The Dead and the Dark(34)

“You’re helping him?”

“Okay, I’m watching him build a computer. My moral support means a lot to him.”

“You’re responsible,” Alejo sighed. “I know you’ll be fine. Just … make sure you have a way home. Don’t stay out too late. And if you need help, please call me.”

“I will,” Logan said. She hesitated. “Dad?”

Alejo looked up.

“Thanks for telling me. About the ghosts and all that.”

“Oh. Well, you know you can ask me anything.” Alejo took a long drink of his coffee. “Have fun at your party.”





15


The Cabin In The Woods


“You’re kidding.”

Ashley killed the engine on the Ford and slumped back in her seat. She’d expected to pick up Logan singular at the Bates on the way out to the cabin. She hadn’t expected Logan to emerge from the Bates with a duo of creepy nerds that she had apparently befriended in the last week. Even after twelve years of going to the same school, Ashley doubted she’d ever spoken a word to either Elexis Carrillo or Nick Porter. They were just the guys who always smelled like Cheetos and Red Bull in math class and she was not walking into the cabin with them. As they climbed into the back seat, Logan leaned into the passenger-side window with a wine-colored grin. “Hope you don’t mind I brought a plus one. Or two, I guess.”

“Where’d you find the strays?” Ashley hissed.

“Don’t be a bully,” Logan said.

Ashley leaned across the truck and whispered, “I said you were invited.”

“And I decided I didn’t wanna hang out by myself with a bunch of people that write slurs about my dads.” Logan shook her hair from under the collar of her jean jacket. “Besides, you should be nicer. They have nothing but nice things to say about you.”

Ashley grimaced.

Logan, Elexis, and Nick all climbed into the Ford and Ashley got a good look at the three of them. Logan looked like a character from a movie, dressed in a short black dress with a denim jacket and a face full of makeup. She was the type of person who arrived in a limo, not a thirty-year-old truck. Ashley suddenly regretted not explaining what these parties were like. They weren’t even really parties. A feeling somewhere between awe and embarrassment welled in Ashley’s chest.

“Thanks for the ride, Ashley,” Nick said from the back seat.

“Yeah, thanks Ashley,” Elexis echoed.

Ashley pried her grimace into a forced smile. It’d only been thirty seconds and her truck smelled like Mountain Dew. Elexis Carrillo wore his signature gray beanie and a flannel that was too tight for his arms, probably because he’d been wearing the same one since middle school. Nick Porter was in a hoodie with the Captain America shield in the center. He looked at her longer than she was comfortable with.

“Uh yeah, no problem,” Ashley said.

“Elexis,” Elexis said. He gestured to Nick. “This is Nick.”

Ashley’s smile was tight. “I know your names.”

“Oh, you all hang out a lot?” Logan asked with no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice.

“Not really,” Ashley said. “But you two are always welcome.”

“We were never invited,” Nick said, matter-of-fact.

Logan gasped. “The drama.”

Ashley shot Logan another warning look. She was sure Logan had just invited them as revenge for being left at the Chokecherry, which Ashley guessed was fair. But still.

Logan returned her look with a knowing smile. The stabbing yellow light of the motel sign made the shadows on her face deeper and darker, blending into the sharp wings of her eyeliner. Her hair was down tonight, straightened to her shoulders, and Ashley was struck again by the otherness of her. Logan Ortiz-Woodley wasn’t the kind of person who ended up in Snakebite. She wasn’t the kind of person you’d find slouched in the worn passenger seat of Ashley’s truck.

“You’re staring,” Logan said.

Ashley turned the ignition and the truck rattled to life. “You’re making me look underdressed.”

“I don’t think so.” Logan glanced at Ashley’s legs, then pulled down the passenger-side mirror to wipe away a stray bit of lipstick. “Your shorts are cute.”

Ashley smiled. She’d gone with her standard fare: a black tank top, denim shorts, and a flannel around her waist in case they ended up outside. She mostly thought of it as practical, but Tristan had always said she looked cute.

Guilt knotted in her stomach.

They drove out of town on the lakeside highway. The evening sky was the color of bruised knuckles as night crept in. The still lake glimmered white with moonlight, holding up the jagged black hills on the other shore. Orange blips of campfire radiated from the campground across the water, but it was all worlds away.

Ashley cleared her throat. Quietly, to Logan, she said, “So, the cabin … I asked my mom about it.”

“What did Tammy say?” Logan asked, tapping idly at her phone.

“I found out who owns it—technically, we do.” She waited for Logan to look up. “My grandma bought the land from the state, like, twenty years ago? She wanted my mom to turn it into a resort, but my mom didn’t think it would make any money. She let some family build on the property back in the nineties.”