Page 8 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

Grant shifts in his seat, his silence saying it all.We already know what happened to your sister.

An image of Piper that day sneaks into my mind: blond hair wild, cheeks aflame, eyes stormy. A shiver passes through me.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe I’m on a desperate mission to clear my conscience. A mission that will only lead back to the moment I can’t bear to face.

Grant pulls up in front of Bonnie’s Diner, and I scan the parking lot for Jacey’s clunker.

Bingo. She’s inside.

I check my makeup in the mirror and then gather my things.

The place is empty save an old lady sipping tea at the counter and Jacey and Noah at the front. They spot me and begin to whisper. Ignoring them, I make my way through the shiny red tables until I reach the back corner booth. “Can you get me a Diet Coke?” I ask Grant, dropping my backpack onto the shiny red seat cushion. “I have to use the restroom.”

“Sure, babe.” He tosses his backpack on the seat across from me and plops down.

I traipse past the black-and-white photos from the fifties lining the corridor to the restrooms. In one, a woman holds a milkshake at the counter, and the same giant BONNIE’S sign adorns the wall behind the waitress. You would think Bonnie’s had actually been around since the fifties, based on the water-stained walls and tears in the seat cushions where cottony stuffing pokes out. In reality, these photos are a sham; Bonnie’s has only been around since the nineties. Mom grew up in Grayling’s Pass, and she says there was an old diner here that went out of business. Bonnie moved in years later.

Bonnie is as big a liar as I am.

I emerge from the restroom, stealing a peek at Jacey. Sipping her drink. Laughing with Noah. My sister completely erased from her mind.

Jacey Pritchard knows something.

I start down the aisle, passing by Grant at my table. I don’t stop until I’m right in front of her.

She glances up at me. “Something you need, Savannah? Another boyfriend to steal, maybe?”

“Did you threaten my sister?” I snap.

Her head whips back. “What are you talking about?”

Noah lifts a hand in a calming gesture. “Can we just lower—”

“I’m talking about a message I found today in Piper’s pack.” I drop my voice. “Quit Survival Club or ELSE.”

Jacey frowns. Shakes her head. “No, of course not.”

“Don’t lie to me, Pritchard. Grant said you were arguing with Piper about joining the club.”

“Oh, you meanthatguy?” She pitches a thumb back toward where Grant is sitting, watching the show. “Super trustworthy Grant Costa?”

“That’s not an answer.”

She sighs and starts tearing off the edge of her napkin. “I didn’t write anything in Piper’s pack. I wouldn’t do that.” She loops the strip of paper, tying it in a knot.

I’m not sure I believe her. “Everyone knows you two have hadissuesover the last year.”

“Issues caused by you.” She flicks the little paper knot, which bounces across the table.

My insides go taut. She’s referring to last spring. Grant was technically still with Jacey but was seeing me in secret. He took Jacey to the Spring Fling and kissed me in a dark corner while the three amigos were out on the dance floor. He was going to break up with her—neither of us wanted to hurt Jacey. But he didn’t get the chance before she found out.

The dark corner apparently wasn’t as dark as we thought, because theGrayling High Gazettepublished a photo of Grant kissing me as part of an article titled GRAYLING HIGH SPRING FLING A SUCCESS!

Boy, was it a success.

Jacey was obviously furious with Grant and me. But she was just as furious with Piper, who was junior editor of the paper. Jacey accused her of knowing about the picture before it ran. They stopped speaking for months. It strained my relationship with Piper too. She hadn’t had anything to do with that photo, but shehadknown about Grant and me. She’d struggled with what to do with the information all the way up until the moment it exploded in her face. My actions nearly ruined her oldest friendship. She and Jacey didn’t mend things until the back-to-school carnival, when Noah convinced them to bury the hatchet.

Maybe the hatchet was never really buried.

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