Savannah Burning

Chapter Seventeen

I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving break until Savannah told me she wouldn’t be home for it.

“We’re going to my aunt and uncle’s,” she explained at lunch the day before break started. “They live somewhere in Pennsylvania. Apparently I have cousins, too.”

“Nervous?” Robbie taunted.

“Honestly?” Savannah asked. “Yeah, kind of. I’m not sure what to expect. I don’t know how to handle Karen and Brady half the time. How am I supposed to deal with the rest of the Skye clan?”

“I’m sure they’ll understand,” Daisy said after an awkward pause. “You were really young when everything happened. They have to know it’s going to take some time to get used to.”

Savannah shrugged, and I couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t care that she couldn’t remember, or if it was because the topic had upset her. Ever since “the incident” on Halloween her reactions about anything surrounding her kidnapping have varied from apathetic to completely and utterly freaked out. “But I do have some good news,” she went on, picking the crust off her sandwich, not to discard, but to eat first. Savannah Skye: the girl who ate the crust first and smoked her cigarettes backwards. “After school Karen and Brady are bringing me to get –“ she paused, glancing around dramatically, “a cellphone.”

“Oh, no,” I said, shaking my head. “That won’t do. Now you don’t have an excuse to come see me at the crack of ass in the morning.”

Savannah laughed, nudging me with her shoulder. “You can still throw rocks at my window.”

I suddenly found the texture of the table incredibly fascinating as I tried not to blush. I could see Robbie raising his eyebrows at me, daring me to look over at him.

“Anyway,” Savannah went on to say as the bell rang, “we can now text the break away and you won’t even notice I’m gone.”

“Oh, good,” Daisy sighed. We gathered our trash and began to head towards the classrooms. “I’ll have someone to talk to about these two idiots.”

“I have to run,” Savannah said. “I have a test in this next class, but I’ll see you guys later!” She waved and slipped into her next classroom, closely followed by Heather and Emily who shot us their signature glares. I caught Daisy flipping them the bird when their backs were turned and I grinned, catching Savannah’s eye over their shoulder.

###

It was tradition on Thanksgiving Eve for Heather Cocoran to throw a party. Robbie got invited because he was an athlete and Daisy and I got swept in by association. It was where I drank my first beer and where Daisy got to second base for the first time. It was also where Robbie puked out the second story window in the tenth grade. Ah, nostalgia. These were the things I would miss.

Heather’s house lived in a cul-de-sac of five other identical houses. Robbie awkwardly pulled the Falcon up to the curb outside of Heather’s house, pulsating from the music blasting inside.

We were late; we had all lost track of time during our afternoon surf after Savannah left for Pennsylvania. By now the party was in full swing, the house alive with bodies dancing to the music. We pushed our way into the kitchen and Robbie grabbed a six-pack from the fridge to split between the three of us. Daisy cleared a spot on the kitchen table so we could sit for a minute while we caught up to our classmates.

“Damn,” Robbie said, running a hand over his face. “This place holds some good memories, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah it does,” Daisy grinned. As I watched my drunken classmates carry on, singing songs about being young forever, I began to feel something like fear creep up into my lungs.

Sometime later, while finishing my second beer, Leia Frickie came up to me, sitting down in what had been Robbie’s spot.

“Hey, Tyson,” she said.

“Hey, Leia,” I replied.

“Where’s Savannah tonight?” I glanced at her and she blinked innocently at me.

“She’s with her family,” I said.

“That’s sweet,” Leia smiled into her cup. “She’s in my history class. She seems really nice. Really, um…”

“Normal?” I suggested and Leia blushed.

“Well,“ she stammered, “it’s just surprising to see someone doing so good after going through something like being kidnapped, no matter what the circumstance.”

“She’s not as fragile as everyone thinks,” I snapped.

“I know, Tyson,” Leia snapped back. “I’m just making a comment. It’s just surprising that she doesn’t have more to say.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked, growing more irritated by the direction the conversation was heading in.

“I just mean that all we’ve heard about this entire case has been from everyone else’s point of view. Nothing cites back to Savannah, or her family for that matter. I’m sure I’m not the only person wondering when Savannah is going to tell her side of things, the truth about what happened rather than what The Spit is making the situation out to be.” Leia grabbed my cellphone from where it had been sitting on the table. “Here,” she said, typing her number in. “I would love to write a piece on her. It’s what I want to do, you know? Journalism? Reporting? You’re good friends with Savannah. Tell her the piece can be anything she wants it to be.”

I stared at her, open-mouthed, scrambling to put the pieces together. “Are you trying to get me to poach Savannah for you?” I stood up, knocking my beer over onto Leia’s shoes. “Are you serious?” I snatched my phone out of her hands, dropping it into my pocket. “You’re out of your goddamn mind if you think I’m going to sell my friend to you,” I growled. I pushed past her and stormed off, looking for a place to cool off.

Robbie dropped me off later that night, right as it had begun to snow. I crept into my front door, an hour past curfew, and tip toed up the stairs as quietly as a drunk seventeen-year-old could.

I curled up under the warmth of my blankets, desperate to warm not just my toes but the cold trickle I had felt in my lungs since the party.