All around us, the woods are still. The air is hot and humid, so thick it’s hard to breathe. There’s no one here but us and them.

Jason takes hold of Skylar’s handlebars. “You want to have some fun with me and Carter? There’s this old house on Marie Drive. Kids party there at night, but nobody’s there now.”

Carter rests his hand on my arm. I jerk away from him.

Jason tightens his grip on Skylar’s handlebars, and Carter blocks me. I’m sweating so much I feel it run down my sides.

“These girls are dogs,” Carter says again. “Maybe we should take their bikes and let them walk home.”

Carter makes a move to grab my backpack, and I duck away. My feet tangle in the pedals and the bike and I topple over.

I scramble to my feet. Blood is running down my leg from a cut.

Carter blows cigarette smoke in my face. “Bowwow, ugly doggy.”

I jump back on my bike, and we break away from them, pumping the pedals as hard as we can.

“Go home, dogs,” Carter yells. “And don’t come back.”

We pick up speed, but I can still hear them yelling disgusting things at us. We pass the dead deer again. It smells even worse than before. The crows caw, their eyes glitter, their beaks are sharp and bloody. I almost throw up again, but I keep going, splashing through puddles, skidding on cinders, scared the boys will come after us.

When we’re out of the woods, we slow down to cross the bridge. We’re both breathing hard. Blood runs down my leg and stains my shoe, but we don’t stop again until we’re in sight of Main Street.

“Dogs.” Skylar clenches her teeth. “They called us dogs. I hate them.”

We dump our bikes on the sidewalk. There’s a drinking fountain outside the old train station. We wipe our noses and drink some water. Then we sit on a bench and rest. We’re both too shaky to get back on our bikes right away.

“Hey.” Skylar’s brother coasts toward us on his racing bike. He brakes and stares at us. “What happened to your leg, Abs? You’re bleeding all over the place. Are you okay?”

“She fell off her bike,” Skylar says quickly.

“Skidded on some gravel,” I tell him, suddenly shy. He’s been having an odd effect on me lately, maybe because he’s gotten taller all of a sudden and much cuter.

“Looks nasty,” Rob says. “Better go home and get it cleaned up. Otherwise it might get infected and they’ll amputate your leg.” He laughs to show he’s joking. But what happened isn’t funny.

“That’s where I’m going.” I’m embarrassed to look at him. I can feel myself blushing and I don’t even know why.

“I’m going with her,” Skylar says.