“So, what happened after that?”

Autumn put her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her hands. It was pouring outside, everyone crammed in the cafeteria until it tapered off. Lena sighed, wishing she hadn’t brought up the talk with Jason before class. It was all the other girl had thought about since.

“He asked if I wanted to watch the meteor shower with him next weekend,” she said flatly. Autumn gaped at her.

“No. Way. Jason Vetra asked you out?”

“I don’t know,” she bit back a groan. “Is that a big deal or something?”

“Jason’s probably the most popular guy in town,” Autumn made it sound like she should have known that by now. “Just about every girl wants him, some guys, too.”

Lena shrugged.

“I’m sure he just wants someone to watch it with,” a guy like Jason, wanting to date her? Yeah, right. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Autumn sighed dramatically.

“You don’t get it yet,” she said. “He’s popular, but he’s pretty uneasy around girls, he doesn’t talk to us unless he really likes us.”

Lena eyed her suspiciously.

“How do you know all this about him?” she asked. “Ty said you’d barely looked at Jason before I showed up.”

Autumn twirled her hair, a key sign she was hiding something.

“Oh, I asked around,” she began innocently, cut off by a half-annoyed scoff behind her.

“Or you just asked me,” a tall boy with wavy, nearly blood red hair and pale blue-gray eyes sat next to her, tugging a silver cross necklace from the collar of his dark purple T-shirt. She shot him a glare with no real heat.

“You’re not the only one I talked to, Lance,” she said. Lance shook his head, his thin lips still curled in that half-smile. Lena had heard about him from Ty and the others, but this was the first time she’d really seen him.

“You get obsessed with the weirdest things,” he told Autumn, before digging in his checkered backpack for a Wendy’s bag. She rolled her eyes, turning away as she peeled the wrapper off a granola bar. She was a strict vegetarian, since she couldn’t digest most of the proteins in meat. Chad groaned in frustration at the other end of the table, tearing the latest scribble-covered page from his notebook and crumpling it up. Ty sat across from him with his earbuds in, looking over a packet of sheet music.

“That’s the eighth time you’ve done that,” Lena noted as Chad tossed the page in the trash. “What are you trying to do over there?”

“These lyrics aren’t coming together,” he grumbled. She moved down a seat and looked over the other page. Several lines had been copied two or three times, others crossed out or stopped in the middle.

“It’ll never work if you keep trying to force it,” she took the pen from him. “Why don’t you try thinking about something else for a while?”

“Would if I had time,” he took it back. “But the concert’s next month.”

She looked at him in confusion.

“What concert?”

“It’s a fundraiser,” Lance explained. “Local musicians and artists get together to raise money for whatever the town votes on. This time, it was a women’s shelter.”

Autumn scoffed.

“Because guys never get abused,” she crossed her arms. “I’m so sick of no one talking about that side of it.”

Lena shook her head.

“It’s that whole ‘men don’t need protection’ mindset,” she said. “Most of them won’t admit to being abused, especially by women, because most people won’t believe them. They’d just be laughed out of the station if they tried to report it.”

Ty flipped the page of the music packet and set it down.

“Hate to say it, but you’re pretty much right,” he put in. “It really ticks me off, too, and I heard most of those shelters won’t even accept guys.”

“Unless they’re babies,” Chad cut in. Lance looked around in the uncomfortable silence that followed, then sighed in frustration.

“Okay, where’s Jason?” he checked the time on his phone, as thunder rumbled angrily overhead. The storm was finally dying down. “He said he’d show up a while ago.”

“I saw him with Stephanie,” Chad shut his notebook and stuck his pen in the spiral binding. “It was getting pretty heated, again.”

The words caused an unexpected twinge of jealousy; Lena gripped hard on her skirt under the table, hoping the emotion didn’t show on her face.

“What were they fighting about?” she hated how tight her voice sounded. He shrugged.

“Don’t know, they walked away before I could catch it.”

“Isn’t she supposed to be dating Eric Stalker?” Autumn asked. The boys glanced at each other. Eric was captain of the baseball team and Jason’s top rival for the best athlete in school. He’d apparently been hung up on Stephanie since sixth grade, and would do whatever she asked him to.

“I was starting to think they broke up,” Ty rubbed the back of his neck. “I haven’t seen them together in weeks.”

Chad snorted a laugh.

“I don’t know how anyone could date her,” he pretended to gag. “That bitch is insane!”

Lance glared at him.

“Yeah? Well, try living with her,” he complained. “You wouldn’t last a day.”

Chad laughed again.

“Yeah, man,” he shook his head. “I don’t know how you’ve survived this long!”

“Wait, she’s your sister?” Lena turned to Lance. He groaned.

“As much as I hate to admit it.”

Another stretch of silence followed, then Autumn jumped to her feet.

“And I think we’ve sat here long enough,” she smiled at them. “Who wants to try that new all-organic place in town?”

“Can’t,” Chad answered quickly, grabbing his backpack. He shoved his notebook in and threw a strap over his shoulder. “I’ve got a dentist appointment.”

“Practice,” Ty and Lance echoed, packing their own things. A hurricane wouldn’t be enough to get soccer cancelled. Lena tried to follow as they ran off, remembering what had happened last time they’d tried a place Autumn had suggested; she’d never seen people puke so much. Autumn grabbed her sleeve, gazing at her with puppy eyes. Lena swallowed.

“Uh, Kara heard about that last murder on the news,” she said quickly. It had been a month since the killings had started, and the police still had almost nothing to work with. “She moved my curfew up.”

“Oh, please,” Autumn let her go. “You said yourself that Kara’s been out of town the last couple weeks, she probably doesn’t even know about them!”

She stood up and put her hands on her hips.

“Besides, why would someone killing old men suddenly go after two girls?”

Lena looked at her, hoping a new excuse would pop into her head.

“Ugh, fine,” she huffed, getting to her feet. “But if I end up dead, I get to haunt you.”

Autumn laughed.

“Deal!”