Help Me

Chapter 5

“We haven’t talked in forever, Suzie,” Eleanor said, handing a bottle of water to Suzie as she sat down.

“I’ve been really busy, Ella,” she said apologetically. 

“Not too busy for my brother and his partners-in-crime,” she smiled, “Then again, a new girl in a small town. Not too many guys to pick from. I was raised with them, but maybe you think they’re cute?”

Suzie shook her head, “Fat chance. Andy’s too annoying, Jack is condescending, and Nathan is-”

She paused. Nathan Gray, the first person in this town to speak to her. What could she say about him? Too nice? Too happy? Too Adventurous? She wasn’t sure how to finish it. Luckily, Ella picked up where she left off.

“Nathan is the only good one out of the bunch. I doubt you’d want him. He’s also the only one dumb enough to do the dares.”

“Dares? What dares?” Suzie asked.

“You haven’t seen the dares? My goodness, those boys are crazy stupid. About once every few weeks, they get bored and they dare each other to do something. Once, Andy came home missing an eyebrow because Jack dared him to lick a burning stick. The last one I heard about was Nathan. They dared him to go into the woods a little over a month ago.”

“What’s the big deal? They go into the woods all the time.”

“The guys have this- obsession with Elizabeth Thomas. She’s not right in the head and they all devise these schemes to mess with her. Even the older kids. The girls turn up their noses and spread rumors and the boys threw things at her and tormented her to no end. At the end of October, Andy dared Nathan to go find Elizabeth in the woods because they’d heard a rumor about her. The next day, Andy came home from Jack’s house babbling like a water fountain. Something about bodies and blood and witchcraft,” Ella rolled her eyes, “I’ve never met anyone with as creative and exaggerative an imagination as my brother’s.”

“Andy told me a while back that something happened between Nathan and Elizabeth. Was that it?”

“It must have been. Nathan avoided the girl at all costs, though nobody knows why. He’d joke about her, but to my knowledge he’s never laid a finger on her or even spoken with her. Like I said, he’s the only good one.”

“So what happened? With him and her.”

“Nobody knows,” Ella stretched out her legs and stared distastefully at her unpainted toes, “Enough about them. Why don’t we treat ourselves to a mini-spa day? We haven’t done one of those since I was ten. You were, what, eight?”

“Yeah,” Suzie said, but her mind was elsewhere. Nathan Gray had a secret, she knew. But Andy hadn’t said it was this big. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to march over to his house right then and demand the full story. She didn’t care about painting her nails or mani/pedis. She hadn’t cared about that in over five years. The year Scott came into their lives.

“What’s wrong?” Ella asked, returning with a basket full of different-colored nail polishes. Suzie felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn’t even realized her friend had left.

“Nothing,” Suzie lied.

“Suzie Blake, I’ve known you for awhile now. I can tell when something’s wrong. Now, tell me,” she dropped the basket on the floor and sat down next to Suzie. A strand of red hair fell into her face and she tucked it behind her ear, “If you don’t, I’ll force it out of you.”

“It’s really nothing. I was just thinking about the old days,” Technically, it wasn’t a lie.

Ella was silent for a few moments, her clear green eyes searching Suzie’s face. Satisfied, she sat back, “If something was bothering you, you’d tell me right? You know I’m always here for you, no matter what.”