Chapter one
My heart is racing, my knees, shaking and barely able to hold me up. I look down over the edge of the rock at the water below. The distance, roughly 60 feet, between myself and the water seems much, much further from this point of view. Realizing that it’s the only choice I have, I reluctantly close my eyes and jump.
The sudden sound of my ringing phone snatches me out of my dream, pulling me back into reality. As thankful as I am to be back in my bed, my heart is still racing as I fumble around the bed searching for my phone in the tangled sheets around me.
“Hello?” My voice cracks, giving away the fact that I’ve overslept.
“I figured you’d oversleep!” Shaye’s voice chirps from the other end of the line. “Call me after you’ve had coffee.”
“Thanks, Shaye.” I groan, and we both hang up.
Shaye has been my best friend since the second day of third grade. Our class was at the playground during recess. The merry-go-round was apparently only for the most popular kids to play on, unbeknownst to me. Noticing it was empty, I grabbed the bar and started to run with it to get it spinning.
Before I could jump on, someone grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me down to the ground. Standing above me were two girls, one of which informed me that I wasn’t allowed to ride the merry-go-round because I wasn’t cool enough.
Out of nowhere, a very small blonde headed girl with unruly curls came storming over with her hands on her hips. Once she made it over to where we were, she folded her arms in front of her and shifted all of her weight to one hip.
“I saw you push her down!” She nodded her head, gesturing towards me as I was picking myself up off the ground and dusting the dirt off of my pants.
“You don’t own the merry-go-round!” She pointed her finger at them. “If you do that again, I’m telling!” She gave them one final glare through squinted eyes, and pursed her lips. Then she turned around and asked me if I wanted to be her best friend, and we’ve basically been attached at the hip ever since.
I drag myself out of bed, not looking forward to the week ahead of me. As if losing my grandfather and grandmother six months apart weren’t hard enough, my father handed me the key to their lake house the day after my grandfather’s funeral.
Up until I started college two years ago, I spent every summer there. Shaye started coming with me soon after we met, staying as long as her parents would allow her to.
My final week at the lake house will be spent cleaning it out and preparing to sell it, only this time I’ll be alone instead of having my group of friends with me. Even though we skipped the last two summers here, I don’t have the heart to tell them that I’m selling it to buy a new house across the country where my boss offered me a much higher paying position at the new firm.
I gather a bag with some clothes in it, tossing in a swimsuit just in case I decide to swim while I’m there. I pack light, remembering the dresser full of clothes that I already have there. I don’t bother packing any cleaning supplies.
As I’m walking out the door, my phone rings.
Crap. I fumble around with the key as I hurry and finish locking the door behind me, drop my bag to the ground, and snatch my phone from my pocket.
It’s Shaye.
“I thought you were gonna call me back, heiffer!”
“Sorry, I got busy and it slipped my mind.”
“Listen, I know you said you wanna go alone and all, but to be honest with you, that sounds…sad.” She says.
Not wanting to tell her the truth yet, I lied to Shaye and told her I wanted to spend the week alone at the lake house as a way of saying a final farewell to my grandparents.
“You sure you don’t want me to come along and keep you company?” She asks.
“As tempting as it sounds, I think I should take the trip solo this time,” I lie.
Being alone for a week sounds like hell, but I’m not ready to tell her about me moving away yet. So I save it for another day.
“Okay then. Suit yourself!” She says, giving up a little too easily compared to her normal self.
That’s odd.
I grab my bag and throw it in the car, brushing off her abnormal behavior.
