But they joined the rest of the group just as John spat out something. “Nope. Gross. Those things do not cook well…”

Tom glared at Claire and joked: “No snacks? You lured me here under false pretenses…”

“Right,” Lizzy replied, “because you were enjoying your alone time so much… Tell me, Mr. Popular, when is the last time you weren’t desperately trying to have a little court of worshipers around you?”

“I don’t know, Miss Mean Girl, how are you enjoying life without make-up?”

“Okay, I think everyone needs to step back and chill,” Edwin pointed out.

As usual, Tom would have liked to keep trying to push Lizzy’s buttons, and the feeling was probably mutual, but… they also both seemed to agree that the global situation was more important than whatever that thing between them was.

“How’s Jamie?” Tom asked instead, willing to change the subject.

Edwin shrugged. “He didn’t seem to have a fever but… Let’s see how he is doing in the morning.” In a way, it made sense to wait to see how things would evolve but Tom had a feeling that, by doing that, what they were really doing was trying to wish the problem away. Not that he was judging the others in any way, he was definitely including himself in this. He wanted to be able to not think about it until they knew for a fact what was happening and whether they could do something about it or not.

All the while knowing that the terrifying answer was: no, they would not be able to do anything about it.

“Maya asked me again if I thought we would get home soon,” Claire admitted. “Like a coward, I said yes, but… we’re stuck here, right?”

“Well it’s not like coming here in the first place made sense,” Tom tempered. “So we never know.” He could hear how fake that sounded but no one commented. Why would they argue against something they were all desperate would be true.

“What’s the first thing you’ll do when we get back?” John asked, apparently willing to entertain the glass half-full hypothesis.

“Take a real shower and brush my teeth,” Lizzy replied almost instantly and Tom had to admit that he was with her on that one. Honestly… without toothpaste, how long until their teeth started to rot? And would that even matter if they all died from other medical emergencies first?

“I would go see my father,” Tom contributed to the conversation. Yes. That was the first thing he would do. Run to his father, hug him, and swear he didn’t leave him behind.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” John interrupted. “And I’ll stop at the first place that sells a hamburger. Hygiene, food, family… we’ll all do that. Anyone would do that. But… I don’t know, being here makes me feel like I need to sort my life when I get back. Do things better. And that takes a first step, right?”

“Let me guess,” Lizzy told him with a condescending smile, “yours is going to be to go to rehab?”

“Hey, Princess, I’m fine without weed,” John replied, “but don’t think we haven’t noticed how many times per hour you check your dead phone. Screen addiction much?”

“Again,” Edwin intervened, “maybe we could all step back.”

“What would you do, then?” John asked Edwin directly.

“I think… I think I’d tell my parents that I don’t want to be a lawyer like my dad, but that I would like to be a scientist instead.”

“Ah-ha… Right. You know you don’t have real problems, right? What about you, new girl?”

Claire shrugged. “I’m quite happy with my life, actually. I think I’d just keep living it and appreciate it a little more.”

“I don’t think there is a single person in the world who is just happy with their life.”

“Fine. Then I’ll tell my mother that I would like to stay in the same high school until I graduate. Moving around the world is fun, but it would be great to have friends that I can talk to rather than FaceTime.”

“Okay. Not real problems either.”

“What would you do, then?” Tom asked John.

“I think I’d go on a road trip with a few friends.”

“And that’s a solution to an actual life problem?” Lizzy asked. Again, as much as it pained Tom to admit it, she kind of had a point…

“I’ve never left our town,” John admits, some sort of defiance in his voice. “My parents never went further than the state limit, and my grandparents never moved once they settled because they were undocumented, so… yeah, I’d like not to perpetuate a line of people who think that Chinese takeout is the paradigm of fancy and that underage drinking in the abandoned factory by the river is the coolest thing ever.”

“And yet doesn’t that sum up your life perfectly?” Lizzy jabbed.

“You know what, Princess? I hope Jamie really is sick, that he’s contagious enough that you’ll get ill too, but that he’s the only one to recover.”

She kind of deserved that one, Tom thought. But he didn’t want Edwin to have to step up for the group again, so he shared: “I think I’d try to find my Mom.”

“What?”

“If… When we go back, I will find my mother and I will go to see her. I will tell her exactly how happy we are, that we don’t need her, and that I hope she finds happiness too.”

“That sounds equally healthy and messed up,” John commented.

“Maybe. Hey, you know what? You can come with me. Two birds, one stone.”

“Cool. But we take my car, yours is a dump.”

There was a small silence, after that, as they watched the fire, and no one expected Lizzy to share but she did anyway. “If we were home right now, I would go to Sam Hammond’s house.”

“The fat kid that’s always with the nerdy guy?”

“Yeah. I mean… technically he’s nerdy too.”

“And what? Apologize for online bullying?”

“I actually never did that.”

“Then what? Because we all know you’re not inviting him to Prom…”

“I’ll even go to Prom with him, actually.” Lizzy’s eyes were entirely lost in the fire. Her mind was not entirely with them, it was stuck somewhere between a past she couldn’t change and a future she might not live. “Don’t get me wrong, two weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t even have looked at him, talked to him, or even acknowledged him online, but… if by any chance we’re here as a punishment for something we did… I guess he would be the reason why for me…”

“What have you done to him?” Tom asked, a little annoyed. He did not know Sam that well but he was a nice guy and he did not need Lizzy to be a bitch to him.

“Last spring, I was at Jenna McHolland’s party. You were probably all there, except Claire of course. The whole school was there…” She sounds way too serious for this memory. Tom recalled that party perfectly and it had been great. “At some point in the evening, I started to chat with Logan Kerr. Flirting, really. I mean… he is hot, he is popular, and we would look good in a selfie… Maybe Prom King and Queen material. I was living my little fantasy.”

“Yeah… I remember seeing you two disappear somewhere,” Tom recalled.

“Yeah,” Lizzy replied, copying Tom’s tone. “I also remember you watching him drag me to a bedroom after he roofied me.”

“What?” Tom’s heart, lung, stomach, guts, and everything in between turned to rock and free-fell in his body. Was she saying—

“Sam saw too, but he was smarter than the rest of you idiots and he came to get me. I’m honestly not quite sure what happened, but he got into a cab with me, and he took me home. Delivered me right to my parents.”

“Lizzy, I had no idea…”

“Yeah, whatever excuse or apology you want to spit out, you can keep it, it would only make you feel better… Anyway. The following Monday, at school, I found him in the room where he and his friend play whatever that game is called, and I told him that he had no idea what happened, that he didn’t know me, and that if he told anyone, I’d destroy him. Out of everyone at that party, he is the only one who was smart enough, who cared enough to see, and I just threatened him back. So… yeah. When we get home, I’ll get to his house, I’ll apologize, and I’ll say thank you. That’s what I’ll do.”

The silence settled again after that, denser than any they had experienced since being transported to this forest. This was the truest, rawest, more real sharing moment that had happened that week, and yet it didn’t exactly feel like a bonding moment.

In a way, that revelation explained so much of how she acted around Tom. Had he really let that almost happen to her? Could they get past this? And what could he say to make it better?