Sara Shepard - Burned

Aria shook her head. “No, no, Graham transferred from Tabitha’s school to a school in Philly. None of her friends are here.”

“Still I agree with Spencer,” Hanna said. “Stay away from that guy. It sounds like a situation you don’t need right now.”

Aria looked annoyed. “I can’t just drop him. I’d feel terrible.”

“Why?” Spencer demanded.

Aria stared at her fingers. “Do you guys really think we’re going to get away with this in the end? This might be my last chance to make things right with someone who cared about her before I go to jail.”

Spencer looked at her crazily. “Are you going to tell him?”

“No. But I feel I owe him something. I want to make his life better somehow.”

“You don’t owe him anything!” Spencer roared. “The only reason you feel that way is because A is screwing with your mind!”

“Well, that’s a good reason, isn’t it?” Aria shrugged helplessly. “A totally has us cornered! I don’t know what else to do!”

Everyone shut their eyes. A huge rush of dread swept through Emily. A did have them cornered. What if A turned them in for everything? They’d done so much, especially if Madison had died. And A seemed to know absolutely everything.

Spencer cleared her throat. “Look. If we figure out who A is, we can nail Gayle’s murder to him or her and protect ourselves.” She looked at Hanna. “You’re Naomi’s roommate. Search through her stuff. See if she has a second phone, like Mona did. Or break into her e-mail and see if any of the A notes are in her sent box.”

Hanna bit a fingernail. “You really want me to get that close to A’s stuff? Haven’t you forgotten the other things A has done? Like with Gayle? Or what about how she laced your brownies with LSD?”

“But—” Spencer protested, then froze. A footstep on a loose plank squeaked across the deck. Spencer grabbed Emily’s arm. Emily squinted hard through the shadows, terrified of what might be there. The scent of fruity perfume wafted through the air toward her, then vanished. For a few moments, all she could hear was her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

Hanna’s phone chimed, and everyone jumped. “It’s just Mike,” Hanna said, checking the screen. “He’s sneaking me into his room for the night.”

“You’re staying with Mike?” Aria looked worried. “You guys could both get in trouble.”

“I’d rather get in trouble than get killed,” Hanna said, then hurried away, looking back and forth into the shadows before descending the stairs.

After a moment, Spencer peered at the others, let out a despairing moan, then walked off, too. Only Aria and Emily remained. They stepped out from under the awning and exchanged a terrified glance.

“Tell me this isn’t happening,” Emily whispered.

Aria wiped raindrops out of her eyes. “I can’t live like this much longer, Em.”

“I know. Neither can I.”

Another bolt of lightning snapped at sea. Emily stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Aria’s shoulders. Aria squeezed back, and the two of them remained that way for a few seconds, shielding each other from the elements.

And maybe from A, too.

On Wednesday morning, Spencer stood on the docks of St. Martin. The cruise ship, which had pulled into the island at sunrise, sat in the harbor among much smaller speedboats and ferries, looking a little like an eighteen-year-old in a classroom of first-graders. The sky was a pinkish-gray, the air smelled like sun-baked pavement, and shopkeepers lifted the metal grates of their jewelry stores and placed plaques in the windows that read DIAMOND SALE! and BEST PRICES ON THE ISLAND!

About twenty or so kids from the diving class were on the dock, too, struggling into rash guards and picking through the rented diving equipment. Kirsten slathered sunscreen on her arms, then offered the tube to Spencer. “Are you really thinking of diving away from the group?”

Spencer opened her mouth to say that she was, but then hesitated. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to dive alone—not with A around.

She gazed up and down the docks, feeling a nervous pull in her stomach. A is on the boat with us . On one hand, it seemed impossible. But on the other, it made perfect sense—A was everywhere. Of course A was on the boat. A could be watching her that very second.

“Morning, Spencer.”

Reefer stood behind her, wearing plaid swim trunks that showed off his muscled legs and holding a pair of neon-green swim fins.

“Isn’t it a lovely day?” Naomi, who was standing next to him, added with a smirk. Instead of wearing a rash guard, like a sensible scuba diver, she had on a skimpy, metallic string bikini that showed off her ample cleavage. When she noticed Spencer looking her up and down, she moved a little closer to Reefer, practically stepping on his foot.

“Hi,” Spencer said woodenly, then turned her back on them. Ever since scuba class, Reefer hadn’t had any time for her. She’d received a sweet text from him at dinner the night before, saying he’d look for her, but then he’d sent another a few minutes later, saying, “Sorry, Naomi needs to talk, let’s catch up soon.” After dinner, when she and Aria were wandering around the arcade, she’d noticed Reefer sitting with Naomi in a corner, their heads angled together intimately.

She bent down and grabbed a dive tank in her arms. When she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the chrome, she winced. Her skin looked sallow in her bright-yellow Body Glove rash guard. And she’d been so tired last night, she hadn’t bothered to take a shower, so her hair hung in dirty, salty clumps. How could she compare with Naomi?

And what about what Hanna had said about Naomi? Was it possible that she could be A? Even if she wasn’t, she had a lot of reasons to be angry at them—especially if A told her what they’d done to her cousin. Last night, after Hanna had gotten that message, Spencer had lain in bed, thinking about the car accident on Reeds Lane. She couldn’t believe she’d nearly forgotten about it.

As they’d driven away from that horrible scene, she’d turned to Hanna nervously. “What if the girl wakes up and realizes who you are?”

“Well, I told her my name was Olivia and that I was from Yarmouth,” Hanna mumbled.

“But what if she sees a picture of you in an old People ?”

Hanna turned her head sharply and stared out the window. “Well, let’s hope she doesn’t.”

Judging by the fact that no cops had knocked on Spencer’s door, asking questions, or that the news didn’t even report on the story, Madison didn’t seem to remember. Spencer had hoped it was because Madison had been too drunk, but there had always been a little voice inside her, whispering that it could have been because of something else. The first rule of lifesaving class said never to move someone who’d been in an accident. And then there had been that horrible crack of bone when Spencer had dropped Madison, a sound that now rang in Spencer’s ears as though on autorepeat. She was the worst person in the world.

She felt Naomi’s eyes on her and shuddered. Then she felt Reefer staring at her, too. She rolled back her shoulders and started toward the drive truck. Reefer broke away from Naomi and followed behind. “I looked for you by the aquarium this morning,” he said.

“Um-hmm,” Spencer murmured, biting down hard on the inside of her lip.

“I thought that was going to be our regular meeting spot.”

“I decided to get an early start,” she said in a clipped voice, not making eye contact.

“Spencer.” Reefer caught her arm, but Spencer wrenched it away and kept going, not bothering to stop for a swim mask that slipped from her fingers and rolled across the pavement. Reefer scooped it up and ran after her. “ Spencer . Stop.”