In the Woods by Robin Stevenson

Author:Robin Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000, book
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2009-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

I’m heading outside at lunchtime when I see Katie. She’s standing by the steps with Nikki and Luba, and she gives me a casual wave. Normally I’d wave back and walk on by, but today I stop and join them. Just like last night, I’m struck by how totally normal Katie looks. She’s wearing jeans and a bright red fleece jacket, and she’s laughing at something one of her friends has said. I feel a flood of relief. Not Katie. God, my brain is like a freaking yo-yo. Katie, not Katie. I eye Nikki and Luba and wonder if there is any possible way that Katie could be covering for either of them.

“How’s it going?” I ask.

Katie looks at her friends and then back at me. “Fine.”

Nikki grins at me. “What’s up, Cameron? How was your weekend?”

“Uh, Katie didn’t tell you?” If Katie had nothing to do with this baby, there’s just no way she wouldn’t be gossiping about this.

“Tell us what?” Luba tucks her short reddish curls behind her ears and sticks her hands into her coat pockets.

I speak slowly, trying to watch all three of their faces for any flicker of emotion. Searching for any trace of fear or guilt. “Katie didn’t tell you what I found?”

Katie’s face is ghost white. Even her lips are pale. She gives a tiny shake of her head. A plea.

An admission.

I grab Katie’s arm. “We need to talk.”

“Jeez, Cameron. What’s your problem?” Luba sounds annoyed.

I don’t answer. I pull Katie away from her friends. “If you don’t want me to say anything, then come with me,”

I say. “Now. I want to know what’s going on.”

Katie follows me over to the side of the building and leans against the brick wall. “I’m sorry, Cameron.”

“Sorry? Christ, Katie. Just tell me, okay?”

“You know already.”

“Was it…are you covering up for someone else? Or…”

She shakes her head. “There’s no one else.”

There is a long silence. I can see all the usual people milling around, but I feel like they’re all far away. Even the sound of their chatter suddenly seems muffled. It’s like there’s a thick glass dome over the two of us, and everyone else is outside it. I wonder if it will always feel like this, as long as we have this secret.

“You can’t tell anyone,” Katie says.

I still can’t quite believe it. “That was your baby,” I say bluntly. “You…you gave birth to that baby.”

She stares at the ground and doesn’t answer.

I know, but I need to hear it from her. “Katie. I’m right, aren’t I?”

She doesn’t look up, but she gives the tiniest nod.

“How?” I ask. “I mean, how could you do that? Leave it there?” It doesn’t make sense to me that she would have picked the woods out by the lake. Not after all those trips there with Brian the Pervert. Then again, in a twisted kind of way, maybe it does. Maybe, for Katie, the woods are a place for terrible secrets.

She starts to cry softly, silent tears tracing lines down her cheeks.

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