Page 15 of The Note

She had texted him good night from the Uber, but they normally made a point to call each other before they went to sleep when they were apart.It seemed awkward, though, to leave Kelsey and Lauren waiting for her while she called her fiancé when she only had a couple days with them. And if she called Josh, she might feel obligated to call her mother, too, who had also texted her multiple times to ask how she was “handling” the trip so far. Her mother had always treated her like a child, but she was even more protective since May had tried to explain the stress that had led to the whole subway incident.

“You’re right. Sleep is for the weak,” she said. Kelsey and Lauren shared a high-five to celebrate their win. “But one condition: House rules from the Arianna note say to use the plastic wineglasses on the deck.”

Kelsey reached for May and gave her a big hug. “I forgot how much I love you.”

As they huddled around the fire, May forced herself to eat a sticky, gooey marshmallow smeared on a graham cracker with chocolate, hoping that it might sop up some of the alcohol coursing through her body.

The cushion on her chaise longue, cool from the night air, felt good against her bare legs. She was resting her eyes, listening to the sound of the water beneath what Kelsey had dubbed her “bangers” playlist streaming across the speaker they had brought outside.

The water. Drinking. Laughing. Music.Hermind felt somewhere else. Not East Hampton. Not the present.Marnie. Has anyone seen Marnie?

The volume of the music increased. She opened her eyes and tried to stand up, or at least she thought she did.

The song from the Uber was back, Kelsey yelling the words into the sky.And when they say the party’s over, then we’ll bring it right back.

At Wildwood, Kelsey had been an average flutist at best, but she had always been a strong singer, just a few notes shy of a four-octave range. And apparently she could still crush a pop song.

The last thing May remembered was seeing her two friends dancing together without her in the firelight, the bay waves rippling behind them.

*

She woke on the deck to silence, a beach towel she didn’t recognize draped over her body. The lights in the house were on, but the speaker was gone. So were the wineglasses and bottles. Her legs felt stiff as she raised herself from the low chaise longue. She breathed a sigh of relief as the sliding glass door opened.

On the kitchen island, next to the speaker and Kelsey’s keys, she found a large glass of water beside a container of Advil. She recognized Lauren’s handwriting on the accompanying Post-it.Take 2 and all the water. We could NOT get you tocome inside.She did as instructed and gulped down the water without stopping for breath, hoping it would prevent her from being a wreck tomorrow, and then refilled the glass to take to her bedroom. After checking all the locks on the doors, she turned off the kitchen lights, leaving the house in darkness. As she passed Kelsey’s bedroom on the way to the staircase, she thought she heard a voice. No light came from the crack beneath the closed door. She craned her neck and closed her eyes, trying to make out the words. Was she … crying?

She reached for the knob but suddenly froze. “Kelsey,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

Silence. She stood there, monitoring her own breath, waiting to see if Kelsey would come to the door or invite her in. As she reached for the knob again, she felt a surge of water in her stomach and a sickly-sweet taste rise in her throat. She managed to make it to the bathroom upstairs and shut the door before she fell to her knees in front of the toilet.

Later, as the bedroom ceiling was spinning above her and she began to pass out, she wondered if she heard a car engine.

10

May felt herself squinting in her sleep and slowly realized that she was awake, pressing her eyes closed against the blinding sunshine flooding through the window. She was used to room-darkening shades behind room-darkening curtains, with a quilted eye-mask to assure absolute blackout status. She reached to search for the mask on the nightstand, but knocked over a glass of water instead. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar room, a weight pressing down on her head.

Right, she was in East Hampton.

She groaned and forced herself to roll over, averting her eyes from the window. Her entirebody ached, the taste of Cabernet and graham crackers in her throat, as she tried to piece together the rest of last night after leaving the restaurant.

Kelsey flirting with the car driver. Using the paper grocery bags to start the fire on the back deck. Those disgusting marshmallows. Ed Sheeran. And, oh god, heaving on the cold bathroom tile, trying to hold back her own hair. The sight of that dirty bobby pin covered in dust at the back of the basin, and wondering how dirty the rest of the house must be.

She sat up and was surprised to find that she was wearing her pj’s, and her phone was charging on the floor in the corner by the only free outlet. Some rituals could be completed under the most trying of circumstances. Three texts and a missed call from Josh. Two missed calls from her mother. And lots of messages on the Canceled Crew thread, beginning after midnight:

LAUREN: We left water and Advil in the kitchen. Text us so we know you’re in, okay?

LAUREN: I woke up worried and went to check. May came in. Water glass is gone. Bedroom door shut. Doors locked. I’m going back to sleep!

KELSEY: Oh good. Was just going to look. Going back to bed too.

KELSEY: I’m up FYI! Have breakfast ready to cook once you sleepyheads are up.

LAUREN: I’m awake but moving slow. The bee is hard today.

KELSEY: What? You can’t do it without us when we’re under the same roof.

LAUREN: Says who?

KELSEY: New rule for the Crew. Starting today.

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