Page 5 of In the Air Tonight

I smack a mosquito that lands on the back of my neck. “Shit, we forgot bug spray.”

She digs through the gigantic purse she takes everywhere. “I’ve got some.”

We joke that anything we will ever need can be found in Sienna’s bag.

The smell of woodsmoke and bug spray will forever remind me of this fateful night.

“There’s Cam,” I whisper to her.

She leans in for a closer look.

He looks a lot like Ryder with lighter hair but isn’t as ripped as Ryder. Sienna says that’s because he likes pizza so much.

Shit, he’s talking to Brooke, who’s a year ahead of us with boobs twice the size of Sienna’s. “They’re just talking,” I whisper to her. “It’s no big deal.”

I venture a glance at Sienna’s face and see that it’s a very big deal to her. I’ve wanted to ask her how things are between them when they’re alone, but I’ve been afraid to. From the outside looking in, something has changed. If I can see that, surely she can, too.

My stomach hurts like it did earlier as I pray Cam doesn’t do anything that can’t be undone—or unseen. The very fact that we’re spying on him like this should be the biggest red flag ever for their relationship, but I’m not about to say that to her.

I see Arlo mixing with the other kids, holding court the way he always does. Everyone likes him. He’s tall, dark-haired, handsome and easy going. I aspire to be more like him and less of an anxiety-ridden mess of insecurities. I’m a work in progress, and he’s already arrived at his final destination. I’d hate him for that if I didn’t love him so much.

“What the hell isshedoing here?” Sienna whispers.

At first I’m not sure who she’s talking about. And then I see her—the new girl, Denise Sutton, who goes by Neisy. The boys are crazy about her. The girls hate her because she’s stunning, with big boobs, long sun-kissed hair and bee-stung lips. She arrived at our school last September, at the beginning of our junior year, touching down with the impact of an F5 tornado and completely upending the social order. Even the most popular girls in our class have nothing on her, and they know it, which is why they despise her.

They treat her like she’s radioactive, crossing the hallway to avoid her, getting up and moving away from any table she sits atin the lunchroom and spreading vicious rumors about her, like how she fucked the entire football team after a game last fall and how someone from her old school said she had an abortion freshman year.

I’ve been surprised and ashamed at how girls I’ve known my whole life have treated her.

It’s hard to know what to believe. Everyday it’s something else. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the girls are making shit up just to undercut her. The boys are too dazzled to care what anyone says about her.

Oh shit. Cam’s talking to Neisy now.

Sienna vibrates with outrage next to me.

He leans in closer to hear what Neisy is saying, and then his big laugh rings out so loudly, it’s like he’s standing right next to us.

“I’m going to fucking stab him,” Sienna mutters.

“He’s not doing anything wrong talking to other girls.”

“He knows how I feel about her.”

It’s news to me that she has an opinion about Neisy. “How do you feel about her?”

“She’s a slut.”

“What? You don’t know that.”

“You’ve heard the rumors same as I have.”

“It doesn’t mean they’re true!”

“Whose side are you on?”

“I’m on your side,” I tell her. “Always.” We’ve been best friends since third grade. “But we don’t know her well enough to call her that.”

“From what Cam says, the whole football team knows her.”

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