jodi turned forward to Lucy and saw her eyes catch on it.

“Paige, it’s going to be okay,” Lucy said. “I’m going to take care of you. I always take care of you.”

Paige seemed to breathe.

The sky was getting darker. Jodi watched the sun disappear in the water.