Lola

7

Dani

The look Cam gives me tells me all I need to know. His eyes scrutinize my face accusingly. I fight the urge to stomp my foot dramatically. "I didn't tell her."

"So Caitlyn, your best friend, just showed up at this very remote and abandoned location selected specifically by me as a place where Lola and I could spend time together without any chance of being seen by people by chance?"

It's clear he doesn't believe me. "I didn't even know you'd be taking me anywhere, let alone here! How could I possibly have told her when the only time I've spoken to her today was before I even knew this place existed?"

He is slow to reply and I can sense that he's realising the many flaws in his logic. "Well, somebody had to have tipped her off and it sure as hell wasn't me! You could have easily texted her in the car or when you were off barging into Lola's building! What did you do - get her to follow us, send her our co-ordinates, what?"

Ï pull my phone out of my pocket and hold it out. "Go for your life and scroll through every message in this thing, you'll just prove yourself wrong."

Cam looks down. "I'm not gonna go through your phone."

"Why not, if I'm so suspicious and untrustworthy?"

"Look, there's just gotta be some way that she found us and I'm looking at the most likely options."

"Well I'm sorry but I can't help you. I don't know how she found this place or why she came here, but yelling at me for stuff I didn't do isn't really going to help."

He doesn't look up. "Sorry," he mumbles.

I nod. "I get you want this to stay under wraps so it doesn't cause trouble. But seriously - I don't even know you and suddenly you're driving me to abandoned quarries and involving me in some secret investigation scheme that nobody can know about. Doesn't that seem a little weird to you?"

"Everything has been weird since I met Lola."

"Yeah, whatever, but I mean creepy weird. So far this afternoon I've gotten in a random guy's car and let him drive me to a remote location far out of town where nobody would be able to find me."

"I suppose when you put it that way it doesn't sound great."

"No, it really doesn't."

He is quiet for a few moments that feel like an eternity. "My friends know I was close with Lola."

"You have friends?"

"Shut up, I already told you I do. Lola used to hang out with all of us sometimes when we could get away from school and come out here or something. If you'd feel better about other people knowing what we're up to in case something goes wrong, we could talk to them."

"How come you get to tell your friends but I don't get to tell my friends."

"Okay then, what friends do you have left other than Caitlyn?"

His words sting, but he has a point. I never really got close to anyone except Lola and Caitlyn, and now that Lola is gone, Caitlyn is all I have left. But something tells me that nothing good would come out of telling her what I'm up to - especially after this afternoon's weird SUV incident. "I guess you've got me there. Who are these friends of yours, anyway?"

"You probably wouldn't know them, but Kel, Mara and Zig. We were the four participants in our first science team challenge for St Kilda back in seventh grade. That's basically how I met them."

"Somehow I'm not surprised. So can we trust these losers not to screw everything up?"

He nods confidently. "I'm sure of it."