From Bad to Cursed

“No,” I said. “Why?”

“Because Carter’s parked out front, and I thought you might have forgotten. You know how he’s too polite to honk.”

I glanced at the clock.

It was 7:20. Twenty minutes earlier than when we usually left.

I knocked on the bathroom door, and Kasey stuck her head out.

“I have to go to school early,” I said. “Tell Megan, okay?”

She nodded, curious but wordless.

I couldn’t find my cell phone, but I didn’t have time to look for it. I grabbed my book bag and walked slowly across the street to Carter’s silent car. He hurried to open the door for me, then gave me a kiss on the cheek. He made happy small talk the whole ride to school, but I could hardly hear it over the commotion of my own thoughts.

When we pulled into the parking lot, I reached for my door and unlocked it.

He reached down and hit the lock button again.

I didn’t want to make too big of a deal out of it, so I looked out the windshield at the school building.

“I’m just curious,” he said. “Who’s Jared Elkins?”

“What?”

“Jared Elkins?” he said, taking my cell phone out of his pocket. “You talked to him Friday night for ten minutes. Which is weird, because…you wouldn’t answer when I called.”

“You took my phone?”

“Who is he, Lex?”

Every muscle, every cell in my body was on high alert. “He’s from the photography contest,” I said. “He’s nobody.”

“Nobody,” Carter said, pressing his lips together.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, then Carter relaxed.

“I believe you,” he said, smiling and unlocking the door.

I grabbed my phone, half expecting him to close his hand over it. But he didn’t. He let it go easily.

“Carter…what’s going on with you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fantastic, because I’m here with you.” I flinched as he reached his hand up to caress my cheek, smiling his relaxed smile. “It’s no big deal, Lex. I just wondered.”

“Wow.” Megan had listened with wide, sympathetic eyes. Then she took a bite of her salad and gave me a half-cringing smile. “Well, Lex…you did kind of talk to that guy after blowing Carter off.”

I sat back.

“Think about it. He spends all that money to buy you this super-expensive gift. And you won’t answer the phone when he calls?” She stared at the veneer of the cafeteria table. “I think you might actually owe him an apology.”

“That’s”—I tried to think of a word that was strong enough yet still within the boundaries of politeness—“nuts.”

“Is it?” she asked, her voice cooling. She sat back and patted her hair. “Why don’t you think about it this way? What would Aralt want you to do?”

What would Aralt want? “He would want me to not be totally freaked out by my boyfriend.”

“Yes,” Megan said. “And how do you do that?”

I stared at her. I had no idea—aside from breaking up with Carter. Talking hadn’t worked, although he had, at my request, sat with his guy friends at lunch that day.

“Easy, Lex.” She poked the air with the tines of her fork. “You focus on making yourself a better girlfriend.”

I blew a puff of air out of my nose.

“Don’t be like that,” she said. “You don’t even know how lucky you are. He adores you. He’s, like, totally obsessed with you. Just look at him.”

I swung my head around in the direction of Carter’s table.

He was sitting in the very middle of the group. But all he was doing was staring directly at me.

AT THE MONDAY afternoon meeting, I avoided eye contact with Tashi. I felt Kasey’s presence in the corner of the room like a splinter; suddenly I wondered how I’d never noticed how foreign she was, how different.

As I expected, I got called out in Betterment for Friday night’s wardrobe malfunction. Megan got called out too, for speaking disrespectfully to her grandmother in public.

As soon as we got home, I closed myself off in my bedroom while Kasey went to study—since she had to, obviously. I dodged a couple of phone calls from Carter and ate silently enough to attract my parents’ concerned attention. I mumbled an excuse about cramps, and hid out in my room afterward while they watched some lame reality show.

I couldn’t get that thirty-year-old picture of Tashi out of my mind.

Just as the stars were begi

My mother asked if it was safe to walk alone at night. I’ll be fine, said the voice. “I’ll be fine,” I said. And then no one tried to stop me. I headed down the front steps and farther into the white maw of Silver Sage Acres.

A Sunshine Club girl would never hurt another Sunshine Club girl.

I repeated that to myself, almost like a mantra, all the way to Tashi’s house.

But as I walked up to the door of #133, my whole body thrummed with adrenaline.

My heart sank in my chest. All the lights were off.

I rang the doorbell anyway, just to be sure.

After giving it another minute, I turned to go.

Then I stopped. Tashi said her house had the same layout as mine.

Which meant hers also had that one window in the back where you could knock the latch open by hip-checking it just right. We had it. The Munyons had it. In fact, Mrs. Munyon was the one who taught me how to do it, the time I locked myself out.

I started for the side gate.

My heart slammed against my rib cage, but I told myself, over and over: We don’t get caught. We don’t get caught. We don’t get caught. Fortunately, to give some semblance of privacy, the fences were tall and solid, so none of the neighbors would see me sneaking around.

I gave the window a healthy bump, and the latch came unfastened. I opened it and hesitated.

If there was an alarm system, I could end up in jail. And if Tashi really was some kind of supernatural being and found out I knew her secrets…it might mean something worse than jail. Sunshine Club rules or no.

I swung my leg inside. But as soon as I got through the window, I felt the magnitude of my mistake.

The house was empty.

I mean, someone clearly lived there, but not in the conventional sense. Even the most basic situation would involve some type of furniture—a ratty La-Z-Boy, a mouse-infested couch.…But where my family had a couch and loveseat and entertainment center and coffee table and a couple of potted plants, here there was only a small piano against the far wall.

Other than that…nothing.

One of the kitchen lights was on, casting a dim glow on the counter. Sitting on the tile was Tashi’s red and white flag from the football game.

Forget the lies about her mother holding di

I went farther into the room, flinching as my footsteps echoed off the bare walls. A quick trip around the kitchen revealed more of the same barre

I opened the fridge and recoiled. It was packed full of protein shakes, giant blocks of cheese, and meat—every imaginable kind of meat. Whole chickens, steaks, slabs of ribs, tubes of ground beef, a dozen bulk packages of hot dogs, half-full deli containers of tuna salad, all wedged in like Tetris blocks.

More food than my family could eat in a month.

I shut the door and wandered out of the kitchen toward the darkness of the hall.

The first bedroom was empty. The second bedroom was empty.

The master bedroom door was closed.

I cranked the knob and pushed the door open.

In a horror movie, this room would have been draped in black velvet and lit by a thousand dripping, flickering candles. There would be an altar in the center of the room and shelves full of potions and evil talismans.