“You’re eighteen. There will be plenty of time for that. Live a little.” She flips onto her side and props her head up with one hand. “Also, I might have told the boys we’d meet them for a late-night stroll.”
“Nope.” I stand and dust the dirt off the butt of my jeans. “I’m not risking getting sent home again.”
“Then don’t tell straight and narrow.” She jumps up and grabs my hands. “Please?” Her bottom lip juts out, but this time it won’t work.
“There’s no way I can sneak out. Shane and I share a cabin, remember?”
“Well…” Scarlett nibbles on her lower lip and glances away. “The boys came up with a way to avoid that.”
“Whatever it is, call it off. I’ve been dreaming about being a counselor for years. I’m not going to watch it go up in smoke because of two boys.” I should point out she promised to stick to the rules after the whole bonfire thing, but I suspect it won’t sway her much.
“Okay.” She releases me and steps back, hands in the air in surrender. “Okay. But if you change your mind, we’ll be at the shore. Midnight.”
Scarlett jogs away, probably off to meet up with the boys. I wish she would take this seriously. This may be a way for her to escape home life for the summer, but for me, it’s my last summer of freedom. As it stands, I’m lucky I convinced my mom to let me come this year.
“This has been the longest day ever.” I fall face-first onto Shane’s bed to the sound of Shane laughing.
“These kids get a little rowdy when there isn’t structure.”
“For real.” I flip over so I’m facing him and tick of the day’s issues. “Two kids making out in a cabin. An almost-drowning. And an almost-brawl over a volleyball game.”
“And here we assumed this summer would be a breeze.” Shane walks into the bathroom and closes the door. A second later I hear the faucet turn on.
I rub a hand over my face, trying to push away the fatigue, but it’s no use. It may only be ten at night, but rising with the sun coupled with little sleep is taking its toll. What I wouldn’t give to sleep until noon. Just for a day.
Right as I’m drifting off, a loud bang from right outside our door makes me jump and snaps me out of my slumber. I blink away the haze coating my brain and lay still, listening for signs of whatever made the noise.
Nothing.
It’s almost dead quiet. Too quiet.
When I’m convinced my brain must have made up the sound while in some in-between phase of sleep, I hear it again, only this time it’s closer.
I spring from the bed and reach for the massive flashlight Shane keeps on the nightstand. Thank goodness I fell asleep clothed because I’m not sure I could think straight enough to get dressed.
The water is still running in the bathroom and Shane must either be deaf or I imagined the sound.
I take a step toward the door, brandishing the flashlight like a weapon when a light scratching on the window behind me has me spinning around.
I’ve never been a fan of scary movies, but I’ve seen enough to tell me this is the moment where some psycho kills me with a machete.
The scratching turns to tapping right as the knob on the door shakes. All thoughts of bravery go right out the window. I stagger backward until my spine presses against the bathroom door and knock frantically. It doesn’t sound as if Shane is in the shower so I’m gonna need him to hustle out here before I become some scary campfire story.
The door gives and I stumble into Shane’s chest. His warm arms wrap around my middle to steady me and if I wasn’t seconds away from a freaking heart attack, I would be enjoying myself.
“What’s going on?”
I point to the door with a trembling finger, and as if sensing my growing fear, the wood rattles and the windowpane shakes.
“Stay here.” Shane takes the flashlight and switches it on. Being the chicken that I am, I lean against the wall and try to steady the racing of my heart before it bursts out of my chest.
“Who’s out there?” Shane shouts, with a hand wrapped around the doorknob.
Yeah, I’m sure that’s on the list of things you never say when you’re in a cabin in the middle of the woods.
Everything goes quiet and I’m left holding my breath as Shane yanks the door open and steps outside. For three pounding heartbeats, he stands on the wooden deck, shining the light into the darkness. I’m almost convinced it’s some animal trying to get inside, but not even the smartest animals would team up to attack the only two entry points into the cabin.
Shane turns around, the bright light blinding me. “There’s nothing—”
He tumbles to the ground. The flashlight goes flying underneath the bed and I glimpse zombie masks before all I hear is laughter.
Scarlett is the first to reveal herself. She whips off the mask as tears stream down her face from how hard she’s laughing. “Oh man. You should have seen your face!”
Forget seeing my face, all I can see is red. “Have you lost your damn mind?” I shove at one of the figures and help Shane up. His nose is bleeding pretty bad so I lead him to the bed.
“Come on, it was funny.” Dax reveals himself and Shane clenches his hands into white-knuckled fists, not even trying to stop the blood from trailing down his chin.
I run into the bathroom to grab some toilet paper and when I return, I fling it at Shane, then turn toward the three pranksters. “What the hell would make assaulting someone funny?”
Scarlett at least has the decency to appear a tad ashamed. Jason raises his mask to rest on the top of his head and laughs.
“What’s the point of staying in some creepy cabin if you can’t at least have a little fun with it?” Jason asks.
“Yeah. Instead of roasting marshmallows, we should be telling ghost stories and picking off the weak kids who should be at some space camp learning about Orion’s Belt and shit,” Dax adds in.
“You two have lost your mind. And you.” I glare at Scarlett who I still can’t believe would want to join in on something as juvenile as terrorizing children. “I don’t know what to say to you.”
“Lyla, I—”
“You three need to get back to your cabins. Now.” Shane towers behind me, the bleeding thankfully stopped, but he still resembles an extra from a slasher film. “We’ll deal with this tomorrow when Mr. River is awake.”
Scarlett’s eyes widen. Dax and Jason, on the other hand, couldn’t look more unimpressed if they tried.
“You’ve got to be kidding. It was a joke,” Dax says as he shrugs out of the shredded black cloak he paired with the mask. “No one got hurt.”
“Uh.” I point to Shane’s face and the remnants of red smeared around his mouth.
“Jesus. It was a—” Jason starts.
“Let’s go. I’ll walk you.” Shane kneels down and grabs the discarded flashlight before turning to me. “Stay here.”
Nodding once, I avoid Scarlett’s gaze. I have so many things to say to her, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m exhausted and don’t feel like getting into a fight.
Shane motions for the three of them to follow him and a few seconds later, the door shuts leaving me once again in silence. Only it’s not the comfortable silence that lulled me to sleep. Now I’m amped up and lucky if I can drift off at all. Even knowing it was just a prank doesn’t quell my anxiety.