* * *

“Marti! Help, quick somebody please!” I screamed, my bare feet pounding on the asphalt. The glare of the headlights whizzing by blinded me, but I kept running, afraid to stop, afraid to lose the faint glow of those red taillights fading into the distance. I tripped over something on the shoulder, falling. Gritty residue from the side of the highway scraped along my arm, smearing me with dark streaks. The rain made my eyes cloud with watery black mascara. As the cars flew by they splashed up sheets of hot, dirty road water but I was too terrified to care. I leaned back against the cold concrete barrier, trying to think if there was some way I could have prevented this.

 


Three hours earlier I had been riding shotgun in Marti’s Honda with my eyes burning like wildfire.

  “I think I’m allergic to this stuff.”

  “Don’t be silly, you look gorgeous.” Marti smiled with her lips but not her eyes. She was staring at the road but her mind was someplace far, far away.

  “Well I don’t know.” I flipped open the mirror on my visor and studied my reflection. I looked nice enough in my contacts (which Marti somehow managed to wheedle me into) and black mascara on my dusky lashes. I was wearing a nice top of Marti’s and a pair of shorts. I wasn’t as nervous tonight as I had been at Madelene’s. Somehow I was too busy being worried about Marti to worry about myself.

  “We’re almost there.” She swung into a vacant lot near the water. Down on the pier there were a few hundred kids looking like your typical bunch of intoxicated idiots. I held my breath, hoping Marti wasn’t going to be stupid enough to actually go down there.

  “You coming?” She smiled, wickedly. Somehow deep down both of us knew that I knew that she was up to something.

  “Of course.” I replied, just as wickedly. No way I was going to back out now. Marti looked a little miffed.

  “Well come on then.”

We walked into the throng of people, and Marti kicked off her shoes. “Here, put your shoes in with mine in my bag, Meg.” I obeyed, wiggling my toes free, loving the feel of sand between them. We pushed our way through the crowd without any mishaps until we got to Madelene and her crew.

 “Hi!” Madelene shrieked, her almost white blonde hair jiggling crisply under its layers of hairspray. “Come sit down and have something to drink M!” She saw me and giggled. “Or should I say double M!” She laughed so hard she almost chocked on her beer. “Oh my god we’re the three M’s! The three musketeers!”

 I recoiled with dislike, sitting gingerly down on the sand as far away from the bucket of iced drinks as possible.

 The music from the bandstand started up, louder than a thunder squall and full of profanity. I wanted to crawl under the beach blanket and die.

 I turned to give Marti a disgusted look, but she was already gone.