“I can’t,” she said.
“You have to.” Heather felt desperate. Where the hell was Bishop? She bent down to loop an arm around Nat’s waist. “Lean on me.”
“I can’t,” Nat repeated. “It hurts too bad.”
Then Dodge Mason came out of nowhere. He was suddenly next to them, and without pausing or asking permission, he put one of his arms around Nat’s waist as well, so that she could be carried between them. Nat gave a short cry of surprise, but she didn’t resist. Heather felt like she could kiss him.
“Come on,” he said.
They passed into the woods, stumbling, going as quickly as possible, moving away from the booming megaphone-voices, the screaming and the lights. It was dark. Dodge kept his cell phone out; it cast a weak blue light on the sodden leaves underneath them, the wet ferns and the shaggy, moss-covered trees.
“Where are we going?” Heather whispered. Her heart was pounding. Nat could barely put any weight on her left leg, so every other step, she leaned heavily into Heather.
“We have to wait until the cops clear out,” Dodge replied. He was short of breath.
A few hundred feet beyond the water towers, nestled in the trees, was a narrow pump house. Heather could hear mechanical equipment going inside it, humming through the walls, when they stopped so Dodge could shoulder the door open. It wasn’t locked.
Inside, it smelled like mildew and metal. The single room was dominated by two large tanks and various pieces of rusted electrical equipment; the air was filled with a constant, mechanical thrush, like the noise of a thousand crickets. They could no longer hear shouting from the woods.
“Jesus.” Nat exhaled heavily and maneuvered onto the ground, extending her left leg in front of her, wincing. “It hurts.”
“Probably sprained,” Dodge said. He sat down as well, but not too close.
“I swear I felt someone crack it.” Nat leaned forward and began touching the skin around her ankle. She inhaled sharply.
“Leave it, Nat,” Heather said. “We’ll get some ice on it as soon as we can.”
She was cold, and suddenly exhausted. The rush she’d felt from completing the challenge was gone. She was wet and hungry, and the last thing she wanted to do was sit in a stupid pump house for half the night. She pulled out her phone and texted Bishop. Where r u?
“How’d you know about this place?” Nat asked Dodge.
“Found it the other day,” Dodge said. “I was scouting. Mind if I smoke?”
“Kind of,” Heather said.
He shrugged and replaced the cigarettes in his jacket. He kept his cell phone out, on the floor, so his silhouette was touched with blue.
“Thank you,” Nat blurted out. “For helping me. That was really . . . I mean, you didn’t have to.”
“No problem,” Dodge said. Heather couldn’t see his face, but there was a weird quality to his voice, like he was being choked.
“I mean, we’ve never even spoken before.…” Maybe realizing she sounded rude, Nat trailed off.
For a minute, there was silence. Heather sent another text to Bishop. WTF?
Then Dodge said abruptly, “We spoke before. Once. At the pep rally last year. You called me David.”
“I did?” Nat giggled nervously. “Stupid. I was probably drunk. Remember, Heather? We took those disgusting shots.”
“Mmmm.” Heather was still standing. She leaned up against the door, listening to the sound of the rain, which was drumming a little harder now. She strained to hear, underneath it, the continued sounds of shouting. She couldn’t believe Bishop still hadn’t texted her back. Bishop always responded to her messages right away.
“Anyway, I’m an idiot,” Nat was saying. “Anyone will tell you that. But I couldn’t very well forget a name like Dodge, could I? I wish I had a cool name.”
“I like your name,” Dodge said quietly.
Heather felt a sharp pain go through her. She had heard in Dodge’s voice a familiar longing, a hollowness—and she knew then, immediately and without doubt, that Dodge liked Natalie.
For a second she had a blind moment of envy, a feeling that gripped her from all sides. Of course. Of course Dodge liked Nat. She was pretty and giggly and small and cute, like an animal you’d find in someone’s purse. Like Avery.
The association arrived unexpectedly, and she dismissed it quickly. She didn’t care about Avery, and she didn’t care whether Dodge liked Nat, either. It wasn’t her business.
Still, the idea continued to drum through her, like the constant patter of the rain: that no one would ever love her.
“How long do you think we should wait?” Nat asked.
“Not too much longer,” Dodge said.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Heather knew she should make conversation, but she was too tired.
“I wish it wasn’t so dark,” Nat said after a few minutes, rustling. Heather could tell from her voice she was getting impatient.
Dodge stood up. “Wait here,” he said, and slipped outside.
For a while there was silence except for a tinny banging—something moving through the pipes—and the hiss of water on the roof.
“I’m going to go to L.A.,” Nat blurted out suddenly. “If I win.”
Heather turned to her. Nat looked defiant, as though she expected Heather to start making fun of her. “What for?” Heather asked.
“The surfers,” Nat said. Then she rolled her eyes. “Hollywood, bean brain. What do you think for?”
Heather went over to her and crouched. Nat always said she wanted to be an actress, but Heather had never thought she was serious—not serious enough to do it, definitely not serious enough to play Panic for it.
But Heather just nudged her with a shoulder. “Promise me that when you’re rich and famous, you won’t forget the bean brains you knew back when.”
“I promise,” Nat said. The air smelled faintly like charcoal.
“What about you? What will you do if you win?”
Heather shook her head. She wanted to say: Run until I burst. Build miles and miles and miles between me and Carp. Leave the old Heather behind, burn her to dust. Instead, she shrugged. “Go somewhere, I guess. Sixty-seven grand buys a lot of gas.”
Nat shook her head. “Come on, Heather,” she said quietly. “Why’d you really enter?”
Just like that, Heather thought of Matt, and the hopelessness of everything, and felt like she would cry. She swallowed back the feeling. “Did you know?” she said finally. “About Matt, I mean, and Delaney.”
“I heard a rumor,” Nat said carefully. “But I didn’t believe it.”
“I heard she . . . with him . . .” Heather couldn’t actually say the words. She knew she was probably a little prude, especially compared to Nat. She was embarrassed about it and proud of it at the same time: she just didn’t see what was so great about fooling around. “At the frigging Arboretum.”
“She’s a whore,” Nat said matter-of-factly. “Bet she gives him herpes. Or worse.”
“Worse than herpes?” Heather said doubtfully.
“Syphilis. Turns you into a nutter. Puts holes in the brain, swiss-cheese-style.”
Heather sometimes forgot that Nat could always make her laugh. “I hope not,” she said. She managed to smile. “He wasn’t that smart to begin with. I don’t think he has a lot of brain to spare.”
“You hope so, you mean.” Nat mimed holding up a glass. “To Delaney’s syphilis.”
“You’re crazy,” Heather said, but she was laughing full-on now.
Nat ignored her. “May it turn Matt Hepley’s brain to delicious, gooey cheese.”
“Amen,” Heather said, and raised her arm.
“Amen.” They pretended to clink.
Heather stood up again and moved to the door. Dodge was still not back; she wondered what he was doing.
“Do you think—” Heather took a deep breath. “Do you think anyone will ever love me?”
“I love you,” Nat said. “Bishop loves you. Your mom loves you.” Heather made a face, and Nat said, “She does, Heathbar, in her own way. And Lily loves you too.”
“You guys don’t count,” Heather said. Then, realizing how that sounded, she giggled. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Nat said.
After a pause, Heather said, “I love you, too, you know. I’d be a basket case without you. I mean it. I’d be carted off and, I don’t know, drawing aliens in my mashed potatoes by now.”
“I know,” Nat said.
Heather felt as if all the years of their lives together, their friendship, were welling up there, in the dark: the time they’d practiced kissing on Nat’s mom’s sofa cushions; the first time they’d ever smoked a cigarette and Heather had puked; all the secret texts in classes, fingers moving under the desk and behind their textbooks. All of it was hers, hers and Nat’s, and all those years were nestled inside them like one of those Russian dolls, holding dozens of tiny selves inside it.
Heather turned to Nat, suddenly breathless.
“Let’s split the money,” she blurted out.
“What?” Nat blinked.
“If one of us wins, let’s split it.” Heather realized, as soon as she said it, that she was right. “Fifty-fifty. Thirty grand can still buy a lot of gas, you know.”
For a second, Nat just stared at her. Then she said, “All right. Fifty-fifty.” Nat laughed. “Should we shake on it? Or pinkie swear?”
“I trust you,” Heather said.
Dodge returned at last. “It’s clear,” he said.
Heather and Dodge supported Nat between them, and together they made their way underneath the water towers and into the clearing that had so recently been packed with people. Now the only evidence of the crowd was the trash left behind: stamped-out cigarette butts and joints, crushed beer cans, towels, a few umbrellas. The truck was still parked in the mud, but its engine was cut. Heather imagined the cops would bring out a tow for it later. The quiet was strange, and the whole scene felt weirdly creepy. It made Heather think that everyone had been spirited away into thin air.
Dodge gave a sudden shout. “Hold on a second,” he said, and left Nat leaning on Heather. He moved several feet away and scooped something up from the ground—a portable cooler. Heather saw, when he angled his cell phone light onto it, that it still contained ice and beer.
“Jackpot,” Dodge said. He smiled for the first time all night.
He took the cooler with them, and when they reached Route 22, made a makeshift ice pack for Nat’s ankle. There were three beers left, one for each of them, and they drank together on the side of the road, in the rain, while they waited for the bus to come. Nat got giggly after just a few sips, and she and Dodge joked about smoking a cigarette to make the bus come faster, and Heather knew she should be happy.
But Bishop’s phone was still going straight to voice mail. Matt and Delaney were probably cozy and warm and dry somewhere together. And she kept remembering being high in the air, teetering on the flimsy wooden plank, and the itch in the soles of her feet, telling her to jump.
