by Alexa Woods
corrected.
Summer tossed her long hair over one shoulder. “We’ll pick you up
tomorrow? At eight? We’re leaving early so we can have the whole
weekend. Unless you had better plans?”
Arabella’s head was spinning. She didn’t want to go away for the
weekend with Summer and June, but maybe she should. Maybe then she
could apologize properly and make amends like she’d wanted to for the past
decade. It was a perfect opportunity, and if she didn’t take it, she felt like
she’d be taking the cowardly way out.
“Picking me up would involve telling you where I live.” It was kind of
funny, and she even found that she wanted to laugh.
“See how sneaky I am?”
“Summer…I can see the delivery van guy over there with an armful of
bags. The tables aren’t even set up yet.”
“Do you want some help?” Arabella offered. “Setting up?”
She hadn’t planned on doing that either, but the question came out of
nowhere.
June looked surprised. Summer looked suspicious.
“Uh, sure,” June muttered. “That would be great.”
“Tomorrow,” Summer tossed over her shoulder as she spun around.
“Eight.”
Arabella found herself rattling off her address. “When you get there, stay
in the car. I’ll watch for you. It’s not a good neighborhood. You don’t have
to come to the door or anything. And my parents are going to know where
I’m going, so if you really plan on feeding me to the fishes …don’t.”
June groaned. She raked a hand through her hair and looked anxiously at
Summer. Her cheeks were pink, and it was clear she didn’t want to stand
there and have the conversation they were having. She wasn’t having fun
with it. She felt awkward and wanted to leave. And now her weekend away
was going to be ruined.
So she thought, anyway. But Arabella didn’t plan on doing any ruining.
She planned on doing whatever fixing she could. She just hoped it was
enough to make a small dent in all those terrible memories from their past.
She wasn’t sure that an entire lifetime of good deeds could undo the
damage she’d done, and she only had two days.
Chapter 6
June
June had been very much looking forward to her weekend away, until it
was clear that Arabella was going to join them. She didn’t share Summer’s
keep your enemies close sentiment. The ride, while only just over an hour
long, had been tense and silent. Summer’s mom drove, while June’s mom
sat in the front seat, and the three girls had the back of the car. At least June
was smashed up against the window and Summer took one for the team,
trying to rectify her mistake, and sat in the middle.
It didn’t help.
The morning spent unloading, airing out the A-frame cabin, and relaxing
on the private strip of weed-clogged beach didn’t help either.
June’s head felt foggy. She could still smell Arabella’s perfume. Instead
of smelling the lake, all June could smell was the ocean—intriguing, fresh,
and clean.
It had been ridiculous trying not to look at her one-time nemesis in a
bikini too. June could have throttled Summer. Summer had no idea what
she was doing when she invited Arabella.
Yes, she really did want to keep tabs on her. She wanted to figure out
why Arabella had really applied for the position at New Shooz 2uz. She
was trying to keep June safe. What Summer absolutely wasn’t counting on
was the fact that no matter how wrong it was and no matter how hard she
tried not to, June found Arabella attractive.
She was smoking hot in a bright pink bikini top and cut-off denim shorts,
her blond hair naturally windswept, that fresh scent clinging to her skin. On
top of that, she was gorgeous in the way that makes most people sit up and
take notice. How could she not find her attractive?
“Well, that’s it for me. I’m officially sizzled like a well-done piece of
bacon.” Summer sat up on her towel, rearranging it in the sand, flinging
little grains straight into June’s face, since she was downwind of the
movement.
June sat up sharply, spluttering, swiping at her tongue. “No wonder our
moms stayed inside,” she groused. “They were the smart ones.”
“Oh, come on, it’s not that hot.”
“If I hadn’t put on lotion, I know I’d be lobster red by now. It’s so hot it’s
hard to breathe out here.”
Summer rolled her eyes, stood up, and flicked her towel hard, on
purpose, dusting both June and Arabella with a sandstorm. Both of them
coughed and gagged and looked murderously at her. She just laughed in her
easy way. For someone who was a natural redhead, Summer hardly ever
burned. It was miraculous. She had a beautiful tan going on. She stretched,
arching up catlike in her yellow one-piece bathing suit.
June had gone for the usual, a black tank top and jean shorts. She had her
bathing suit on underneath, a sporty looking two piece, but she doubted it
would see the light of day. She didn’t mind tan lines. Even though she
tanned well and had enough lotion on to drown a small village, she wasn’t
comfortable stripping down. It wasn’t just because of Arabella. She hardly
ever did, unless she was swimming, and even then, sometimes she went in
with her clothes still on.
“Well, I vote for the boat, then.”
June nearly choked. She stood, snapping up her towel and throwing it
over her arm. “Are you serious? It would be a thousand degrees hotter on
the water.”
“That’s not true,” Summer protested. “We would be driving, so the wind
would be in our hair.” She swept her hand through her long hair, fluttering it
in imitation of the wind and batting her lashes.
“I’m up for a boat ride.” Arabella was just trying to be agreeable. If they
told her they wanted her to get on a floating dock so they could drag her to
the middle of the lake and leave her there, she’d probably agree.
June did doubt that Arabella had any nefarious plans. She seemed too
genuine. She seemed contrite, and when she’d apologized at the barbeque
the shame on her face and the pain in her voice was absolutely not faked.
She probably just had been looking for a job. She hadn’t thought to check
who ran the place until she got hired. If she’d applied at lots of places, and
it sounded like she had, it made sense. The whole thing with her parents
wasn’t faked. No one would talk about something like that unless it had
actually happened. When they’d picked Arabella up that morning, she was
right. The neighborhood was seedy, even at eight in the morning.
Summer shot June a funny look, but June ignored it. If she didn’t want
Arabella to come boating with them, then she damn well shouldn’t have
invited her. June definitely wasn’t up for shitty vengeful pranks like pushing
Arabella off the edge.
“Yeah, alright,” June said. They needed to do something to escape the
heat. There wasn’t a cloud in sight and the cabin was rustic, with nothing
but a small air conditioner sticking out the kitchen window. They c
ouldn’t
swim in the shallow part right off the small beach or they’d end up full of
weeds and leaches.
“Yay!” Summer threw her towel down and ran down the beach. She
jumped over the small rock pile and her feet hit the deck hard. Her steps
echoed as she ran, and she laughed as she reached the old aluminum boat
and started untying it.
June kept her eyes on her towel as she folded it and set it on the rocks at
the far side. She stepped over them and walked to the boat. It might have
been ancient, but it was still a console drive, and since Summer had grown
up at the cabin, she was well versed in driving it. The seats were old and
peeling and when it got hot, they burned skin and stuck to sweaty
appendages, but the old beast could get going, and at the moment,
movement to get out of the still, humid air seemed like the most appealing
option.
Arabella stepped on daintily and took the seat behind Summer, facing the
motor. Summer sat down behind the wheel and in a few seconds, they were
pulling away from the dock, leaving the cabin behind.
They stayed silent, but it was mostly because the roar of the gassy
smelling engine drowned out all possibility of conversation.
While Summer was driving, cruising at a good pace, her hair flying out
behind her like a scarlet flag, Arabella’s fingers suddenly started tapping
out a nervous rhythm on the back of the boat seats right by June’s shoulder.
She whipped around on instinct and got a face full of Summer’s hair.
“Ack!” June untangled herself, peeling red hairs off her tongue.
When she could finally see, she found Arabella angled towards her, her
legs tucked up on the seat, leaning as far away from the back of the boat as
she could. Her face was only a few inches from June’s, and while that did a
number on her in the form of her stomach clenching and her body coming
alive with a buzzing energy, she realized quickly that Arabella’s face had
gone totally white.
“Are you okay?” she shouted over the infernal roar of the smoky, ancient
motor. “We really aren’t going to drop you off somewhere and make you
swim for your life, or anything close. There are life jackets on board too.
The boat might be old, but it’s steady. Summer’s a good driver.”
Summer, who probably couldn’t even hear half of what June had just
yelled, gave them a thumbs-up with her left hand, taking it off the wheel for
just a second.
“Mpheeder!” Arabella shouted.
“What?” June yelled back.
“Mider!”
“Murder?” Summer screamed. “No, no, I was just kidding about that.”
“Bliiiiiiider!”
June didn’t know what a blider was for the life of her, but she finally got
the message when Arabella practically leaped up onto her seat, squatting
like a duck chased from the water by a hungry crocodile. She pointed
frantically towards the back of the boat.
The boat had been tied at the dock for over a week, since anyone was last
at the cabin, and there wasn’t anything that wolf spiders loved more than
the dock and the water. That included the boat too. They weren’t choosy. It
made a particularly lovely habitat and over the years, June had heard some
real horror stories from Summer. One time, they were there by themselves
and decided to take a swim. They’d run straight off the dock, leaping
without looking.
When they’d surfaced, the whole dock was crawling with huge wolf
spiders. It was a good thing they were able to swim around through the
weeds and come up onto the beach. They’d only had four or five leaches
stuck to them for their effort, which was still better than having a wolf
spider leap onto them. The things loved to leap.
“Oh shit!” June panicked, grabbing Summer’s arm hard. The boat jerked
as Summer threw back the throttle and ground them to a dead stop. She
killed the motor so they could actually hear each other.
“What’s wrong?” Her eyes flew from June’s face down to where her
hand clutched her arm in a death grip.
“Wolf spiders. Three. Back. Huge.” June couldn’t make sentences. She
panted out the words.
She hated spiders, but it was more of the kind of hatred that meant as
long as they didn’t climb on her or look at her or come anywhere near her,
they would all be fine. If they did, it was game over. She couldn’t be
responsible for the panic that ensued, the wild slapping, and the high
probability of spider carnage, which was a horrific thing to think about in
and of itself.
Apparently, Arabella felt the same way. She let out a shriek and climbed
a little higher onto her seat. She was perched like a crazed bird, her long
legs up underneath her, her arms wrapped around her like wings.
“If one of those gets on me, I’m going to die,” she squealed. She curled
herself into an even tighter ball and visibly shuddered.
Since Summer was used to the spiders, even if she didn’t like them, she
took charge. She stood up and went to the front. She came back with a
paddle in one hand and a life jacket in the other. There were a ton on board,
just in case. June felt a pang. She should have made sure Arabella had a life
jacket. They really all should be wearing one. What if Arabella couldn’t
swim like she and Summer could? She made a note to put the dang things
on after. She’d make sure Summer wore one too, even though she’d
complain about it.
“You’re going to squish it with that?” June protested. “And who wants to
wear one of those with spider guts all over it?”
“I’m not going to squish it,” Summer said. “Jeez. I know what I’m doing.
I’m just going to help them overboard.”
“They can swim?” Arabella whimpered. She sucked her bottom lip into
her mouth and worked it between her teeth.
June noticed, and a faint shiver slid up her spine that wasn’t spider
induced. It wasn’t unpleasant either. She made a second note to stop looking
at Arabella’s lips. They were far too pretty and perfect, and when she
worked them between her teeth like that, it did strange, inexplicable things
to her body.
“Unfortunately.”
“I’ve never seen a spider that big. They’re terrifying. Nuclear looking.
Are you sure they didn’t get into anything? Something we should report?”
Summer laughed wickedly. She was enjoying herself, even though she
hadn’t planned the moment of evil. Or maybe she had noticed the spiders
when she’d gotten into the boat and said nothing. June ground her teeth.
“No, they’re just that big. Not nuclear. No strange spills in the lake or
anything. We won’t find any three-headed, six-eyed fish. At least I don’t
think so, but you never know…”
“Just get them,” June shuddered, “before they leap at us.”
Arabella screamed. “They leap too?”
“Like a kangaroo trying to win first prize in the high jump,” Summer
confirmed. She was having way too much fun with this.
She totally knew the spiders were in the boat when they got in and she’d
left the
m, knowing Arabella would take the backseat. It would have served
Summer right if those spiders got a hankering to move on up and landed on
her face while she was driving. June smiled at the thought.
As Summer moved in, Arabella stood up on her seat like she was ready
to jump overboard if something went wrong. There was a very good chance
that it could. June was on board with the idea of jumping ship should those
spiders get past Summer.
Using the paddle to prod the first, largest spider, Summer had the life
jacket ready. She made the thing run onto it then quickly flipped it over the
edge, sending the spider flying. There was an island not far, a small one
with rocks and trees, and the spider skated along the water neatly, heading
there for refuge. The second one followed suit, heading for the island as
soon as it was flipped overboard. The third had other ideas. Summer got it
into the water just fine, but instead of swimming away, it turned around
again.
“Oh, my God!” Arabella screamed. “It’s trying to come back.”
“We’re about to be boarded,” June yelped. She grasped her seat
anxiously, ready to leap up onto it should it be necessary. Leaping into the
water was no longer an option.
The last spider was swimming furiously around the boat, some kind of a
world record swimming bastard of a determined spider, coming to the back
where it was lowest and where it could use the motor to climb out of the
water and back up for safety.
“Stay clear, you little beggar,” Summer yelled at it. She leaped over the
seat, right past Arabella, and landed in the driver’s seat with a thump. She
turned the key and as soon as the engine started up, coughing its regular
smoke, the spider skated away on the water’s surface. She waited, not
wanting to maim the thing before she got the motor going and carefully
moved the boat forward.
“It’s still coming!” Arabella yelled.
If Summer wanted to terrorize Arabella, she couldn’t have come up with
a better plan, though June was pretty sure her bestie hadn’t secretly put the
spiders into the boat. That would be too devious, and Summer wasn’t that
fond of them. It didn’t stop her from grinning devilishly.
“Death wish mother effer,” Summer muttered. She pushed the boat faster
