The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(94)

“It’s unquestionably entertaining,” the woman continued, “but, considering this is a very recent event, it seems—to me, at least—in poor taste. Could you speak to that a bit?”

Janine gripped the microphone, stunned. “Of course,” she said. “This is definitely not a hor—”

“I don’t see it like that at all,” a skinny dude wearing a suit vest over a T-shirt stood up to say. “I see this film as a tribute to those deaths, as a heightened metaphor for what they went through. And honestly, I think it’s a beautiful achievement.”

As some other people shouted their agreement, the whole room began to applaud again, and Janine’s stomach dropped. She and Donna stared at each other in horrified disbelief.

Nobody in the audience thought it was real.

Well, that’s not true. Janine locked eyes for a moment with GamGam, whose cheeks had gone an ashen gray. She knew it wasn’t pretend.

“Come on, stand up, you two!” the emcee said. “Take a bow, you deserve it!”

Completely overwhelmed, Janine and Donna tried to let the moment pass, but it was no use.

They got to their feet and took an awkward bow as the applause continued.



* * *



—

“I DON’T KNOW if I’m ready,” Alicia said, standing in between Rex and Leif, staring down at the slow-moving water of the Cape Fear River.

“We totally get it,” Rex said, hands in the pockets of his Hornets Starter jacket. “We can just go somewhere else.”

“Yeah,” Leif said. “Definitely.”

The Triumvirate was attempting to make their way to the tiny island, where they could sit and talk and pretend things were just as they’d always been, that their lives hadn’t been irrevocably changed by what they’d been through.

This was not their first attempt.

Alicia had, unsurprisingly, developed an aversion to water. Thankfully, this spot was upstream from where Bleak Creek emptied into the river, so they could at least avoid contact with the tainted waters of Bleak Creek Spring (waters they were avoiding as much as possible these days, taking fewer showers and never drinking from the tap).

“No,” she said now, a cool November breeze blowing past them, “I need to get over this. Leif can do it; I should be able to too.”

“Yeah,” Leif said, “but I was in the spring for barely any time compared to you. And I was totally freaked to go back into water at first. It would make sense that it would take you longer because—”

Alicia grabbed Leif’s hand, and his heart jolted in his chest.

Over the past couple months, there had been no hugs, no playful shoves, no half nelsons, no physical contact whatsoever. Leif knew that was to be expected, as Alicia had gone through an extraordinary trauma—and he also knew how selfish it was to be wondering about her feelings for him in the midst of everything else she was dealing with—but it still hurt.

To feel her skin touching his was electrifying, like a flashback to a better time.

The spark faded as Leif watched Alicia grab Rex’s hand, too.

“We’ll go at the same time,” she said. “Okay?”

“Yep,” Rex said.

“Just say the word,” Leif agreed.

Alicia nodded and took a deep breath. “The word.”

They splashed their worn-out sneakers into the bracingly cold water at the same time, Alicia’s eyes immediately clenching shut, her shoulders lifting to her ears.

“One step at a time,” Leif said. “You got this.”

Alicia whimpered.

“Do you want to go back?” Rex asked.

Alicia shook her head.

“All right,” he said, “then we gotta go forward.”

A few dozen steps later, Rex and Leif encouraging Alicia for every one of them, they made it onto the island.

“You take the Big Rock,” Rex told Alicia as he and Leif helped her sit down.

Leif saw Rex release her hand, so he did too, even though he wanted to keep holding on.

“Oh, wait, aren’t there some rules or something?” Alicia asked.

Leif and Rex exchanged a quick look. Alicia of before had known the rules of the rocks very well, as she had mocked them constantly. This was yet another thing in a long line of things that Alicia didn’t remember from her old life. No matter how many times this happened, Leif was always a bit shaken (and grateful all of his memories had returned more or less intact).

“There were,” Leif said. “But now the only rule is that when you’re on the island, you can talk about whatever you want. Especially the stuff that, off the island, makes people look at you like you’re some kind of damaged weirdo.”

“Good rule,” Rex said, clearly making a conscious effort to support what his best friend said and not point out some way to improve upon it. He’d been apologizing to Leif for being a selfish dick more or less nonstop since he’d rescued him from the spring. Leif had been appreciative at first, but lately he’d found himself longing for the way things had been; sure, Rex had been annoying sometimes, and it was nice to have him acknowledge that, but these new contrite vibes didn’t make for the most fun friend dynamic.

“Yeah,” Alicia said. “I can get behind that.”

“You take the other one,” Rex said to Leif, gesturing to the Small Rock.