Recap
Elizabeth’s boyfriend Liam ignores her at the football game. Elizabeth knows people are talking about their recent fight. She expects things to get worse before they get better due to an unnamed secret. Her best friend, Jordan, leaves and Elizabeth meets Mason, Jordan’s older brother, and accepts a ride.
Nine Years Earlier
Elizabeth leaned back in her seat. In front of her, the hood of Mason’s car was black and shiny and rippled with color. First, the ripple was red. Then it was green.
Mason shifted through the intersection and cut in and out of traffic until there was nothing in front of them but empty pavement. “So,” he said. “What happened with you and the jock?”
“You shouldn’t call him that,” she said, looking out the window. “You played football, too.”
“But it wasn’t who I was.” He smiled a little. “Was it?”
“Not really.”
Because Mason was always Mason McKenna first and everything else second. Unlike the rest of them.
Mason made a turn, and they were on Main Street, the big houses with their tall white columns bright and cheerful in the deepening darkness. “So tell me what happened.”
He’d heard about the fight, obviously. You couldn’t take a breath in Madison without somebody making it a thing.
“I guess the grapevine’s still working,” she said. “I was afraid it might have malfunctioned.”
“Oh, it’s working all right. I hear something about you almost every day.”
All unflattering, she was sure. “Like what?”
“Different things. Today, it was about Liam yelling at you in the parking lot outside the high school.”
He’d heard every detail, probably. Like everyone.
Half the school had seen Liam tell her to shut up and get in the car, even though she hadn’t said a word in her own defense. And then they’d seen them take off, tires squealing.
“There’s a couple of videos too,” Mason added. “On social media.”
Mason turned right onto the interstate. At this time of night, the highway was almost deserted, the pavement ghost gray between the dark ditches and wide fields of corn. She leaned back against the headrest and watched it stream by.
Elizabeth wondered if he was actually worried about her. The thought was so foreign, there was almost no emotion attached to it. “Why do you care what happened?”
“I want to know if he found out about us. For starters.”
Because it had to be about him and Theresa. Elizabeth was completely irrelevant, but Theresa was some precious thing that had to be protected, whatever the cost. It made Elizabeth almost happy that the truth was about to explode. She hoped they all got blown to bits by it.
“Well,” Mason said. “Did he?”
She had no idea what would happen if she told Mason the truth, but she wasn’t about to take the chance. “No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I was there.”
He was quiet. Trying to figure out if she was lying.
Elizabeth had never been much of a liar, but the last fifteen months of sneaking around with Mason had taught her the basics. The worst thing you could do was fill in the blanks.
So Elizabeth resisted the urge.
“Why was he mad?” Mason asked.
Elizabeth knew she had to say something. If she didn’t, he would keep asking her until she broke. So she decided to tell him about the last fight she and Liam had instead of this one.
“I got drunk at Tina Smith’s party. You remember Tina?” she asked, leaning on her West Virginia accent because she knew he liked it. “Little, stocky girl with short blond hair? She used to come over to study with me and Jordan?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“Well, she had a party a couple of weeks ago, and one of Liam’s friends gave me a ride home.”
“And?”
“I think I let him kiss me. That’s what the friend said, anyway. I was pretty drunk, but I kind of remember doing it, so it’s probably true.”
Mason was quiet for a good ten seconds. “I think Liam’s a punk, Lizzie, you know that. But I’ve gotta side with him on this one.”
Like everyone. Everyone always sided with Liam, but nobody knew what Liam was really like. “He said I was a slut and that he didn’t even know why he was with me.”
“He said that in front of everyone?”
“He said it after.” She looked at Mason out of the corner of her eye. “I guess that’s okay, then.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She shrugged. “It’s what everyone thinks, anyway.” She put her window down and slouched in the seat so she could see the stars. There were too many to count. “It’s what you think, too. You don’t even want to be seen with me.”
“Because I have a girlfriend.”
“Oh, well, that’s different, then.”
“And I don’t think anyone’s better than you. I never have.”
She was still looking up. The farther you got from town, the darker the sky. The stars were the same, obviously, but they looked brighter out here because of the contrast. “But some people are better, Mason. You know that.”
“Come on, Lizzie. You make me feel like a jerk when you talk that way.”
“Do I?” She turned her head to look at him. “I’m sorry. That must be really hard for you.”
He smiled. “If you want to fight with someone, I can drop you off at Liam’s.”
But she didn’t want Liam. She wasn’t sure she ever had, really, but he’d asked to Homecoming junior year and she’d said yes.
Like anyone would have.
And it had made sense then.
Because everybody had a boyfriend, and Elizabeth was used to pretending.
And that was the thing about Mason. She didn’t have to pretend to like. She just did.
It was of the reasons she’d gone after him, even though she was with Liam.
They rode through the darkness without saying anything. They were almost at the lake. Big surprise. Mason was taking her back to the cabin.
“I thought we were talking,” she said.
“We are.” He turned right off the exit. “We’re talking on our way to the cabin.”
But they didn’t really talk anymore
Which was about the best they did.
It wasn’t that Mason wouldn’t listen. If she started info-dumping about Book Hunters or Shyla Perry’s latest song or whatever Gothic novel she was currently reading, he would let her talk. But the time he had to spend with her was limited and it seemed that there was less and less of it as he settled into adult life. Doing things with his and Theresa’s family. Working with his dad. Leaving high school behind.
So they had to pick. Sex or friendship. And it said a lot about both of them, probably, that they picked sex. Every single time.
“What if I don’t want to go?” she asked.
“I’ll turn around.”
They were on the old state road now. The headlights bounced off the trees. Beyond that, the forest was dark.
“Do you want me to turn around, Elizabeth?”
She had to smile, just a little. “Shut up.”
“So what happened after you got into his car?” Mason asked. “All I got was the parking lot version.”
“Nothing.” She kept her voice even. Another lie heaped onto a mountain so high that if anything shifted by as much as an inch, there would be an avalanche—and they would all suffocate under the weight.
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