Nick was balled up in the corner of the cobwebbed shed, arms hugging his legs as he rocked back and forth. He hadn’t been robbed of his When yet, even with spatters of blood decorating his bare skin and board shorts. “What did I do?” he asked, rising up and walking toward me as if we were going to hug.

“You killed her!” I screamed out. “You killed her!” I charged at him, shoving as hard as I could. Runt of the litter, but I made my mark. We fell together, breaking through a flimsy wooden crate to find solid ground.

The sirens laughed at us.

They’d start mocking Marley’s last words.

Nick’s eyes widened as he looked at me lying on top of him. He wiggled out from underneath and ran. By the time I stood again, he was out of sight, and I was helpless once more, his bloody imprint fossilized onto my skin.

14

With the melted peas held to my face, I sat atop a pile of clothes and stared at my bedroom wall. My eyes drifted to a soft focus that worked as a projector, letting my thoughts become what I actually saw. I rewound the kiss between Nick and me. I paused. Zoomed in. Sped up. I could do everything but rewrite it.

It was yet another turn on a path I once thought was straight.

Aidy came in every two hours to do our parental phone call song and dance. I did a song and dance for her too as I cradled the heavy secret of what she’d done to me. She performed right back. The two of us acted for our lives, struggling to one-up each other with subtext. I was too exhausted to figure out whatever she thought she knew about me. She, as always, was too scared to reveal it. Instead, we ate random snacks from the pantry and hatched a plan to get to the haunted house when our parents were asleep. She left me alone in our house as she snuck over to set up next door, taking with her the materials left in Marley’s box.

I worked on hatching my own plan. I played out every possible scenario of the night, determined for my ideas to actually mirror reality for once, instead of spiraling into another mess I couldn’t contain. Uncertainty thrummed against my bravado. I drowned it out with the movie I made about what could happen.

In it, all of the Albany kids were united. Bedsheets above us formed a tent we huddled under. String lights were our stars. We held flashlights to our faces and told stories to each other. As we spoke, sharing memories and hopes, each of us could see it. The true purpose of the Adventure.