"I won't. This isn't just about Melanie, it's also about Kelsey," I said. "I can't lose another person I love. I'm also not willing to let someone get away with almost killing me. I'm ready to step up and do what needs to be done." I lifted my chin in the air as I squared my shoulders. I'd never considered myself a particularly brave person. But I needed to be that person for my sister and for Melanie.
Melanie's Diary—July 28th
Boys suck! Instead of hanging out with us on Friday nights, some of the guys have started having poker parties, no girls allowed.
I blame Drake for this. Ever since he came home from college, he's been into poker. He likes the competition and the mind games. He says there's nothing better than a good bluff.
I think there are a lot of things that are better, but the guys love to follow Drake. It's funny how popular he is with both the rich kids and the locals. They all love him. The guys want to be his bro and the girls want to make out with him. I think part of his appeal is that he just doesn't care if he's popular. He's so confident in who he is. He knows exactly what he wants in life. He's going to be a reporter. He's going to break big news stories. He's going to change the world.
I'm sure all that will happen, because Drake is stubborn. He won't quit, no matter what. Sometimes, that's a real drag. If he can't do something he thinks he can do, he'll just keep trying over and over again. We once stayed at the batting cage for over an hour because he couldn't believe he couldn't hit the ball over the homerun line when he was such a good hitter. I bet some of the girls who like him would not like him so much if they knew how annoying he can be.
Mom says I should be glad I have a popular big brother. It hasn't helped me at all. Most of his friends treat me like a kid, and I am not a kid. I'm sixteen. I'm practically a woman. With a woman's needs. Okay, even I'm laughing now. I don't know about a woman's needs, but I do know what desire feels like, that tingly feeling you get when something amazing is about to happen. My heart flutters and my stomach jumps around, and I get this restless, reckless feeling. It's actually amazing.
Except it doesn't happen all that often. Especially now that the guys are into poker.
Tonight, Willow, Jenny, and I spied on them while they were playing in Ben's garage. There were seven of them in the garage: Ben, Dillon and Drake representing the locals, and Gage, James, Alex, and Carter from Chambers' Point. They had the door open because it's so hot. They were drinking beers and burping, which was disgusting, and then James started talking about sex.
That was interesting. It sounds like he and Brooklyn get into some weird stuff. Although Gage asked him if he really did that shit with Brooklyn, and James just laughed.
I think James is kind of a pig. I bet he's not faithful to Brooklyn. He's too slimy. He's good-looking, but I don't trust him.
When everyone started asking Drake about his sex life, I made Jenny and Willow leave. I do not want to hear about who my brother is hooking up with. That is too gross.
To get back at the boys, we went down to the beach and tried to pick up some new guys. They don't live up at Chamber's Point. These guys are from the new development by Moss Landing. New-money kids. I thought a couple of them were cute, but Jenny and Willow weren't interested. I think they both wished they were still spying on the game in Ben's garage. Willow is still into Drake. They've been meeting at the newspaper office. I don't know what's going on there. I think Drake is going to break her heart, but she won't talk to me about him. I don't know who Jenny is into. I think it might be Carter or Alex. She seems to flip-flop between them.
I was right to make them leave. We can't keep hoping certain guys take interest in us. There are plenty of fish in the sea, as my mom likes to say. I'm thinking we need some new fish. We're halfway through the summer and none of us are that happy about our love lives, mostly because we don't have love lives. Maybe that will change. Fingers crossed!
Chapter Seventeen
After a few hours of sleep, I got up early on Thursday morning, meeting Brooklyn downstairs at eight.
"I was just about to leave," Brooklyn said, giving me an impatient look. "Where's the Lexus? I didn't see it in the garage."
"I lost my key, so I left it downtown. I'll get it later."
"That's great. You need to get it as soon as we come back. What if Mom and Dad want to go somewhere?"
"I'll get it right after we return. Are Mom and Dad joining the search party?" I asked, as I put on my jacket.
"No. They're staying here."
Which meant they probably didn't care that I'd left the Lexus at Willie's. Brooklyn just liked to remind me of how careless I could be, not that she had any idea what had actually happened.
As Brooklyn drove us across town, I wondered if I should tell her about James and Carter and our conversation at Willie's, or whether I should tell her about getting shoved into the harbor and almost drowning, but she wasn't making it easy to say anything. She'd turned on the radio and amped up the volume. Speaking over the music would not be easy. Clearly, she didn't want to talk to me. But I wanted to talk to her.
I turned down the music. "Brooklyn, I overheard you and James talking in your room last night."
She shot me a dark, wary look. "This morning is about Kelsey. It's about finding our sister."
"Yes, it is, but last night you were talking about Melanie, about covering up for James. Why did you lie for him?"
A long minute passed before Brooklyn said, "I loved him. I wanted to protect him."
It was such a simple answer, and yet there were so many complicated consequences to her decision. "That was wrong."
"Yes, it was." She glanced over at me. "You're surprised I know that?"
"I am. I'm also surprised you told me the truth."
"James had nothing to do with Melanie's disappearance. He got drunk, and he passed out on the beach. When he woke up, he came to our house and begged me to sneak him inside. He couldn't go home. He didn't remember the code. He didn't want to wake up his parents. They'd threatened to take him out of college if he had another bad incident with alcohol. He was already on probation. He promised me he'd go to rehab if I just let him stay there. When I said yes, I didn't know Melanie was going to disappear. I didn't find out until the next morning. And then James asked me to say he'd been with me all night and had left shortly before the police arrived at our house."
"Did you wonder why he needed you to be his alibi if he was innocent?"
"No, because he was trying to keep his drinking a secret from his parents. I knew where he was."
"You knew where he told you he was," I corrected.
"I know James. He's not a violent person. He couldn't hurt anyone, except himself."
I wasn't so sure of that. I remembered the way he'd grabbed me at the bonfire, the way his fingers had ground into my arms. He'd been out of control, and he'd felt strong and overpowering until the alcohol caught up to him and took him down. Before that happened, I'd felt very uneasy.