Free Dancing With the Devil by Katie Davis

his head away and scowled at him, but Dante was unfazed.
    He said, “I’ve got a fresh tube of Brave Soldier if you promise not to use it all.” He held up the ointment and waggled it in the air.
    Frankie said, “I wish that stuff could’ve repaired the inside of my knee like it did the outside.”
    Charlie waved them off and struck a pose like a veteran’s statue. Quoting the Brave Soldier website, he said, “My wounds are the price paid for adventure or for victory!”
    â€œWell, I hope you’re having some of the adventure, ’cause it looks like those baby heads claimed victory.”
    â€œBaby heads?” Mac asked.
    Frankie patted her back and smiled. “See? There are purists left in the world. You are a true roadie, Mac.”
    â€œBaby heads,” Charlie said. “The rocks in the trail the size of, you know, a baby’s head. And I am clearing them. Usually.”
    Dante made a face. “I don’t know why you bother with the trails if it’s so brutal.”
    Charlie slung his backpack over his shoulder and winced. “It may be rough, but I only get cardio on the road. The trail’s great for wind sprints and skills.”
    â€œYou better keep working on those skills then, dude,” Frankie said, pointing to Charlie’s latest injuries. “And you better not let Otis see those. It’s obvious you didn’t get them riding pavement, and then he’ll know the trails are keeping you from your road miles. The ones he assigned to get you ready for our road trip.”
    Mac didn’t even have the energy it would take to care about any of this. She just felt monotone. No thoughts. No interior monologue questioning it. Just a flatline of apathy. She shook her head to clear it. “I gotta get to class.”
    Frankie trotted a few steps and caught up. “What?”
    Mac barely looked up. It was nothing she wanted to talk about. “It’s only … I don’t know. Just … why bother?”
    â€œWhat are you saying? The trip? The one you’ve been talking about for six freaking years ? Your dad is finally letting you leave the house and now you’re all like, ‘Why bother?’ Did you even open the envelope?”
    â€œNo.” Mac was too exhausted with everything to gather enough curiosity to look at it.
    Frankie growled in frustration. “Mackenzie! When are you going to open it?”
    Mac stopped in the hall outside the main office and shifted her backpack to her other shoulder. “You obviously want to tell me, so just say it so I can get to class.”
    Frankie sighed and shook her head. “For weeks you’ve been wallowing in all this self-pity, and when I try to do something that might make you happy, what do you do? Ignore it. If you want to know, open the damn envelope.” She stalked off down the hallway.
    For the first time since they were little, Frankie and Mackenzie stopped talking. Days turned into weeks, and Mac still refused to open the envelope.
    Mackenzie began to think of it almost as another person, mocking her, propped on her dresser as it was, taunting her. She willfully ignored it. She was stronger. She would win.
    Lying in her bed after school one afternoon, she grunted as she stared at it, realizing she was having conversations in her head with a freaking envelope. She heard Lily’s footsteps stomping down the hallway and come to a stop outside Mac’s bedroom door. Mackenzie rolled over and lay with her back to the door, staring at the wall, when Lily tiptoed into her room. Mackenzie closed her eyes, hoping Lily would get bored and leave.
    â€œKenzie? Why are you always in bed from now on?” Lily asked as she crawled over Mackenzie’s limp body and tumbled to the other side. She scooched and wriggled for a bit, finding a comfortable position to face her sister.
    Mac just moaned and kept her eyes shut.
    Lily raised her little hands and