He put a cross on her name and said, "I'll focus on Stacey." I stopped for a moment. "Luke," I said quietly, not wanting to bring it up again, but feeling like I had to, "Maybe you should put a cross on Austin. We need to know how that pill bottle got to where it did." Luke clenched his fingers around the pen, and I almost thought it would break. He didn't want to doubt Austin for a second, but we had to. Austin's name was literally on evidence. "No," Luke refused, "It's not Austin." "Ok," I backed off, not wanting to upset Luke more. But in my mind, I had a star next to Austin's name. I've only known these boys less than a year, so I couldn't be too sure. I've had family betray me. Why wouldn't friends? I didn't like the guarded person I felt myself becoming. But this time last year, I was too trusting and too quiet when people tormented me. I've become a bit stronger since then, a bit colder. "Wait. Can we agree on the terms of our detective work first?" I asked, recognizing the determined look on his face. I knew he was willing to go to any length to catch the blackmailer and that worried me. "No physical violence," he guessed right off the bat, giving me a look that begged me to be less predictable. "That's a good one," I agreed, happy he volunteered it. I ticked the others off, "And no lying to each other. Or doing things that could make each other jealous." I didn't like the idea of Luke getting close to Stacey, even if it was just to get evidence. I knew Stacey liked Luke. I remember hiding in the bathroom stall at the summer camp party and overhearing how vocal she was about it. Luke listened to my list, looking like a disappointed schoolboy being stripped of his toys. "Anything else? Want to handcuff me right here just in case?" he mocked me. "Well, can we agree on those terms?" I replied, holding onto his wrists playfully. He leaned forward, letting me trap his hands, and kissed my lips. "We can agree." Let the games begin. We were going to come after everyone on that list. One by one, we were going to smoke the blackmailer out. "You know something, Mildred," Luke whispered, while our lips were still touching, "I like this badass version of you." "You're corrupting me, Luke," I replied, my eyelids fluttering open to gaze at the boy I loved. "Reminds me of the time you came riding on a motorbike to save me," Luke twisted his wrists and wrapped his arms over mine, pulling me closer towards him for a deeper kiss, "My heroine." The blackmailer tried to break us, but our hunt to break them will bring us even closer together. Through the struggle, we needed to rely on each other. The blackmailer exposed our weaknesses but tackling them gave us the opportunity to grow. ** The embers were dying in the fireplace and burnt wood was all that was left. Cans of coke were left open on the coffee table. The sun was beginning to rise over the lake and the most magnificent colors shone in through the window. We hadn't slept. After arriving in the middle of the night, fooling around on the carpet and going through the suspect list in the kitchen... we had missed the night. "I can't believe it's 6am," I said, staring at my phone. The adrenaline of the evening had kept me wide awake. "Want to go for a run?" Luke asked, standing up from the chair and cracking his back. "Are you crazy?!" "We're here for a week. We might as well enjoy nature and the time we have together," he shrugged, as if it was the most casual thing ever. Run? Does he have no idea who he's dating? "We need coffee and food," I muttered, thinking about the necessities, in that order, "There's nothing here." No one had been to the jake house in months. The fridge only had drinks and a couple condiments. "We have breakfast," Luke answered, pulling open the cabinets. He lifted out a bag of protein powder and box of protein bars from the bottom shelf. That's breakfast? "Great," I said with zero enthusiasm. "I'm not used to you being the moody one," he joked and intentionally waited a second before adding, "We have toaster waffles in the freezer." I jumped out of the bar stool and bounced straight to the freezer, like a zombie come to life. While Luke poured two scoops of protein powder into a shaker and added water, I was head deep in the freezer, rummaging loudly. "There's also coffee in the cabinet," he mused, sending me running for the coffee instead. My zombie mind was so focused on coffee and food that I took a while to realize how Luke was entertaining himself by watching me run around in circles. He was in a good mood. I glanced over at him while he drank his protein shake, looking out of the window at the forest surrounding the cabin. I realized how free Luke felt out here. When he's away from the pressures of school and basketball, he becomes a playful version of himself. "Should we go for a walk after breakfast?" I offered. Luke looked away from the window and at me like I was a substitute version of myself. "Are you messing with me?" "We don't get moments like these often, so we might as well make the most of them," I said, knowing that by summer, he will be going to college in a different state, "Besides, if we sleep now, we'll mess up our whole sleep schedule." He raised his eyebrows at me and nodded. He downed the rest of his protein shake. When he lowered the drink, I saw the glimmer in his eyes and a smirk on his face, "Can't back out now." ~15 minutes later~ I was in a happy place, cradling my cup of black coffee in one hand and stabbing waffles with another. Luke had already drunk his entire shake before the waffles even popped out of the toaster. He was upstairs taking a shower. I was slathering some more maple syrup on my waffles. I wasn't exactly looking forward to our forest walk, since I didn't have the greatest track record for these nature experiences... but I had to try. My phone rang. "Hello?" I asked, popping a forkful of waffle into my mouth, "Joff?" "Millie, I've been trying to reach you since yesterday," Joe's worried voice replied. "Om agh ge hake house," I chewed, trying to speak at the same time. "What's the hake house? Is that a club? Do you need to be picked up?"