Free Uncertainty by Abigail Boyd Page B

the chill of the basement floor. It hadn't dropped from the nineties during the day, and even in the nighttime it hadn't dipped below seventy. "An unprecedented heat wave" the cheerful weatherman had called it. I called it a sweat fest.
    Even though we were separated by a foot, I could feel a faint electric thrumming emanating from her. That didn't even seem strange anymore. It was amazing what you could get used to.
    Another explosion set off the surround sound speakers and shook the floor.
    "What the gods are they watching up there?" Jenna asked, pointing her fingers like a gun at the ceiling.
    "Something with explosions instead of plot."
    "That doesn't seem like either of your parents' style. Was Masterpiece Theater a repeat?" Her hands were resting on her stomach, sloping down from gravity.
    It felt weird to shrug while laying down. "They're entering midlife crisis time. They keep insisting we try new things."
    In all the time that we'd spent together, we'd avoided any deep topics. Jenna had never been a politics in the middle east person, anyway. But it hadn't stopped me from thinking about things, especially when I laid down to sleep at night.
    Last year, I'd found out that Jenna had been hanging out with Lainey and her cronies behind my back. It jived with the fact that Jenna had begun to pull away from me in the months before her disappearance. She had started to go out partying, something we were never big on.
    "Answer me this," I said.
    "Shoot."
    I rested my own hands against my stomach, mimicking her posture. I was careful not to touch her in case one of those shocks happened again. I didn't know if it would happen for sure, but I didn't want to chance it.
    "Did you hang out with Lainey and Madison and not tell me about it?"
    The silence that followed told me she was caught. I was surprised at how jealous it still made me feel, the old wound instantly splitting fresh.
    I sat up and looked at her unmistakably guilty face. Her necklace had fallen back into her hair. Her mouth opened and shut several times. Rinse and repeat.
    "How did you know about that?" she asked quietly, caught in her own web.
    "So it is true?" I asked. I had known it was, of course — Theo had been the one to tell me, and she was the most honest person I'd ever met. I just wanted to hear Jenna admit it.
    "Yeah." She pulled a strand of hair through her teeth.
    "Why didn't you tell me?"
    "Because you would have shunned me," Jenna said. Her eyes flicked to my face, searching my emotions. "Don't tell me you wouldn't, because it's completely true. I know you better than your own hand, Ariel Rose Donovan."
    "Would you blame me?" I asked, still feeling the burn of jealousy, though it was fading. Film machine gun fire erupted above. "Why would you ever hang out with those vipers? We've hated them since first grade. Was it about being popular?"
    "I never cared about that. I still don't. My mom...thought it would be a good idea," she said carefully. As if timed for us, another boom from the TV rumbled above.
    "Since when do you do anything Rachel says?" I questioned. "You normally run in the opposite direction as a rule."
    "Well, yeah, normally," Jenna admitted. "But it seemed so important to her."
    "Why?" I had waited so long for any answers, and didn't think I'd ever get any. I had built up a reserve of questions.
    "Mom was talking about joining that stupid Thornhill Society," Jenna said. "And she said it would help if I got in good with Lainey, because her dad is like one of their bigwigs. And she and dad had been fighting so much over money..."
    That made no sense. It made me think of McPherson's timely induction. Thornhill members were supposed to be the wealthy people in town, not the regular schlubs like Jenna's parents.
    "Why would they even consider your family?" I asked bluntly.
    "Maybe they needed more butt-kissers."
    I let the subject drop for now.
    "When you and Lainey were together, did you guys talk about me?" I asked lamely. I shut my eyes.