Truth or Dare (31 page)

Abby had burst out laughing. “You think I was the one who hung up those photos of Caitlin?” She’d adjusted her blue Hermès scarf, giving Caitlin a disdainful look. “Believe me, I don’t need to sink that low to win. Angel over here is making this a pretty easy race all on her own.” Without another word she’d stalked off, pulling Delancey with her.

Now, sitting only a couple of desks away from Abby in the Festival Committee meeting, Caitlin drummed her fingers nervously against her leg. The pill she’d taken before practice had long since worn off, and she could feel that familiar tinge of panic creeping back into her chest. She didn’t know whether Abby was telling the truth or not. But either way, she still had a new dare to contend with. Just the thought of breaking into Dr. Filstone’s office made her throat begin to tighten up. A nurse’s office was one thing. But a psychiatrist’s locked files? That could earn her a lot more than detention.

“What about… Caitlin?”

At the sound of her name, Caitlin looked up sharply. “Think you
can take the Saturday-morning shift, Caitlin?” Eric asked her. “Then Abby can come relieve you for midday.”

Caitlin flinched. That was just what she needed: one more thing to add to her to-do list. She was already working a shift at the carousel with Tenley on Sunday. And now she’d have to see Abby on a Saturday on top of it. But she forced a smile onto her face, trying her best to look excited. “Sure,” she said.

“Great.” Eric made a note on his trusty clipboard, which he’d been toting around like some kind of trophy all week long. “I’ll be there earlier to set up, so why don’t you meet me at eight thirty, and we can get your costume on before people start showing up?”

Caitlin nodded, thumbing a reminder into her phone. “All right,” Eric said, consulting his clipboard. “I think we’re set, then. Our Fish-a-Fortune booth opens Saturday morning with Cait the Clairvoyant.” He smiled, looking pleased with his use of alliteration.

Caitlin sighed as she packed up her bag and headed out to her car, making sure to avoid Abby on the way. If only she really were clairvoyant. Then maybe she’d know what to do about this dare. And how her campaign speech would go tomorrow—the speech she
still
hadn’t finished writing.

As she drove home, she ran through a mental list of what she had to do that night.

1. Finish campaign speech.
   
2. Practice campaign speech.
   
3. Call Theresa. (Ask for
   her
   campaign speech??)
   
4. Homework. Clearly her teachers hadn’t been informed of the no-homework-in-the-first-week-of-school rule that Tenley insisted was law in Nevada.
   

Just thinking about it all made Caitlin’s head feel as if it were about to implode.

A run.
The idea came to her suddenly. She couldn’t run fast anymore, but she could jog, and it was exactly what she needed before she could face her to-do list. It had been days since she’d even laced on her running shoes, and she could feel her legs aching to move, to pound against the pavement, pumping and pumping until she left everything but herself behind.

As she unlocked her front door, Sailor pounced on her immediately. The house was dark, which meant both her parents were still at work. “I am going for a run,” she informed Sailor. He followed her eagerly upstairs, nudging his nose against her heels.

There was a thin line of light coming from underneath her bedroom door, which was strange. Their housekeeper, Janice, was a stickler for saving energy. She was always unplugging things “for the sake of the environment,” which drove Caitlin’s mom crazy. For a second, Caitlin felt a hot flash of fear. But then she shook her head. Even Janice was allowed to leave a light on once in a while.

She pulled open the door.

Standing next to her dresser, rooting through her underwear drawer, was Tenley.

Sailor let out a bark, running over to circle Tenley’s feet. “What—what are you doing?” Caitlin stammered.

“Caitlin!” Tenley looked up in surprise, her face paling. In her hands was a pair of Caitlin’s laciest underwear, and the emergency bottle of Xexer pills that she kept stashed in the back of that drawer.

“What are you
doing
?” Caitlin asked again, her voice rising this time.

“What am
I
doing?” As Caitlin watched, Tenley quickly slipped
the underwear into her purse. “What are you doing, Cait? Xexer?” She waved the pill bottle at Caitlin. “Why do you have this?”

Caitlin stared at her incredulously. Anger surged inside her, red and hot. “Don’t avoid the question,” she yelled, snatching the bottle out of Tenley’s hands. She grabbed Tenley’s purse, too, digging through it until she found the underwear. She yanked it out, letting it dangle in the air between them. “What the hell are you doing with my underwear, Ten?”

Tenley blew out a long breath, a defeated look crossing her face. “It was a dare,” she whispered. “I had to.”

Caitlin took a step back. “A dare? To break into my house and go through my things and steal my underwear? Are you sure you weren’t
leaving
me a dare?” She hadn’t meant to say it, but the second the words were out, the idea blared in her head as loud as a siren, and just as impossible to ignore.

What if Tenley was the darer? Everything had started right after Tenley moved back to town, right after she persuaded everyone to play that game of truth or dare….

“How could you even ask that, Cait?” Tenley exploded. “I’m your best friend, not the darer! I was doing this to protect you—” She stopped suddenly, clamping her mouth shut.

“What does that even mean?” Caitlin felt dizzy all of a sudden, and she reached out to steady herself on the dresser. She didn’t know what to believe anymore, what to think.

“Nothing,” Tenley said adamantly. She reached up, pushing a strand of hair out of her face. “I just… I was scared the darer would turn on you if I didn’t do what they asked,” she said hurriedly. “Those photos at school today, Cait—they were the work of the darer. I got a
note about it. This person isn’t kidding around.” She moved closer to Caitlin, putting her hand on her arm. “And I know who it is.”

Caitlin blinked as Tenley’s announcement sunk in. “Who?” she whispered.

“It’s Sydney Morgan,” Tenley said, her nails digging half-moons into Caitlin’s arm. “I’m sure of it.”

Caitlin groaned, wrenching her arm out of Tenley’s grip. “Not her again, Tenley! Yes, she found those photos on the beach. That doesn’t mean she’s
stalking
us. What would she even have against us?”

“It’s more than just the photos,” Tenley argued. She had that tiny wrinkle between her eyebrows that she got when she was really upset.

“Then
what
?” Caitlin asked in exasperation.

“It’s… she…” Tenley looked down, trailing off. “It’s just this gut feeling I have,” she said finally. She looked back up. “I’m sure it’s her, Cait.”

“A gut feeling?” Caitlin repeated dully. Her hands were shaking as she shoved the Xexer bottle and underwear back into her drawer, slamming it shut. “Sydney isn’t the one I found sneaking around my room, Tenley,” she said quietly. “She isn’t the one I found stealing my underwear.” She could feel tears springing to her eyes as she looked back at Tenley. “I think you should leave, Ten.”

Tenley opened and closed her mouth, but no sound came out.

“Now,” Caitlin said. Her hand was shaking as she pointed to the door. For a second, Tenley just stood there, frozen. Then, hugging her purse to her chest, she ran out without another word.

Caitlin waited until she heard the front door slam shut before sinking down on her bed. Sailor jumped up next to her, but she barely noticed. All she could think about was the look of shocked guilt on
Tenley’s face when Caitlin walked into the room. She wanted to believe that Tenley would never do anything to hurt her… but how was she supposed to trust her when she was sneaking around behind her back?

Standing up, Caitlin grabbed her car keys. Running was suddenly the last thing on her mind. What she needed right now was a friend. A real one.
Coming over
, she texted Em.
Need to talk!

Emerson was waiting for her on the front porch when she got there. Caitlin had always loved that porch, the way it wrapped all the way around the house, like a protective fortress against the outside world. “Uh-oh,” Emerson said the second she saw her. Emerson was wearing her pajamas—silk polka-dot shorts and a yellow tank top—and her hair was pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head. But even like that, somehow she managed to look glamorous. “What’s wrong, Cait?”

Caitlin collapsed in one of the padded wicker chairs that were scattered around the porch. “It’s everything,” she blurted out. “Remember that dare I showed you on Sunday, when we went to the
Blue Ribbon
? Well, I’ve been getting more of them. They won’t stop.” Several tears pricked at her eyes and she blinked angrily, trying to banish them. “And I was wrong. It’s not any kind of game. It’s not funny at all.”

Emerson hugged her knees to her chest. “Do you have any idea who’s sending them?”

Caitlin shook her head. “I wish I knew. Tenley’s been getting them, too, and she keeps insisting it’s Sydney Morgan, but I’m not so sure. And then today I started thinking maybe it’s Abby, but…” She trailed off, unsure if she wanted to say the words out loud.

“But what?” Emerson pressed.

“But then tonight I found Tenley in my room, going through my things.” She said it in a rush, the words jumbling together. “She said
she wasn’t leaving a dare, but I just… I don’t know what to think anymore, Em.”

“I knew it!” Emerson pounded her fist against the arm of her chair. “I
knew
there was something weird about her.”

Caitlin rested her chin on her hands, squeezing her eyes shut. She wished she could will this all away, wake up to find this week had never happened.

“Think about it,” Emerson went on. “She was at the pier Sunday night, too, remember?”

Caitlin opened her eyes. “I just can’t believe she would do something like that to me.”

“Well, take it from me,” Emerson replied. “Sometimes people aren’t what you think. Sometimes people
change
.” She looked down, picking at her thumbnail, and it hit Caitlin suddenly what a horrible friend she’d been all day. Emerson had just been dumped, and all Caitlin could think about was her own problems.

“I’m sorry, Em. I’m the worst.” She turned to Emerson, trying her hardest to force all thoughts of Tenley and the dares to the back of her mind. “How are you holding up?”

“Pretty crappy. But I guess that’s to be expected.” Emerson shrugged. “I tried to call him, but I think he’s avoiding me. I did leave him a message, though, telling him I need your anklet back.” She gave Caitlin a weak half smile.

Caitlin sighed. If only Emerson had listened to her from the beginning. But she’d had tunnel vision when it came to this guy. She only saw what she wanted to see. “Don’t worry about the anklet,” she said, reaching over to give Emerson a hug. “Really. I care about you, not the jewelry.”

Emerson was quiet as they pulled apart. “I can tell you anything, right, Cait? We’re best friends?”

“Of course,” Caitlin said. She wondered if Emerson was finally going to tell her the identity of Mystery Man. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to know anymore.

Emerson leaned closer to her, a guarded look in her hazel eyes. “This whole thing with
him
,” she said carefully. “I think it’s because I’m being punished… like it’s karma or something.”

“Why?” Caitlin asked.

Emerson stood up abruptly, pacing down the length of the porch. “When you got that first dare about Hunter’s yacht… I was positive Tenley was doing the whole thing just to steal you away from me. I wanted to teach her a lesson. I wanted to protect you from her weird games.”

Caitlin flinched. Protect her. That was what Tenley had said, too. Since when did she need so much protection? “I don’t understand,” she said.

“I sent Tenley a dare. To slip a pill into Jessie’s water bottle before the pep rally on Tuesday. I didn’t really think she’d do it,” Emerson added quickly. “I just thought she’d learn her lesson, you know? Anyway, it was just a Xexer. You know—one of those antianxiety pills?”

Caitlin felt every muscle in her body tense up.
Xexer?
Had Emerson somehow found her stash of pills? “Where did you get it?” she blurted out.

“The pill?” Emerson gave her a strange look. “I stole it from my mom. She has a prescription. I figured even if Tenley
did
go through with the dare, it would just make Jessie really relaxed, fumble her steps at the very worst. Maybe make her lose her spot as captain, which she never deserved in the first place.” She looked down. “I know it sounds horrible, but I swear I never thought she’d get hurt.”

“She had a seizure, Em!” Caitlin said angrily.

“I didn’t know that would happen,” Emerson insisted. Tears filled her eyes. “She must have had a bad reaction to the pill or something.”

“I can’t believe it.” Caitlin shook her head angrily. “I can’t believe you would risk it. Jessie could have
died
. And Tenley! Do you know what she must have been going through?”

She thought of how green Tenley had looked at the pep rally the other day. Now she knew why. It hit her that this meant Tenley must not be the darer. If she was the one sending the dares, why would she
take
one? Caitlin reached up to rub her temples.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen that way.” Emerson grabbed Caitlin’s shoulders. “And I only sent that one dare. You have to believe me.”

Caitlin pulled out of Emerson’s grip. What if Emerson was lying? What if she’d been behind the dares all along? She
had
been at the Club with Caitlin when she received the very first dare, and she was the only person other than her parents who knew about Caitlin’s visits to Dr. Filstone….

Caitlin felt nauseous. Just days ago, she’d had two best friends. Now it felt as though she had two possible enemies.

“Cait?” Emerson said, her voice rising in desperation. “Do you believe me?”

“I don’t know what to believe,” Caitlin said shakily. “I—”