We used to go to Justin’s lake house, especially with his brothers home—they didn’t go too far when they left for school. Most of us didn’t. But Maya and her mom were in that house now, and apparently her brother, too. Kevin asked if she could have a party, and she looked at him like he was the biggest moron on the planet. He kind of was.

  I didn’t really have plans, and I didn’t see Delaney in the parking lot after school, so I went back to her house, hoping to catch her there—but instead ended up doing homework, alone, in the dining room. So when Justin’s car (full of Justin and his brothers) honked and then honked again outside Delaney’s, I went. I was looking for Delaney—since she hadn’t been at home, I figured she was here. At the school gym. But it didn’t look like we were here to stay. We were on a people-gathering mission. We gathered Kevin, who gathered Maya, who had her phone pressed to her ear. And Kyle, Justin’s oldest brother, gathered Janna, who turned red, but she said, “This sucks anyway,” and came with us.

  “Is that Delaney?” I asked, pointing to Maya’s phone, but she shook her head, barely glancing at me.

  “Have you seen her?” And this time I touched her arm so she’d pay attention.

  She jerked away from me, cupped her hand over the phone. “Yes, I’ve seen her.”

  “Here?” We were heading outside, and I scanned the crowd behind us. She said a few words into her phone and hung up.

  “Decker, if she doesn’t feel like telling you where she is, I’m sure as hell not going to tell you.”

  She was right. I took out my cell phone and listened to it ring. Maya was watching me as Justin’s brothers tried to convince Tara to come with us, but it didn’t look like she was interested. I was standing in the middle of the gymnasium with a phone pressed to my ear, turning in a circle, trying to find Delaney.

  It went to voice mail, and Maya leaned closer. “You just missed her.”

  “You could’ve just told me that,” I said.

  “She’s my friend,” she said. “And you’re fucking with her.”

  “I’m not fucking with her, I’m—”

  “Save it. You don’t speak to her. You don’t look at her. But you can’t leave her alone. You’re torturing her,” she said, and I flinched. “And I don’t get it, I mean, what did she even do? She won’t tell me. I know there’s not anyone else yet.”

  Yet?

  “Maya, please tell me where she is.”

  We were out in the cold, moving as a group, and I had to walk fast to keep up with her. “She’s meeting up with my brother, apparently.”

  I stopped walking, and Maya had to turn around. “What?” I asked.

  “Wow, Decker, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re jealous.”

  “What the hell is she doing with your brother?” I asked, ignoring the accusation.

  She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at me. “Why do you care?”

  She kept walking, falling into step with Kevin. “Shit,” I mumbled, and called Delaney’s number again. When she didn’t pick up again, I sent her a text: Going to clearing. You should come.

  Ten minutes later Maya was sitting across from me, on the hood of Kevin’s spare car, laughing at a joke. I kept staring at my phone, willing Delaney to respond. We were behind the parking lot, behind the field house that I’d painted over—there’s a makeshift road in case people need to transport equipment—right at the edge of the woods. There was something calming about this, about being with the same people I’d known my entire life. Plus Maya. Plus flasks. I’d be calmer if Delaney would show up.

  Maya was practically sitting on Kevin’s lap, laughing at something he said to her.

  I put an arm around Janna, who was sitting unnaturally close. Not because she wanted to claim me or anything, more because she wanted to be as far away from Justin as possible. She was practically clinging to me. And judging by the way his brothers were looking at her, they knew why.

  “He has such a big mouth,” she mumbled.

  “In his defense, you weren’t exactly discreet.”

  With my free hand, I pressed the Call button again and held the phone to my ear.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked, but I held up a finger until I got Delaney’s voice mail again. Janna leaned across my lap to see the phone as I turned it off. “Tell me you’re not obsessively calling your ex-girlfriend.”

  “Okay, I’m not obsessively calling my ex-girlfriend.”

  She rolled her eyes, grabbed it from my hand, and stuffed it in her bag. “I’m doing you a favor,” she said.

  “Janna …”

  But she held her bag out to the other side, away from me.

  Kyle stood up and handed his flask to Janna. “Little Levine, all grown up,” he said, shaking his head and grinning at her. She blushed, refusing to make eye contact, then took a sip from the flask and passed it to me. Then she said, “This is funny, right?” And giggled.

  “Is she drunk already?” Kevin asked.

  No, I was pretty sure she was just about to flip out on someone. I was also pretty sure it wasn’t me. I shrugged at Kevin. Janna stood in the middle of us all, closer to Justin than she’d been since Boston, and said, “Your brothers are very proud of you, huh?”

  Justin looked at the hood of the car. He was trying not to smile.

  “But if my brother were here, he’d kick your ass.” And then she laughed once more—at least I thought it was a laugh. Justin stopped smiling, and Kevin took a giant swig and said, “Shit.” And the place fell silent.

  I stood up, raised the flask, and said, “To Carson Levine, who right this second would be kicking Justin’s ass.” Then I tipped the flask over, watched as the liquid ran across the dirt, disappeared beneath the grass. Imagined, for a moment, Carson smiling. Laughing at us. Saying, “It’s about damn time, motherfuckers.”

  “To kicking Justin’s ass,” Kevin added, dumping his flask over as well. Then he looked at Janna and grinned. “I’m sorry we dropped the ball on this.” He handed the empty flask to Maya, stood, and cracked his neck.

  “Stand up,” he said to Justin. Kevin was grinning. Justin groaned. He slid off the hood of the car way too slowly. Kevin hooked him around the neck and dragged him to the center of the circle and took a cheap shot at his gut.

  “Dude, that hurt,” he said. But the side of his mouth quirked up.

  Kevin hit him once more, then cracked his knuckles against the side of his leg.

  Janna looked at me, eyebrows raised.

  “Janna,” I said, “I kicked his ass that night.”

  Kevin smiled. “It’s true.” Janna laughed and wiped her thumb under her eyes.

  “Your turn, Janna,” Kevin said, holding Justin’s arms from behind. “For Carson.” She waltzed up and decked him in the stomach, harder than Kevin had. Justin winced and coughed. And then she walked closer, stood on her toes, and kissed him on the mouth.

  “She’s definitely drunk,” Kyle said, laughing. Even Maya was smiling. Kevin went back to her and whispered something in her ear, something that was meant for her alone, and she smiled some more.

  I grabbed Janna’s bag, looking for my phone.

  We didn’t hear them coming.

  “Not to break up the lovefest …” Justin and Janna pulled apart. We were surrounded by a group of alumni, smiling at us. “It’s time,” the big guy said. Lance Cooper. Quarterback half a lifetime ago. He never missed a homecoming.

  He used to go to parties, according to Justin’s brothers, but it got seriously creepy as he got closer and closer to thirty. I’d figured he’d moved away since I hadn’t seen him around in a while. But here he was.

  I froze, and I think everyone else did, too. Even Justin’s brothers, who weren’t here last year when everything happened, knew enough to know that this part wouldn’t go over well.

  This part being the part where the alumni drag the senior guys down to Falcon Lake as some sort of initiation into alumni-hood or something.

  “But …,” Justin said. I saw his throat move up and down as he swallowed. Wondered if any of us would have the guts to mention the curse. It sounded so ridiculous out loud, and I didn’t think any of us really believed it. Not individually. Not Janna—she was like Delaney, all brains and logic. And Kevin was just aloof. Justin was the only one scared enough that he might say something.

  “But what?” Lance said, homing in on Kevin. Kevin was the biggest. Kevin was the leader. Kevin would be his prize.

  I dropped Janna’s bag.

  “Oh hell,” Justin said, and he took off running. Kevin did, too.

  I’m not proud to admit I did the same.

  I may not be the biggest or the strongest, but I was definitely the fastest, and nobody was going to catch me. And nobody did. Not until I saw her, like a ghost in my peripheral vision, walking through the night like she was in a trance. Down to the fields surrounded by woods.

  I stopped running. “Delaney?” I called. She turned and cocked her head to the side. Then her eyes grew wide as she saw something behind me. I turned just in time to see two ex–football players converging from both sides. “Oh, shit,” I said. But it was too late. One took me down around the waist, and the air was temporarily knocked out of my lungs. I had this moment of panic where I couldn’t breathe and wondered if I’d be able to take a breath ever again. I wondered if this is what Delaney felt under the ice. I wondered that a lot.

  And then I was breathing again, and the guy who wasn’t lying on top of me said, “Don’t worry, pretty girl, we’ll return him to you in one piece.” Then recognition seemed to cross her face. Right, initiation. And then horror. Right, initiation. I saw her change directions and follow us back toward the parking lot. I was thrown in the back of a pickup truck next to Justin. Kevin followed shortly after. He tossed his keys to Maya, who was watching the whole scene with complete confusion. “The lake,” he said.

  I saw Delaney arguing for a second with Maya, then Maya shrugging and them both getting in the car. I saw their headlights shining on us as we drove to Falcon Lake.

  Chapter 12

  Janna was already there, standing beside Justin’s brothers, with a cheering crowd of alumni clumped together on the shore. A bunch of cars and trucks had their headlights on, their beams pointing at Falcon Lake. There were already a bunch of seniors dripping wet on the edge, looking pissed. But then someone dragged a keg down the hill, and soon they were holding plastic cups and looking not quite as pissed. Just wet.

  “Kevin Mulroy!” I heard as Lance dragged him out of the truck. Kevin waved and stuck his shoulders back, like he was in a freaking pageant. And then Lance dragged him into the water, pushed him down, and held him there as the crowd cheered. He pulled him up by the back of his shirt and Kevin shook his hair out. He looked around at the water for a second, then back to the shore and smiled.

  “Hey, babe,” he called to Maya as he high-stepped out of the water. But Maya did not run up to Kevin and lean into him, like she’d done the day he was in the dunk tank. She stared past him, at the dark water. I wondered if the curse could get a hold of her, too. How long it would take, living here, for you to sense something was off. For you to believe.

  “Decker Phillips!” And then Lance was dragging me into the water as well. I wasn’t scared of it. I’d been in it before. With Delaney. But it was cold and dark, and I couldn’t see anything, only the headlights shining in my eyes, reflecting off the water. And when he held me under, the calm left. I pictured her on the other side of the ice, trapped. And I started flailing my arms. I heard them splashing above me. He pulled me back up. “Easy there, cowboy.” I heard laughter. From him. From shore. I walked back toward the lights, looking for Delaney. Turned just in time to see Justin being dragged from the pickup.

  “Justin Baxter!”

  Justin, despite himself, resisted the whole way.

  “No,” I heard him say. He looked at Janna as he passed us, and she was biting her thumbnail. “Tell them,” he mouthed to her. “Don’t!” he yelled. But Lance kept pulling him, and everyone watched in horror as Justin screamed. This was a prank. This was initiation. He was acting like he was being murdered.

  Then he was under, and he was struggling, and Lance held him under even longer because of it. He pulled him back up and Justin was coughing. Gagging. Retching. He sulked over to the shore and said, “It’s in my fucking lungs.” And then he repeated, loud enough for everyone to hear, “It’s in my fucking lungs!”

  “Calm down,” I said.

  “Calm down? Calm down?”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Calm. Down. Tell him, Janna.”

  Janna reached for Justin’s hand and pulled him away from the edge. “I’m not going to lie to him,” she said.

  Which only set off his panic even more. “See? I’m not the only one who remembers. This place, it isn’t a joke.”

  “No, it’s not,” she whispered. Her eyes moved from Justin to me to Kevin. She looked at her feet, at the water lapping onto the heels of her shoes, and took a step closer to us. “There are towels. Follow me.”

  Kevin grabbed Maya’s wrist to pull her along. Tara was with some of her other friends, and she was eyeing Kevin from down the path. She was eyeing Maya and Kevin, specifically. She didn’t notice Lance behind her. Not at first.

  “You get hotter every year,” Lance said. He was dripping water, and he reached for her hair. She jerked back.

  “Don’t get me wet,” she said. “I’m cold.”

  Lance grinned and tugged her by the arm. Tara didn’t resist much, probably because we were all watching now. We were all about to watch her get dunked and stare at her as she stood there with her clothes clinging to her body, which had defied all rules of nature since she’d turned thirteen.

  Which, to be fair, was exactly why Lance was about to dunk her.

  And, to be fair, that was exactly why she was going to let him.

  She was grinning but dragging her heels, and she was squealing.

  They were up to their knees in the lake, and she said, “Holy shit, this is cold.”

  Their waists. “Wait,” she said.

  But Lance didn’t wait. He pushed her legs out from under her and pressed down on her shoulders until she disappeared under the surface. Lance smiled and let her up right away. She busted out of the water, flung back her hair, and pushed him. Hard. He fell back, under the water, and a cheer erupted from the shore. Tara stood there with a giant smile and clothes clinging and everyone staring, and she curtsied.

  Tara was almost back to shore, walking toward us. I wondered if she could feel Kevin’s eyes on her. I could feel his eyes on her. And from the change in Maya’s posture, so could she. Lance dragged himself out of the water and said, “Tara Spano, please tell me you’re eighteen now.”

  She put a hand on her hip, turned to face him, and said, “Only if you round up.”

  Then she turned to me, stuck her tongue out like she was gagging, and mouthed the word, “Yuck.”

  “Too bad I suck at math,” Lance said, leering at Tara.

  I walked up and slung my arm around Tara’s shoulder. “Too bad she’s taken,” I said.

  As we walked away, I let my arm fall off her, but she bumped her shoulder against mine as we walked to the pickup trucks with the towels. “Thanks,” she said. “He’s gross.”

  She started rubbing her hair with a towel, and I had to actively remind myself not to look down. Kevin obviously didn’t remind himself. Maya was probably pissed. No, Maya wasn’t paying attention at all. She was staring at the water, her arms wrapped around herself, shivering like she’d just been dunked.

  “I’m probably breaking guy code right now,” I said, “but if you want Kevin back …”

  “I don’t want Kevin back,” she said. She pulled another towel over her shirt, and I rubbed her upper arms as she shivered. I was also shivering.

  “Sure seems like …”

  “There’s a difference,” she said, shrugging me off, “between wanting someone and wanting someone to be jealous.” She turned away from me, keeping herself covered with the towel. Then she looked at me over her shoulder. “You of all people should know that.”

  I hadn’t been trying to make Delaney jealous. “Tara, that’s not what I—”

  “Oh, please,” she said. “It’s not like I care.” She turned around. “I’m glad we’re friends,” she said. “I mean it. It’s nice to have someone you can count on to save you from sleazy old guys.”

  “Intense,” Kevin said, walking toward us. Tara flipped her hair again. I expected Maya to roll her eyes, but she was staring at her phone.

  “Has anyone seen my brother?” she asked, keeping her eyes on her phone.

  “Has anyone seen Delaney?” I asked, not caring that I was being totally obvious. I stood in the back of the pickup truck and scanned the crowd around the lake, searching for her.

  Maya scanned the crowd, too. “Or maybe he did see my message.”

  “Excuse me?” I said.

  She shrugged. “He was on his way to meet Delaney. But she got … sidetracked.” She narrowed her eyes at me, like she hated that Delaney still cared. That I wasn’t worth it. “I told him we were heading to the lake.” She looked toward her house, and I did the same. It was hidden in darkness.

  “I don’t get why he would want to meet Delaney,” I said.

  She put her finger on her lips as she assessed me. Assessed what to say, I guess. “Why wouldn’t he? Is there some reason I’m not allowed to introduce her to Holden, Decker?”

  She walked around the truck with Kevin. I saw his wet shirt on the ground. Heard her laugh.