Page 21 of Beneath the Surface

“Get to it, Martinez,” Grayson spat.

Maybe I shouldn’t be scowling at him, especially when I was in his territory and was clearly outnumbered. If there was one thing I had, it was my pride.

“I wasn’t spying on you guys, if that’s what you’re thinking,” I said, trying to clear the elephant in the room.

“Yes, we’ll just take your word for it,” Micah added sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes at his comment.

“Last year, I was having some issues with Big Dog. That day, I sneaked away, trying to follow him. I ended up at the lake. I lost sight of him, and then, from far away, I heard a boat. One of the houses by the lake had Jet Skis outside…and I kind of borrowed one.”

Grayson snorted, but otherwise remained quiet.

“Until that night, I hadn’t realized how big the lake was…” I paused as the events from that night started coming back to me. “I’ve never been invited out on the lake. I’ve been to bonfires and grabbed a beer here or there, but no one has asked me to go on one of those boats. The only reason I know how to swim or use a Jet Ski is because the shelter I was in used to take us camping…”

“That’s really touching and all, but get to the fucking point,” Grayson snapped.

“Grayson!” Micah bit back.

I didn’t bother looking at any of them and instead continued my story.

“The lake was pitch black, and it was hard to see where I was going. I was just trying to find Big Dog. Next thing I know, I see the headlights from your boat…” At this, I made eye contact with Grayson. He looked as unhinged as I felt that night. “You asked me if I saw a hand…no…I didn’t see one.”

The three of them looked at each other—shock, disbelief, and fear in their faces.

“I saw a black bag crash into your boat.”

Ava gulped. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“What do you mean a black bag?” she finally managed to ask.

I didn’t want to say the words aloud because then they would become true. I had deluded myself for months, telling myself that there was no way that what I had seen was real, that my fearand my paranoia were getting the best of me. Now, there was no more running from my delusion.

“The kind of bag big enough to fit a body.”

My soft words were like an explosion detonating in the room. Grayson was the first to react. He stood up, chanting, “Fuck,” as he paced the room.

Ava’s eyes looked vacant. As soon as I said those words, she stopped herself from feeling. Or maybe she finally allowed the gravity of that night to set in.

I know if I were alone, I would be reeling from the information as well. A bag in a lake could have been anything—garbage that got washed away from one of the houses around there—at least that was what I kept telling myself.

Now we both had different facts, and alone we could deny them, but together, there was no use in lying to ourselves. We were all fucked.

“We’re fucked.” I said what we were all thinking.

“My dad’s going to kill me,” Micah stated in a monotone voice.

Grayson stopped his freak-out at that moment. He pinched his nose and turned to look at Micah and Ava.

“We’re going to be okay,” he said, trying to calm them down.

I almost snorted. I was freaking out too, but no one gave a fuck about me. Grayson crouched in front of them and was reassuring them, telling them that they would get through this.

“How are we going to be okay?”

I had to burst the bubble they were currently trying to wrap themselves in.

“We have someone after all of us. We were the only ones there that night! And a fucking dead body,” I spat.

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