Free The Trip to Raptor Bluff by Annie O'Haegan Page B

when yours runs out.” 
    “Shut up, Tara.”
    Tara saw the glimmer of tears in Reba’s eyes and taunted, “Ooooh, now Piggy is going to cry, isn’t she?”
    Reba ignored the barb and carried her bag back to the tree.  In the past, Tara’s random cruelty could paralyze her for hours.  Today though, Reba dug deep inside herself to find the ember of rage that had begun to smolder after the drugs were found in Tara’s bag.  Tara would implicate Reba in the Oxy scandal with no qualms.  Reba had not taken Oxy since her first nauseating trial, but she had allowed herself to be Tara’s dealing mule.  Tara would go down for buying drugs, but she would make sure that Reba got in at least as much trouble, if not more, for selling drugs to other high school students. 
    Reba tasted the sweetness of chocolate in her mouth but was too preoccupied with fear and self-pity to remember actually eating the candy bar.  As she tore the wrapper from a second bar, Tara made snorting pig noises from her seat by the spring.  It was the last straw.
    “I’m going straight to the cops after we get back, Tara.  I’m telling my parents about your Oxy habit first, and then I’m going straight to the cops.  I’m going to tell them everything.”
    “And how is that going to help you, Piggy?” scoffed Tara.  “You sold the drugs to other kids, not me.  I didn’t force you to do anything.  It’s as simple as that, moron.  You will be in ten times more trouble than me.  Besides, I am the poor addict, remember?  I can’t control myself.  What’s your excuse for dealing drugs to kids?” 
    Tara’s cruel eyes glittered from across the small clearing and Reba’s smoldering rage erupted into flame.  Enough was enough.  “I changed my mind.  I don’t need to go to the police at all. My second act, after I tell my parents about your habit, will be to call your dealer. That was his Oxy you brought on this trip wasn’t it?  There is no way you had the cash to buy a whole two weeks’ worth.  It was your dealer’s Oxy and you were supposed to sell it, but you stole it instead.”
    The fright that swept across Tara’s face was all the confirmation and encouragement Reba needed.
    “Here’s my story, Tara.  I am going to tell your dealer that you were planning to blackmail him.  You took his drugs like you were going to sell them, but you brought them on this trip, for your own use, instead.  I will tell your dealer that you told me you were going to turn in his dealers if he didn’t give you free drugs from now on.”  The threat Reba uttered so matter-of-factly had materialized from out of nowhere but it clearly found its mark.
    Tara’s bravado sounded false even to herself when she said, “Yeah, like I even know who his dealers are!”
    “I am going to tell him that you know all about his chain of dealers – that you followed him all over Del Norte and Humboldt Counties until you knew where he got his supply.  He is going to take my word over yours and you know it.  You are just a lying addict who will sell her soul for a few pills.  Why would he trust you anyway?  After all, you did steal the Oxy you brought on this trip.”
    The words slammed home.  Tara’s face drained to a sickly gray color and her terrified eyes blinked rapidly.  “You don’t even know who my dealer is.”
    “You are so stupid! How many times did you leave your phone lying around?  I’ve stolen every number in your contact list, and I know exactly which number to call first.  You always turned your back on me and whispered in your phone when you called your dealer, didn’t you?  Then you left your phone sitting around and I got the number.  It was simple.”  Reba was lying but it didn’t matter.  Tara believed her and that was good enough.
    “Reba, you can’t!  They will kill me!  Literally!  The big guys will kill me if they think I know who they are and that I threatened to turn them in!”
    “Which is why you