Chapter One
If it had not been for those trees, I would have been home by now. They taunt me, dazzling me with secrets and lies. This is the role of the trees, has always been so. Grandmother says that it's our gift, hearing the trees, but I see it as a curse. They've done nothing but get me into trouble.
My sister, Lily, went ahead of me as she always did things. I owe her for this. She's probably waiting for me now. She'll be mad it took me so long, but she'll wait, like she usually does.
I run into her at the end of the grove. The look on her face says I shouldn't talk, but I was never one to follow good judgment. I walked right past her. “I thought you weren't waiting for me anymore,” I called back.
She catches up to me easily, and pulls me to a stop beside her. “Something could have happened,” she argued. Lily looked at me like I was a child. “Maybe next time something will happen and I won't be here waiting,” she professed. She left me there then headed toward our grandmother's house in the distance.
She is always so serious. I want to tell her this but I know it will only make the situation worse. I knew her anger wouldn't last forever. I am her sister, and one of her only sources of entertainment during these summers with our grandmother. It bugs me that it bothers her so much. Our mother is part of the problem. I'm not allowed to do anything without Lily, while she's free to do whatever she wants. I find this ridiculous considering she's only minutes older than I am.
Lily sulked around the house for nearly a week before she decided to get over herself and acknowledge my presence. “You ready to go?” she said framed by my door.
Surely she wasn't talking to me. I looked around to make sure that I was, in fact, in my room. “To go where?” I said feigning ignorance.
A smile threatened at the corners of her mouth. “I guess you don't want to go.” She turned as if she were going to leave me.
She would never go without me. I jumped up. “Wait,” I said as she twists to face me again, “is it Thursday?”
I knew what she meant, of course, but I couldn't let her think that she could get away with her bad attitude simply by taking me swimming. I made my eyes as doe like as possible while I waited for her answer. This makes her laugh which makes me laugh. I can't help but be happy when she's not in one of her bad moods.
“Last Thursday of summer break,” she answered through her laughter.
Thursday was the only day that we were allowed to go into town. We never knew the reason for this, but it's a rule that grandmother was very strict on. We were grateful for the one day so there was no way we'd break that rule. Lily and I could just go swimming in the lake on grandmother's property, but then we'd miss out on seeing the town boys.
That's where we were getting ready to go now, swimming at the community center. We got lucky being allowed in town on Thursdays because that was the day that the pool was open late. We were sure that grandmother didn't know this. Couldn't have.
This time I waited for Lily. Between the two of us she was the tomboy and usually didn't spend an absurd amount of time on her presentation, but on Thursday it took her forever to get ready.
While she was taking her sweet, precious time upstairs, I was downstairs being interrogated like a criminal. Grandmother wasn't usually one to ask too many questions, but today she wasn't holding back. “What are you plans for the night, Jasmine?”
Lily and I did the same thing every week. “We're going to town to see Liz and Alicia,” I responded. I knew where this was going. “Like we always do,” I mumbled, under my breath.
Before Grandmother could speak again Lily came down the stairs. She was in a solid colored sun dress, halter style, and held her black one-piece in her left hand and a pair of gold flip flops in her right hand. As she bent to slip them on her feet, one of the polka dotted strings to her bikini fell down her back. She looked up and smiled at me. “Were you waiting for me?” she said.
She was trying to be funny, she wasn't. I stood up and smiled back at her. I walked to her side and tucked the strings down into her dress. “Nope,” I said still smiling. “I was being interrogated.”
“Interrogated?” she said looking over at Grandmother.
“I only asked her one question,” Grandmother said. She leaned over and tapped me on my thigh.
“You know how she exaggerates.”
“My point is that you wouldn't have even asked Lily,” I said. They started to laugh. At first it was soft and low but it quickly escalated into loud and rambunctious. “It's not funny.”
They weren't listening to me. Nothing could be heard over their noise. I grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her towards the door.
Lily pulled to a stop at the door just as I opened it. She called back, “Bye, Grandmother,” and gave a little wave then closed the door behind her. Outside I was so mad I started off without her. I knew I wouldn't leave her far behind as she's much faster than I am, but I thought I'd give it a try.
It wouldn't take us long to get into town, even though we lived a ways away from civilization. On the street it'd take at least an hour but when you had the luxury of cutting through grove and woodland, you could usually make it there in half that time.
The walk back home at night always got our blood pumping. If we'd take that trek in any other season the way would be near pitch, but it gets dark late in the summer. When we head home we have a little light to see the way.
Lily and I spent the entire walk into town in total silence. I wasn't over her and grandmother finding that much joy at my expense. When we could see the main road my mood lightened up a bit. We matched each other step for step, our pace quickening to meet Alicia and Liz at the library. I reached over and grabbed her hand; gave it a little squeeze to let her know that we were cool. We only had two more streets to cross over before we were there, but we couldn't move fast enough.
At the library, Alicia lay sprawled across a bench that was in front of the building. The Spranton County Public Library wasn't a grand place. It was exactly what you'd expect from such a small town. All functionality and no design. It was the same shade of bland that everything else in this town seemed to be.
Alicia was alone, Liz was nowhere in my immediate sight. She didn't have on any shoes. I walked over and sat on her. “Hey, Alicia,” I said.
She sat up slowly, pushing me off of her as she did so. She pulled back her unkempt hair, of which there wasn't normally a hair out of place, and put it in a low ponytail. “Hey,” she said.
“Where's Liz?” Lily asked sitting down next to her.
“She over at the pool,” Alicia said. “I was there before I came to meet you guys.”
“You couldn't wait for us?” I said pulling them both up by the arm.
“No,” Alicia said simply.
“Is he there?” Lily asked hopefully.
“Jacob?” Alicia answered as we walked toward the community center. “I haven't seen him all day, but he could be there now.”
Lily tried to make it seem as if that news didn't bother her, but I could see in her face that she wished with her whole heart that he would be there. Of course, Jacob was there, flirting it up with some girl who was definitely not Lily. They weren't a couple and you couldn't even call them friends but she wanted him to be everything. He is older and sort of a bad boy. She fell hard for him last summer when she tripped over someone's shoe and tumbled in the deep end. Lily wasn't the best swimmer back then, but that summer Jacob also helped her with her stroke.
Liz was sitting on the lip of the shallow end, flirting herself, no doubt, with a blond boy from a neighboring town. She saw us coming and got up to meet us. Liz is the oldest of the four of us.
She wore a bikini near identical to the one Lily wore hidden under her dress, although Lily definitely couldn't fill it out the way Liz did. Liz is also the big talker of the group. “Hey girls,” she said giving us a double hug. “Boy, do I have a lot to tell you,” she added to Lily. Lily and Liz walked together back towards the pool entrance leaving Alicia and I alone.
“I'll be right back, OK,” I said to Alicia. She shook her head yes and headed over to the pool while I went to the changing room. Unlike Lily, I wore more layers to better cover up my lie. I could feel someone watching me as I opened the door to an unoccupied room. I looked to my right to see Jacob just about staring me down. I removed my t-shirt and jean shorts quickly. I did so in the changing room because the removal of clothing in front of strangers isn't on my list of fun things. I opened the door and nearly hit Jacob with it.
If not anywhere else his age was present in his body. He was definitely past puberty. The clear definition of his muscle spoke of an athletic prowess, probably baseball. I couldn't help checking him out. He caught me, of course. “Sorry,” I said backing up against the door.
He had a smug look on his face as if he had this effect on everyone. “'S, Okay,” he said. He placed his hand on the door just to the left of my head. “How's your swimming?”
He thinks I'm Lily. “I'm not-” I cut off when Jacob took his other hand and dragged it slowly down my arm. He went to do it again only this time he started with my hair, brushing his hand down the length of it then my arm and brought it to rest at the small of my back. “You have-” I was cut off again, this time by Lily.
“Jas?” She said it as a sound you'd make after someone slapped you. Something more guttural than an actual word.
I instinctively went to remove his hand from my back. I could see it in her eyes that she wouldn't believe anything I'd try to tell her. When I saw the single tear fall from her eye I took a step toward her but she turned and walked away from me.
“Lily,” I nearly gasped it.
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