Page 14 of Always Darkest

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

“No, it’s fine,” Lozen said. “I mean, it’s not fine, butI’mfine.”

Saber left her sketches and went to sit by Lozen, who showed her a picture on her phone of a bright, smiling, sandy-blond boy with shaggy, California-surfer hair. He was wearing a track uniform. Saber flinched when she saw how big his smile was. He looked so sweet and friendly.

“Ben Kamden,” Lozen said. “He went to South Kitsap, across the water.”

“Where?”

“Like, off island, on the not-Seattle side.”

“Oh, I haven’t even been over there yet.”

“It’s more like… normal suburban America. Not like the island.”

Lozen laid back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling of the studio. She stayed like that for a long moment.

“I want to tell you something, but it’s going to sound crazy.”

“Ok.”

“He’s the third kid to die this year, since the start of the summer.”

“Really?”

“And it happened last year too.”

“What?”

Lozen took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“Ok, you know that party that you got invited to on Friday night?”

“Yeah,” Saber said, unsure of where the conversation was going. Lozen’s voice was uncharacteristically intense, and she felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck.

“I had a cousin, Shanna, who went to Suquamish Academy. It’s like the school for native kids. Did you know I’m a quarter native? She was half. She didn’t live on the island. She was asenior and I was in eighth grade, so this was, like, four years ago, when we first moved back butbeforewe lived on the island.”

“Ok…” Saber said, trying to follow.

“So, first of all, she was really, really pretty, like, model pretty. Beautiful. And she started coming to Bainbridge for parties. I mean, she stopped talking to us about it pretty quick, but she started coming home with weird stuff, like designer sunglasses, a sweater that was like six hundred dollars, a pair of earrings that were like, real gold, designer, all that shit.”

“Where was she getting it?”

“She wouldn’t tell anyone,” Lozen said. “She became really withdrawn, got kind of sick, like, tired all the time, fucking up at school. It wasn’t like her. And then one day they found her on a park bench dead, wrapped in a sheet. The cops said it was a drug overdose.”

Saber stared at Lozen, not knowing what to say.

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks,” Lozen said, taking a deep breath. “I still think about it all the time. I don’t think it was a drug overdose. I think somebodydidsomething to her.”

“Why? Like, why do you think that?”

“Because the drug story doesn’t add up. They said it was pills, oxy or something, but that doesn’t explain the gifts.”

“No, but maybe they aren’t related.”

Lozen was quiet for a moment.

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