What She Found in the Woods

‘I’ve volunteered before,’ I admit

‘I should have figured,’ Mila says as I settle in.

I smile, but not too much, because I can’t really read if she meant it as a compliment or a jab. Her tone teeters somewhere just in between, and her face gives away nothing. Just like Jinka, Mila likes to keep you off balance. But that’s OK. And because it’s OK, I can look out the window and sigh contentedly. It feels good to not crave approval from someone who won’t fully give it so she can stay a few steps ahead.

‘I know, right?’ Mila says in response to my sigh as she takes the turn to Aura-Blue’s house. She completely misinterprets it, though. ‘Volunteering is the best job there is.’

Only if you don’t need money, I think, but I don’t need to say that to Mila. She’s trying to be a good person. And at least she didn’t say something ridiculous like, ‘Everyone should do it.’ The Five of us used to say ridiculous stuff like that all the time.

The truth is, before I created something that got us out of it, all Five of us volunteered regularly. Our mothers were big on charity, or more accurately, charity parties. Socially, you aren’t someone unless you have a cause and throw a star-studded ball to raise money for it.

I think about Bo and what he would say about us rich girls volunteering. Probably, ‘I’ll help.’ For some reason, I don’t think Bo judges anyone, including rich girls.

‘Thinking about Rob?’ Mila asks teasingly.

I’m so thrown I actually sputter. ‘What? I don’t . . . What are you talking about?’

Mila laughs. ‘You’re love-struck, honey.’ She slaps the side of my leg as she pulls up in front of Aura-Blue’s house. ‘I get it.’ She pulls the handbrake and faces me. ‘Listen, before anyone else tells you, I want you to hear it from me.’ Her lovely heart-shaped face is solemn. ‘Rob and I used to date. Long time ago, though. I’ve been with Liam for half a year now.’

I recall the tension that brewed between Liam and Rob at the barbecue at the first mention of Liam’s girlfriend. ‘Ooohhh,’ I say, like I just got a joke. ‘That’s what that was.’

Just then Aura-Blue shouts to us from the house, ‘Do you guys want some of my mom’s fakeon and egg-substitute wraps?’

I roll down my window and shout back, ‘I’m fine!’ I look at Mila. ‘Did you want some . . . kind of vegan breakfast wrap?’

‘No,’ she says, thrown. She intended her confession to create more turmoil in me. Rookie. I can’t remember the last time I dated a guy that hasn’t dated one of my friends first, or the other way around.

‘We’re both fine,’ I shout to Aura-Blue, who nods and starts towards the car biting into her wrap. Damn. That actually looks delicious. I should have accepted.

‘Wait,’ Mila says, pinching her eyes shut to give her brain a chance to pan back to our pre-Aura-Blue conversation. ‘What what was?’

‘Nothing,’ I say, waving it away because it would take me too long to explain. ‘Full disclosure, I used to date Liam.’

Oops. From the look on her face, I guess Liam didn’t tell her. But Mila doesn’t get a chance to reply because Aura-Blue bustles into the back seat of the car in a flurry of tie-dyed clothes and coconut-oil-scented hair.

‘Did you hear?’ Aura-Blue asks breathlessly.

‘What?’ I say, twisting in my seat to give her my full attention. I’m done playing this stupid power game with Mila. Hopefully forever.

‘The police don’t think that woman – you know, the one who got mauled?’ she asks, and I nod my head to keep her talking. ‘They think everything the bear . . . you know . . . did to her . . .’ She glances at me in the rear-view mirror, trying to not say anything too graphic. ‘Anyway, the bear’s bites happened hours after she was already dead. So the cause of death wasn’t the bear. He just happened upon her body in the woods, and . . .’

‘Ate part of her,’ Mila finishes for her.

‘Yeah.’ Aura-Blue is holding her breath, waiting for us to beg her to continue.

I comply. ‘Do they know what killed her, then?’ I ask.

Aura-Blue goes back and gives us a little exposition to build the tension. ‘My grandpa was the old sheriff, and he’s still really close with the new sheriff. You know, they have a student– sensei relationship. It’s really cool,’ she adds. Too much exposition in my opinion, but she gets back on track. ‘Anyway, and the new sheriff, Sheriff Whitehall, told my pappy last night that the FBI is launching a murder investigation.’

‘Shut up,’ Mila says.

‘The FBI?’ I ask. ‘Why not just the sheriff station?’

‘She was from out of state, so the FBI has to get involved,’ Aura-Blue explains. ‘The coroner said that her injuries weren’t consistent with a mauling, but he did find something that might be a stab wound.’

Mila glances back in the rear-view mirror at Aura-Blue. ‘So you’re saying there’s a murderer somewhere in the woods just outside our town?’ she asks in a too-calm way.

‘Yeah,’ Aura-Blue replies, deflating. On that realization, she’s not so happy to be the bearer of all this information. She shakes herself, brightening. ‘But my grandpa always thinks there’s a mass murderer lying in wait somewhere in the woods. It’s kind of his hobby.’