Free You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

Katie felt her body tighten. “When I was little, my mom ran over our border collie, Hanro. I saw the whole thing from my bedroom window.” She paused. “Obviously, this is much worse.”
    Neck snapped, skull crushed . Katie couldn’t say anything, and she wanted Gwen to stop talking.
    “That’s why I never let Lacey have a pet,” Gwen concluded, unzipping her jacket with a jerk and leaning back.
    She thought of Ryan, that graceful boyish body, how he moved so easily, his arm like a slip of silk sliding across Hailey’s shoulders, head dipping. At Weaver’s Wagon she’d always see him coming from the kitchen in his line-cook apron, that bright ribbon of teeth, waving to the booster club, to Eric, to her.
    “I have to go,” Katie found herself saying, rising abruptly, gathering her bag, book, headphones. “I’m taking Drew to the museum after swim class. I’ll be back.”
    “Right,” Gwen said. “Well, I’ll talk to Eric later. About everything. A plan.”
    “A plan?” Katie felt her ponytail unfurling slowly from its band but didn’t want to stop to fix it. She hadn’t intended to leave or take Drew to a museum, but now it seemed like the perfect thing.
    “I wouldn’t say it to everyone,” Gwen said, lowering her voice and moving closer, “but we do have to think ahead. I don’t need to tell you Elite Qualifiers are forty days away. I know Devon’s had that clock ticking inside her for two years.”
    “You’re right,” Katie said. “You don’t need to tell me.”
    “Teddy says he’ll be back by tomorrow,” Gwen continued, “but who knows if he’ll be in any condition to address gym issues. I’m going to send out some feelers.”
    “Gwen, this isn’t the time. It was just two days ago.”
    Conversations with Gwen often felt like assaults and Katie never knew when to duck. Best to duck the whole time , Eric always said. He suffered the most, from the constant e-mails, the way she tried to dominate at meetings, the courting of other club members for key votes (“Gwen took me to Haven for a spa day and we talked a long time about the new floors. And I think the extra money is worth it. It’s a safety issue, really”).
    She’s passionate, Eric once said, with a shrug.
    She’s passionate when you agree with her, Katie replied.
    She was nearly to the final set of steps, nearly free, when Gwen called out after her.
    “Oh, and Katie,” she said, swooping down the steps like a falcon. “I meant to tell you, it was so nice of Devon to come to Lacey’s party Saturday night. The girls look up to her so much. I always tell Lacey: do as Devon does.”
    “She wouldn’t have missed it,” Katie said. She couldn’t summon much memory of Saturday as separate from any other night. Laundry. Lawrence Welk bleating from Mrs. Martz’s house next door. Going to the dollar store, late, for rock salt for Drew.
    Had she gone to bed early? When had Eric taken Devon to the party? Had Devon had any fun at all?
    The only thing she could recall vividly was that two a.m. surprise. Feeling Eric reach across, sleepily grazing the small of her back, the tenderness turning so quickly into something else, his hands between her thighs. Something different about it that she couldn’t put her finger on, but it made her face warm now just thinking about it.
    By then, she realized with a jolt, Ryan Beck was probably already dead. The thought was so odd and ugly, she shivered.
    “So how is Devon dealing with all this,” Gwen asked, looking closely at Katie, “with Ryan?” As if she could read her mind.
    “It’s hard for all of us.”
    “You know how dramatic girls can be at that age. With their crushes.”
    “Crushes?” Turning too quickly, Katie nearly lost her footing on the bottom step.
    Gwen paused, looking at Katie, blinking three times.
    “Well, who didn’t have a crush on that sexy young man?”
    “Everyone liked him,” Katie said, dropping her foot to the floor.
    “Didn’t you?” Gwen added,