Frayed by Kara Terzis

mouth.
    “Give her a choice ,” May said. “She deserves that at least.”
    Amanda cast her a flat look.
    “Well, of course she doesn’t have to do anything,” Riley said in a low drawl. “But, Ava, she was your sister. You owe it to her to find her killer.”
    But for whose benefit? Mine or theirs? Her gaze was steady as she looked at me. “You know she’d have done the same for you.”
    Would she have?
    The thought passed through my mind unbidden. Surely, Kesley, my sister, my protector, would have done what I was doing for her? But this, this , opened up a whole new alley of questions—ones that made me question her. How could I honestly say she would still protect me after the things I’d just learned?
    “I have eyes, Ava,” May whispered, her voice low and urgent. “I see the looks people give us. Give me . What if someone discovered Kesley’s involvement in what we were doing? What do you think would have happened to her?”
    I dropped my gaze, staring at the floor. What she said made sense , even though part of me—a large part of me—didn’t want to believe it. And that wasn’t even the worst part. None of them cared . None of them sought the closure I did. All Amanda, May, Riley, and Abbey wanted was to make sure they wouldn’t be the next target.
    So where did that leave me?
    They were staring at me, waiting for an answer. I glanced around at them and realized I didn’t really have an option. Amanda was right. If I didn’t join, she was going to find some way to obliterate all happiness from my life, and May was staring at me with such an imploring expression that I spoke before I realized I’d made up my mind.
    “Okay,” I said. “What do you want me to do?”
    • • •
    Apparently, I’d earned enough trust not to be blindfolded on the way back. Not that I could have said where their cabin was anyway. The highway pretty much looked the same the whole way to me. Trees and asphalt.
    Circling Pines was quiet when we arrived. The leaves lay lifeless on the ground, a wind rattling though the trees and lifting my hair. The truck screeched away as soon as Amanda let me out of the vehicle. School was out and had probably been for some time. I made my way to campus anyway, knowing that if I didn’t, my presence in detention was going to be missed.
    I walked through the corridors in a daze.
    I wanted nothing more than to lie in bed, staring at the sunlit-striped ceiling, and digest what I’d found out. A tiredness that hadn’t been there this morning lingered inside me.
    A teacher was already present when I pushed open the detention door.
    She looked over her thick-rimmed glasses, glanced down at her list, and jerked her head to the array of waiting seats. At least half of them were filled with very bored-looking students, who were chewing gum or scratching profanities on desks. “Nice of you to join us, Miss Hale.”
    I said nothing.
    A few students raised their heads, but I managed to get to the other side of the classroom without too much unwanted scrutiny. A dark-haired figure caught my attention, sitting just outside the teacher’s view at the far side of the room. When the teacher stood up to shut the door as noisy students passed, I took that as my opportunity to slide from my seat and join Rafe.
    “What are you doing here?” I whispered.
    “I could ask you the same thing,” he said, his voice low.
    “I have detention.”
    He arched an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, so do I. Apparently smoking on school grounds is against the rules. Did you know that?”
    I didn’t for a second believe he thought smoking on school grounds was allowed. “I thought you’d stopped that.”
    Rafe shot me a “get real” sort of look. He said, “So where have you been for the past day?”
    “I don’t know,” I said, fumbling over my words. Why hadn’t I figured out an adequate excuse by now? “Just places.”
    “Places? That’s funny.”
    “What?” I snapped.
    “None of KARMA was here today