The Bridge of Death

by Megan Atwood

  That stopped Jinx. She was not bored anymore.

  “Oh my god.” She twisted her lip and looked down the hall. She was no fan of Ruby Murphy’s. Of all the crappy popular people, Ruby might have taken the crap-cake for being the crappiest. Well, a close second to Haley. But she never thought in a million years the girl would try to end her life. For one thing, Ruby seemed to love herself waaaaayyy too much for that.

  This called for an emergency Twizzler. Enemy or not, the news about Ruby was emotionally jarring. Jinx reached into her pack and pulled out the secret stash she kept in there just in case.

  The bell rang, but Jinx didn’t move. She asked Brian, “How? And how did you find out?”

  Brian shrugged and blushed a little again. “Those freshmen who liked my site still tell me stuff sometimes.” Jinx and Brian had first met after Brian attempted to start his own rival paranormal-investigation blog.

  Brian continued, a weird glint in his eye. “I guess she tried to jump off a bridge. St. John’s or St. Joseph’s or something? Anyway, she splatted on the water and broke her arm. But that’s it, can you believe it? How bad do you have to suck to try something like that and fail?” He started laughing, and Jinx stared at him in disbelief.

  “Dude...that’s just...” But she had no words. She couldn’t believe how awful he was being. Ruby was not her friend, but she was a person.

  Brian said, “I know! That’s just so lame! But what do you expect? People like Ruby can’t do anything right, evidently. I should tell her I can help her with the jump next time.” His eyes clouded over, and Jinx shivered.

  Before she could say anything, the last bell rang, signaling that she was late for class. Without another word to Brian, Jinx pivoted on her heel and walked briskly to class, chewing with fury on her Twizzler.

  Maybe inviting Brian to be a Paranormalist had been a bad idea. Maybe she didn’t know him all that well after all.

  For the millionth time since their fight, Jinx was furious at Jackson again. This was all his fault—the fact that she had to hire Brian in the first place had everything to do with Jackson betraying her. Of all the people her best friend could have dated, he had to date Haley, Jinx’s arch-nemesis since the seventh grade. Why her? Was he trying to hurt Jinx on purpose? Though Jinx was not much of a crier, these thoughts always brought a lump to her throat. She had just thought she meant more to him, was all. She should have known better. Even someone like Jackson—kind, compassionate, loyal—still sucked deep down. It was a hard pill to swallow, but she now had the proof to back up her disdain for the rest of her high school. If Jackson sucked, what hope was there for anyone else?

  Jinx slid into her seat in geometry while the teacher’s back was turned, thrilled she’d dodged a bullet. Her cheeks were full of Twizzlers, and the person across from her started staring.

  “Wha?” she asked.

  With his back still turned, her geometry teacher said, “Ms. Wright, you’re tardy. You can see me after class for a slip to take the counseling office.”

  Jinx swallowed. This just wasn’t her day.

  Jinx sat on a counseling-office chair, bouncing her knees up and down. She was missing lunch just to hand in a slip that would get her in trouble. And worse, Jackson worked in the counseling office during the lunch hour. Her only consolation was that he always had to run around delivering notes to people in classes. She hoped he had a busy day today.

  Just as she thought the thought, Jackson walked in the door.

  “Oh, hey Jackson,” Jinx said. “Betray anyone today?”

  Jackson closed his lips for a second before replying. “Jinx...” he said quietly.

  She widened her eyes innocently. “What? It’s almost noon. Just haven’t had time yet?”

  Jackson cleared his throat. “Jinx, I need to talk to you.”

  Jinx shook her head and pretended to be looking through her backpack. “Nuh-uh. No way. The time for talking is over.”

  “I need to talk to you about something besides our fight.”

  Jinx whirled to him. “Fight? No, this is more than a fight. This is the end of our friendship.”

  Jackson’s shoulders slumped. She felt somewhat guilty, then felt glad that she’d hurt him. She was hurting, and so should he. But then Jackson sat up straight again, resolve stiffening his spine. “You would throw away sixteen years of friendship just because you don’t like my girlfriend?”

  Jinx couldn’t help it. Tears stung her eyes. He had used the word girlfriend. It was more serious than she’d thought.

  She fought the tears away and called on the one emotion that never let her down: anger.

  Standing up, she yelled, “You knew I hated her. She has been nothing but awful to me for years, and you still are dating her. How can you like someone like her? She is not a good person!”

  Jackson stood up too, a vein pulsing in his temple. “If you gave her half a chance, maybe you’d see that she is a good person. And how can you say that when you’re hanging around that psycho, Brian?”

  Jinx’s mouth dropped open. “A good person? A good person? You don’t remember seventh grade, when she invited the entire class to a party except for me? Or how she says mean things to me constantly in English class? Or how she calls me a freak?”

  A counselor peeked through the crack of her office doorway at the two of them. But Jinx couldn’t have cared less. She had never been so hurt in her life.

  Jackson shot back, “You want to be known as a freak!”

  The counselor stepped gingerly into the office, and Jinx could see she was going to say something to them. Before she could, Jinx shot back at Jackson, “God, Jackson, she’s already rubbed off on you. I guess you are just like all the other popular kids—you’ll do whatever they do just to fit in!”

  At that moment, Ms. Martinez, the school principal, rushed in and stopped short when she saw the counselor. Ms. Martinez didn’t seem to even notice Jinx and Jackson.

  “Oh, Gloria, I’m glad I caught you.” She sounded out of breath. The counselor waited for her to continue. Worry lines scrunched her forehead, and her normally perfect hair was frazzled. Jinx had never seen her so harried before. Ms. Martinez took a deep breath and said to the counselor, “We need you to start seeing students—I’m afraid we’re looking at the beginning of an epidemic.”

  The counselor looked confused. Despite herself, Jinx looked to Jackson. Then she remembered that she hated him and scowled and turned away.

  Ms. Martinez went on, her face grave. “Gloria, there’s been another tragedy.” She took a deep breath. “Another student has jumped off the St. Johns Bridge.”

  I

  n English class, a class Jinx had never liked but now dreaded because she had to sit behind Haley, Jinx listened in on the conversations around her.

  News of the second jumper had spread like wildfire. Not just because it was juicy news, Jinx knew. But because it was yet another popular kid. This time a boy—Hunter McMann.

  Jinx couldn’t believe it. She had always thought of popular kids as lemmings, but she didn’t think they’d ever act like actual, well, lemmings.

  Haley’s friend across the aisle, Maddie, was saying, “I can’t believe Ruby and then Hunter would do this. How lame do you have to be to try to off yourself? I mean, get a grip.” The girl wrinkled her nose. “I even used to like Hunter. Thank God I gave that up before he decided to be a psycho.”

  Jinx could have punched the girl. She was saying this stuff about her friend? What did she say about her enemies? She shook her head and continued doodling in her notebook. She couldn’t wait to hear what shallow, awful thing Haley had to say in response. Anger burned through her. What was it that Jackson saw in that girl?

  Haley was quiet for a minute. Then she said to her friend, “That’s an awful thing to say.”

  Jinx’s ears perked up. What now?

  “What?” Maddie said.

  “I think that’s an awful thing to say,” Haley continued. “What if they’re really hurtin
g?”

  Maddie stammered, “I-I-I just was making a joke.”

  Haley waved her hand. “Whatever. Anyway, I think there’s way more to it than a couple of suicide attempts. I think there’s something bigger going on.”

  For some reason Jinx couldn’t fathom, Haley turned around and looked at her pointedly. Out of instinct, Jinx said, “What do you want?”

  The bell rang, and their English teacher breezed in. Jinx thought about the encounter through the entire class. Why had Haley looked at her at the end? Weirder still was how Haley had defended someone.

  Something was definitely up.

  Jinx got to find out what not two hours later.

  Brian bounded up to her again at her locker. Jinx chewed on a Twizzler and tried to avoid looking at him.

  Brian pointed to the Twizzler. “Those will rot your teeth out, you know.”

  As if Jinx hadn’t gotten that speech a million times. And 999,999 of those times had been from Jackson. The thought immediately put her in a bad mood.

  The day had seemed incredibly long, and Jinx was ready to go home and work on the Paranormalists site. To think about something that didn’t involve the confusing living people she had to deal with a on a day-to-day basis. She’d rather work with the formerly alive. She shuddered at the thought a second later—that could have been Hunter or Ruby.

  Brian’s eyes were twinkling. “You heard about McMann, right? Another one bites the dust! Or I should say water?” He cackled gleefully, then got serious. “I guess he survived too. Really, this jumping-off-a-bridge thing isn’t very effective. Maybe we should brainstorm a list of some other strategies.”

  Jinx slammed her locker. “Brian, dude, that is not cool.”

  Brian’s face scrunched in confusion. “Jumping off a bridge? I know. I mean, it takes some guts, but—”

  Jinx cut him off. “I mean, it’s not cool for you to say things like that. They tried to kill themselves, Brian. That’s a big deal. I don’t care how much you don’t like someone, you shouldn’t want them dead.”

  Brian recoiled like she’d hit him. “Jeez, someone can’t take a joke.”

  The sentence echoed what Maddie had said in English. Jinx sighed. She was suddenly incredibly tired. “I’ll call you later, OK? We’ll talk about cases coming up.”

  Brian, still looking angry, said, “Fine. Whatever,” and pivoted on his heel.

  Relieved to be out of his crazy company, Jinx turned around and almost ran straight into Haley. The last person she wanted to deal with.

  “We need to talk,” Haley said.

  Jinx raised her eyebrows. “Oh, do we? I don’t think so.” She turned again and prepared to walk out the double doors down the hall. But she remembered that Brian had just left that way. Haley stepped quickly in front of her.

  “I know you don’t like me.”

  “Wow, you got that, did you?” Jinx sneered. “Give the girl a prize.”

  “Please. Can I talk to you?”

  The earnest look on Haley’s face made Jinx stop. She exhaled and stared expectantly at Haley. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was curious about what Haley had to say. She knew it had to be about Jackson. Jinx ran through the backlog of arguments and comebacks in her head while Haley geared up to speak.

  What came out of Haley’s mouth was far from what Jinx expected.

  “I want to hire you and Brian.”

  Thoughts stopped churning in Jinx’s head. After what felt like a minute, she was finally able to form words. “You. Hire. Us?”

  Haley crossed her arms, and Jinx noticed for the first time that she looked pale. “Yes. I want to hire you and Brian.”

  “For what? Is this a joke?”

  Haley uncrossed her arms and fidgeted with her hands. “Believe me, I don’t like this any more than you do. But you’re the only one who has the expertise and equipment. There’s something going on at St. Johns Bridge, and I want you to find out what it is.”

  Jinx’s shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, something’s happening at St. Johns Bridge. People are jumping off of it. But what has that got to do with me?”

  Haley’s eyes got intense. “On Saturday, Jackson and I—” she stopped. Jinx’s face had turned dark and stormy at the mention of Jackson’s name.

  Haley cleared her throat and went on. “We visited Ruby. And Ruby said she experienced these feelings...like, feelings that weren’t coming from her. She felt a presence on the bridge.”

  Now it was Jinx’s turn to cross her arms. “A presence, huh? That’s convenient to mention, if you’re embarrassed because you did something stupid. Didn’t the rumor mill say she broke up with her boyfriend that night?”

  “Well, yes,” Haley said. “But you don’t know her like I do. She would never do something like that. And neither would Hunter. I think something’s going on.”

  Jinx adjusted the backpack on her shoulder. “I do know her. And I know you. I know all about people like you. You’ll do whatever it takes to stay popular, and you don’t care who you step on to do it. I notice that you didn’t talk to me about this in English—maybe because you didn’t want your stupid friend to know?”

  Haley blushed and looked down at the floor.

  “This is just stupid people making stupid choices,” Jinx went on. “And now it’s an epidemic of stupidity. You and your friends don’t need a paranormal investigator, you need a psychologist.” She began walking away. “Or better yet, just one original thought. If it wouldn’t hurt too much.” She smiled sweetly at Haley and began to walk away as Haley’s phone beeped.

  Two beats later, Haley called to her from down the hall. “Cynthia Jameson just jumped off the bridge, Jane. Maybe my friends need a psychologist, but at least we’re not selfish and jaded like you. At least I have friends. You can’t even keep your one!”

  Before she could stop herself, Jinx whirled around. “Well, you won’t have friends for long at this rate, huh?”

  As she left the school, Jinx burned with shame, knowing she’d just turned into the very sort of person she had been so self-righteously yelling about.

  J

  ackson opened the front door and took Haley in his arms. She started sobbing immediately.

  “What is going on?” she cried into his shoulder. He could feel the wetness soaking through his shirt. He rubbed her back and then let go of her so she could come inside the house.

  He led her to the couch, grabbing some Kleenex on the way. His mom was a fanatic about tissues because his brother, Grant, had grown up with so many allergies. For once Jackson was grateful to have the boxes everywhere.

  Haley slumped on the couch and took a Kleenex from the box. She wiped her tears away and blew her nose. It sounded like a car horn, it was so loud, but Jackson thought it was cute. If the situation wasn’t so serious, he might have teased her about it.

  She looked up at him, her green eyes red-rimmed and dewy. “Seriously, what is going on? Three people now? First Ruby, then Hunter, then Cynthia.” She blew her nose again. “I overheard Ms. Martinez talking about a schoolwide assembly. This is getting out of control.”

  Jackson flopped down next to Haley and smoothed her hair. “The good thing is, no one has actually died.”

  Haley nodded. “That’s true.” She looked at him. “Do you think this could all be because of the ghost?”

  Jackson sat back uneasily. “Haley...it’s just...I’m not sure I one hundred percent buy the ghost theory.”

  She said, “What do you mean? You think Ruby is lying?” Her voice had gotten hard, and Jackson flinched. “You think Hunter and Cynthia just also decided to kill themselves by jumping off a bridge? Like it’s some sort of new game?”

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “No, I’m not saying that. It’s just...Ruby had just broken up with her boyfriend. And you know her...she can be impulsive.”

  Haley looked glumly at the wall in front of her. Jackson went on. “I mean, maybe she did try and maybe she didn’t. I think we need to talk to Hunter and Cynthia befor
e we decide anything. And then I can check out the bridge.” He got up and gave Haley a knowing smile. “I used to be a paranormal investigator, you know.”

  Sadness crept into Jackson as he thought back to the talk with Jinx in the counseling office, and he tried to swallow it down. Then he noticed Haley’s expression.

  “What?” he asked.

  She looked a little bashful, and then said, “Don’t be mad at me?”

  “Umm, OK. What? What shouldn’t I be mad about?”

  Haley pursed her lips. “Well...I sort of tried to hire Jinx and Brian to check out the bridge.”

  Jackson sat up so fast he knocked over a statue on the table behind the couch. “You what?”

  “It’s just...I know Jinx is the one with the equipment, and so I thought she might be willing to take the case.” She put her hands on his chest. “I know you’re good at this investigating thing too, but don’t we need, like, evidence and stuff?”

  Jackson walked away. He wasn’t mad that she hadn’t asked him first. Not exactly. He just felt weird that his girlfriend and his best friend had an interaction that didn’t involve him. As soon as he had the thought, he felt selfish and stupid.

  “You talked to Jinx, and you don’t have a black eye or anything?” he asked.

  Haley laughed. “I think she probably wanted to hit me.” She picked at her skirt. “And anyway, she said no. She doesn’t believe that there could be anything paranormal going on.”

  Jackson could have saved Haley the trouble and told her that himself—whether or not he and Jinx were on speaking terms, he knew how she thought.

  Haley went on, “I can’t believe how selfish she can be. Really. Three people have jumped off a bridge, and she won’t lift a finger.”

  “I’m not sure it’s a ghost either, remember?” he said, taking a step back. But Haley barely noticed. She seemed lost in thought.

  “At first I was going to ask Brian and Jinx when they were both together,” she continued, “but I overheard part of their conversation.”

  She looked up at Jackson. “Brian seems a little weird. Like...” She started to search for the word.