Sara Shepard - Never Have I Ever

“Of course,” Gabby said automatically, lifting her sash from her chest and admiring it lovingly. “All eyes were on me. I felt like a princess.”

Lili let out an irate squeak. “There were eight court girls, Gabriella. Not just you!”

Gabby shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t think I do.”

“What’s wrong with you tonight?” Gabby wrinkled her nose. “You sound like Mom when you call me Gabriella .”

A small, frustrated noise came from the back of Lili’s throat. “As if you don’t know?”

Everyone laughed awkwardly. Madeline cleared her throat. “Um, girls?” But the Twins ignored her.

“If you’re going to be a mega bitch, maybe you shouldn’t come tonight,” Gabby said primly.

“You know what? Maybe I don’t want to come. Maybe I don’t want to spend another minute with you,” Lili growled. She pointed at a Super Stop gas station at the next intersection. “Pull into there.”

Madeline gripped the wheel, but she didn’t put on her turn signal.

“I’m serious!” Lili screeched. “Pull frickin’ over!”

Emma stiffened. Lili was more unhinged than ever.

“Whoa.” Madeline set her jaw, veered into the next lane of traffic, and wheeled into the gas station. Several cars waited at the pumps. Two teenage boys in death-metal T-shirts loitered near the entrance, smoking cigarettes. Inside, Emma could see brightly colored soda bottles, racks and racks of candy, and grayish hot dogs spinning slowly on a grill.

As soon as the car slowed, Lili pushed Gabby out the back door. Then she climbed out herself, giving Gabby another shove. Gabby wheeled backward into a green trash barrel. “What the—?” she screamed.

Lili’s eyes were wild. Her Lady Liberty toga was slipping, showing the scalloped, lacy edges of her bra. A bearded, greasy-haired truck driver filling his truck with diesel stared. So did the smokers by the door. “You know I like Kevin! I told you a million times!”

Gabby blinked her large blue eyes. “You never told me that.”

“Yes, I did!” Lili stamped her foot. “You always do this to me! You knew full well I liked him. I saw you looking at me every time you guys danced. You were rubbing it in, and you know it!”

Gabby placed her hands on her hips. “Well, I like him, too . . . and he likes me back. Get over it.”

“You insensitive little . . .” Lili lunged at Gabby. Madeline shot out of the car and grabbed Lili around the waist. Laurel climbed out, too, and restrained Gabby, pulling her toward a fledgling mesquite tree on the little walkway that led to the mini-mart. Emma stayed glued to her seat, unsure what to do.

The smokers by the door nudged one another and grinned. One of them called, “Cat fight!”

Lili panted hard. “I’m so sick of you,” she hissed at Gabby.

“Yeah? Well, I’m sick of you, too,” Gabby shot back.

Lili broke free from Madeline and pulled her iPhone from the tiny beaded clutch she held under one arm. After pressing several buttons, she put the phone to her ear.

“Who are you calling?” Gabby asked.

Lili tossed her head. “A cab to take me home. Go camping without me. I’m not going anywhere with you .”

“Lili . . .” Gabby looked repentant. “I’m sorry, okay?”

“Yeah, Lili,” Charlotte said, pushing a reddish curl over her shoulder. “You should come. You guys can work this out.”

“Not anytime soon,” Lili said stiffly. Then she perked up. “Hello? Yes, I need a cab, please. I’m at the Super Stop on Tanque Verde and Catalina . . .”

A stiff, dusty wind kicked up, fluttering the ends of the girls’ dresses and wafting the acrid scent of gasoline into their nostrils. After Lili hung up, she walked to the front of the mini-mart and perched on the large square ice chest. The pimply smoking boys approached her almost immediately, but she gave them a death glare that sent them scurrying away.

Slowly, the girls piled back into the car. “Should we really go?” Charlotte asked.

“I hate leaving her alone like this,” Laurel said.

“She’ll be fine,” Gabby said in a tight voice. “We’re like a mile from our house—she could walk home if she wanted. She’s just being a stubborn sore loser. We’ll have a better time without her.”

As Madeline maneuvered the car onto the highway, Emma twisted around to look at Lili one last time. She was staring at the car with unmasked fury, her crown now crumpled in her hand. A chill crawled down Emma’s spine, and she said a silent thank-you that Lili wasn’t coming on the camping trip. She could handle just one Twitter Twin. Right?

Wrong , I thought. Emma was going into the desert at night with one of my killers, and I had no idea if she’d be coming back out again.

As the car climbed higher up Mount Lemmon, the cacti gave way to deciduous pine trees, and the air thinned. The road curved up the rocky slope, offering stunning views of sparkling Tucson below.

“How much higher are we going?” Charlotte asked as they passed yet another camping spot. Several campers were parked in the lot, and a family was cooking burgers on one of the public barbecue grills.

“A little higher still,” Gabby said, leaning forward between the seats.

Finally, after they passed three more scenic lookouts and made two wrong turns that forced them to reverse back down the mountain, Gabby screeched, “There it is!”

Madeline pulled the car into a flat gravel lot. A tiny wooden sign read CAMPING. Another was marked TRAILS, and a third warned WATCH FOR RATTLESNAKES.

The girls got out and unloaded the gear from the backseat. They’d climbed several thousand feet in elevation, and the air was sharp and cold. Goose bumps rose on Emma’s skin. Gabby slipped out of her toga and changed into jeans and a hoodie, and the other girls did the same.

“We should probably put on sneakers, too,” Gabby instructed, pulling a pair of Nikes from her bag. “The springs are about a mile hike from here.”

“We’re going to hike in the dark?” Emma blurted. She could barely see the scrubby trail that wound into the desert. A whistling, lonely wind blew tumbleweeds across the parking lot.

“That’s what flashlights are for.” Gabby pulled out a long, silver Maglite, heavy enough to bash someone’s head in. When she switched the knob to the on position, nothing happened. “Huh.”

Madeline and Charlotte had flashlights, too, but only one of them worked, spewing a weak, pale yellow beam onto the trail before them. “This seems like a bad idea,” Emma said, her heart beating furiously. “Maybe we should come back another time.”

Gabby hefted her backpack onto her shoulders. “Is Sutton Mercer . . . afraid ?”

Emma gritted her teeth. Laurel looped her arm through Emma’s. “It’ll be fine,” she said. “Promise.”

“Let’s go.” Gabby’s shoes made a crunching sound on the gravel as she marched toward the trailhead. Madeline pulled something out of her backpack. A flash of chrome glinted in the moonlight, and there was a sloshing sound of liquid hitting the sides of a bottle. “Here,” she whispered, handing the flask to Emma. “Liquid courage.”

Emma closed her fingers around the bottle and undid the top, but she only pretended to drink; she had to stay alert. The girls started down the trail, one after the other, dark shadows against a blue-black sky. Gabby’s white hoodie gave off a soft glow, making it easier to keep sight of her, but the trail was narrow, and prickly cacti jutted out from all angles. Behind Emma, Laurel stumbled on a root, and Madeline’s sleeve tangled in a tree branch. Gabby zigzagged the flashlight back and forth along the trail, but about five minutes after they’d started, the light died out, leaving them in complete darkness.