‘It’s nothing much.’
‘Come on.’ She left the gift on a table with all the other presents and dragged me over to where Kayla and a couple of girls sat. They were from my school, but I didn’t know their names. I was already regretting giving in to Kevin about coming. I should have refused. I should have stuck to my guns. This was the last place on earth I wanted to be.
‘Everyone, you remember Sunny?’ Zara said, her arm over my shoulder.
‘Everyone’ turned my way. Kayla said hello, and the other two smiled. Music blared from a set of speakers sitting on a chair nearby.
‘Come and say hello to Mum,’ she said, leading me over to the adults.
Her mother, dressed in a pretty summer dress and smiling, stood up and shook my hand. ‘Hello, Sunny. So nice you could come.’
I looked around the familiar faces of the town. Shelley Hanigan was there and Brian Keats sat nearby, holding a stubby. A few looked up at me but most continued their conversations, barely noticing my presence.
‘Where’s Matt?’ Zara said, guiding me away.
I followed her gratefully to the hay bales that served as seats.
‘Oh, he couldn’t come. Had something on.’ It was a lie, of course. I hadn’t invited him, but I didn’t want to explain all the details to Zara. It would only lead to an interrogation that I had no energy to endure. Even if Kevin hadn’t banned me from seeing Matt, I knew Matt would have hated this sort of thing. And, of course, there was that thing about him not answering any of my texts.
‘What’s wrong? Trouble with the romance?’ she said, nudging me. ‘I was thinking about it, and he’s definitely hot.’
‘I thought your mum said he was bad news.’
Zara winked at me. I was starting to realise it was her thing. ‘Can you believe all Mum’s friends are here? It’s supposed to be my party, but you wouldn’t know it.’ She nodded in the direction of all the adults who outnumbered the kids.
It wasn’t long before Zara was dragged away by Kayla. I sat back on the hay bale, trying to become part of the darkness. Mostly everyone ignored me from that point on but I couldn’t help feeling conspicuous, sitting there, alone. I pretended to enjoy the music, eavesdropped on a few conversations, but remained on the outside. I watched the corner of the house, half hoping Matt would turn up and rescue me, but I knew he wouldn’t. I hadn’t invited him, after all. So, unless he was psychic and he had somehow forgiven me for being an idiot, he wasn’t going to magically appear.
Zara made a few attempts to include me and even took me over to where the hamburgers were being served, but she soon lost interest when the other girls gathered around.
I pulled out my phone a couple of times, to check the time and for a message from Matt. The screen remained stubbornly blank. The minutes were crawling by, and at one stage I thought it was entirely possible that time was standing still. There was no way I could endure another hour of this party; I considered sneaking away. But somehow another half hour went by as a huge full moon rose above the trees, tinged orange by the smoke-filled atmosphere. Zara and her friends took selfies trying to capture it in the background.
Afterwards, the girls huddled around, checking out their photos and no doubt posting the best ones. After a moment of scrolling, Zara suddenly looked up at me. Then she glanced back at her phone, said something to Kayla and she looked at me too. I knew immediately that whatever was on that screen was about me. But what could it have been? Zara stood up and two girls went to follow her, but she turned and said something. They stared as she approached me alone.
‘Have you seen this?’ she said, offering me her phone.
Facebook was open. Someone called Kellie had posted a photo of Kevin leaving the Craigsville Police Station. Underneath, it said:
Something stinks about this Dylan thing.
Look who left the cop shop the other day!!!!
I handed it back to Zara, keeping my face as neutral as possible.
‘Well?’ she said.
‘I knew about it.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she said.
I frowned. ‘Why would I?’
‘I thought we were friends.’
I shrugged, not prepared to confirm or deny that assumption. ‘How long has it been up?’ I said.
Zara looked down at the screen. ‘A few minutes.’
‘Great,’ I said, walking away from the fire. ‘Now everyone will know.’
Zara grabbed my arm gently, trying to slow me down. ‘Wait a second, did Kevin actually have something to do with Dylan’s disappearance?’
I looked into Zara’s wide blue eyes, prettily mascaraed and carefully eyelined. I wasn’t about to tell her what I really thought. ‘No, of course not. But you know what people are like. The whole town will be talking about this now.’
‘It’s just Facebook.’
‘But you’re all looking at it.’
She shrugged.
‘Who’s Kellie anyway?’ I asked.
Zara swiped the screen of her phone. ‘I don’t know her, but she’s friends with Karen Koslovski. And Karen liked the comment.’
‘People are starting to think he’s dead, aren’t they?’ I said.
‘I guess. But some people think he’s just a runaway.’
Dylan’s face swam before my eyes. Maybe he did run away. But from what?
‘I’m going home,’ I said.
‘You don’t have to.’
I looked back at the party. Her friends were still gawping at us. At me. ‘Yes, I do.’
Zara glanced over at her friends. She shrugged. ‘Okay, I guess, if you have to.’
I started to walk away.
‘You’re going to walk?’ She was acting concerned, but I could tell that she was relieved. She didn’t want her birthday party ruined by the presence of a potential murderer’s stepdaughter. And who could blame her?
I pointed to the moon. ‘It’s like daylight out here. It’s not far.’
‘I’ll see you at work Saturday then?’
‘Yeah.’
A giant lump crawled up my throat as I walked past the guests
