Page 68 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

Abby twirls a red curl around her finger, and her gaze shifts away from me. “It was canceled, the extra meeting. Mr. Davis couldn’t fit it in. Sorry you didn’t get the updated memo.”

It’s a lie, though. Grant didn’t get the first memo or the second.

“No problem,” I say, already pulling up my text chain with Noah to ask if he got a note.

But then I remember. We’re not speaking.

“It’s not your fault,” I add, lowering my phone. “If Mr. Davis is going to cancel meetings, he should probably stick to holding them on school grounds.”

“Right?” She lets out a nervous chuckle.

“I’m a little worried that Crawford is lost and alone up there somewhere.” I never call Noah by his last name, and it sounds strange floating through the air.

Abby gives me a knowing smile. “I’m sure he’s fine. Mr. Davis’s note to you probably just got lost in the office’s stacks of memos.” She pulls out a pack of gum and offers me a stick. “Is everything still…rough with you two?”

Rough. That would require the two of us to be anything at all. But Noah and I are nothing. Today’s conversation at lunch is proof. “Still rough,” I admit, moving close enough to smell the truck’s cigarette-infused interior. I unwrap the gum and pop it into my mouth. The spicy taste of peppermint coats my tongue. I reach into my jacket pocket for my recorder, but it isn’t there. I must’ve left it back in Mr. Davis’s office.

My brain splits and scatters in a thousand directions as Abby stares at me. I turn my phone in my hand and search for the voice memo app I never use, pretending like I’m scrolling through texts. I press record and let my eyes begin to well. I don’t have to try very hard; I’ve been on the verge of tears for hours. “You know,” I say, “it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through, and I was thinking…” Abby nods, her head poised in a compassionate tilt. “I’ve heard that Sam has”—I stop chewing the gum and try desperately to sound like I’ve done this before—“stuff. To, like,helpwith things. To make me sleep and make things not so hard?”

Abby’s mouth drops open, and fear surges in my chest. I’ve made a horrible mistake by listening to Grant. He must’ve used Sam as an excuse to get away from me.

But then Abby’s lip hitches back up, and she smiles. “Sure, Piper. We can help you out.”

And just like that, I’ve got them.

Chapter 28

When my eyelids flutter open, light slices through my eyeballs like a blade.

I try to sit up, but pain tears my head in half.

“Help!” shrieks a voice much too close to my ear. The world spins. “Help!” it yells again. There’s an arm behind my back now, cradling me. Helping me to sit upright. I bring a hand gingerly up to my head and wince. My fingertips come away painted red.

“Savannah, oh my god, I thought…” I turn to the person helping me, blinking until Alexandra’s face comes into focus. “What happened?”

I don’t know what happened. But I don’t get the chance to tell her this before more voices punch through the trees, followed by footsteps pounding the earth. Every step, every shout feels like it’s ripping my already-cracked skull apart.

“What’s wrong?” Jacey’s voice. I look up to find the others stumbling into camp behind her.

“I found her sprawled out in the dirt,” Alexandra says, out of breath from the screaming. “She’s bleeding.”

Jacey crouches down beside us, and I squint against the blaring sun. The others press closer, and I’m suffocating. My head is pounding. My stomach swirls; I might vomit. Jacey swats a hand behind her. “Stay back,” she commands with sudden authority. “I mean it.”

Leaning in, she whispers, “Who did this to you?”

“I-I don’t know,” I stutter. “Someone came up behind me. I thought it was Alexandra, coming to warn me.” I swallow, tasting the dirt on my tongue. The dirt I tasted moments ago. Before someone…

I bristle, my eyes snapping to Alexandra. I wrench myself away from her, immediately overcome with another bout of nausea.

“You were supposed to be watching,” Jacey hisses at Alexandra. “How did you not see anything?”

“I was looking the other way.” Her hands press together. “At the woods, the way you guys headed. Whoever did this came from the opposite direction.”

Jacey huffs. “Savannah, did you hear a voice? Try to remember.”

I can’t. My head hurts too much. I was looking for something. No—Ifoundsomething. Those texts between Sam and Abby.

My gaze darts to Sam, to the pocket of his jeans, which was flat when he headed into the woods.

---