Page 71 of The Last Thing You Said

“What?” I say again.

“She doesn’t come to the house anymore. She barely says two words to us anytime she sees us. Today I saw her and Emily leaving the library, and when I waved at them, she pretended not to see me.”

Dad jumps in. “And I’ve seen how the two of you are at the resort. You can barely stand to be in the same room.”

“What happened?” Mum reaches across the table for my hand, and her tone is so gentle, so concerned, that it almost breaks me.

“Nothing happened.” This is one of those moments that calls for anything but the truth. “She was Trixie’s friend, not mine.”

They don’t need to know what I did, what I said.

Dad clears his throat. “But we see that things—like your drinking—have gotten worse since school ended and you’ve—you’ve been around Lucy more.”

I suck in a breath.

“And then—after Lucy went missing—” Mum starts, but I cut her off.

“She didn’t go missing. She went to South Dakota. Big difference.” I don’t know why I say it.

“You’ve been so angry all summer, Ben,” Mum says in her soothing voice. “And with Trixie’s anniversary coming up—” Her voice breaks into a sob. “We miss Lulu, too, Ben, and we can’t help but wonder if something happened between the two of you that has—well, has kept her away from us. We’d love to see her again.”

Shit.

It’s all I can do not to get up and walk away. I could do it. It’s only five or six miles to Guthrie’s house.

But it’s Mum’s birthday. I won’t. Not today.

I’ve got to figure out a way to get them to stop talking. I couldn’t lie to her about the drinking, but I lied to her when I said nothing happened between Lucy and me. I can lie to her again.

“I’ll talk to her.” The lie slips out, and it’s surprisingly easy to keep going with it. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it, whatever it is.”

Mum looks at me for a long time and tears pool in her eyes. She knows I’m lying. “Promise me, Ben. She lost her best friend.”

Fuckall, she can’t ask me to promise.

“Why are you so worried about Lucy?” I can’t mask my anger. “So we’re not friends anymore. Let it go!”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Now the tears slip down her cheeks. “What if it had been Lucy instead of Trixie? How would Trixie have felt?”

Now I do it. I push away from the table. I don’t want to listen to this anymore.

“Ben.” Dad’s voice is low, quiet. “Don’t.”

I take a deep breath. I won’t. I won’t do this to Mum on her birthday, at the Twenty-Seven Club, where we’ve had so many good times as a family. I sit back down.

“I’m sorry, Mum.” I look down at my plate of food.

“And the drinking?” Mum says. “Please. I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to you, too.”

I nod. It’s the best I can do. I’m all out of promises.

38 · Lucy

I wake in the night to loud cracks of thunder and the telephone ringing.

I sit up, my heart pounding. No one calls us on the landline except my grandparents.

Something is very wrong.