Chapter 4
You’ve never stood up to Blair before, but some instinct is telling you it’s not a good idea. So instead, you nod obediently.
“Don’t worry,” you say. “I’ll have every penny of the rent by tomorrow.”
Somehow, you will figure out a way.
Blair gives you one last look, as if she doesn’t quite believe you, which indicates that she’s smarter than she seems. But she leaves the room, slamming the door behind her and plunging you back into semi-darkness.
Now what?
Before you can return to your internet search, your phone rings. You glance at the name on the screen: Avery. Avery is one of your oldest friends, who you’ve known since the two of you were in elementary school. You’ve gotten each other out of some bad jams over the years.
But on the other hand, Avery has gotten you into a lot of bad jams too.
You answer the phone: “Hello?”
“Sloan!” Avery sounds breathless, like she always does. “Thank God you picked up. Are you free tonight?”
“Yes…”
“Great! Want to make some money?”
Hope sparks in your chest. You had no idea how you were going to raise money for the rent, but Avery may just have the answer to your prayers. “Definitely. What do I have to do?”
While you wait for Avery to answer, you think about the list of things you’re not willing to do.
It’s pretty short. You won’t eat garbage, for example.
Well, you might eat some kind of garbage.
Like if some food was just hovering on the garbage, not quite inside the bin.
But you wouldn’t, for example, scrape out a banana peel from the bottom and eat that.
“It’s a waitressing job,” she says, which is great because you were literally about to eat garbage if you had to. “They told me they need an extra girl. It pays extremely well.”
“How well?”
She tells you how much, and your jaw drops. That’s enough to pay Blair for the rent. It’s enough to pay next month’s rent too.
“For a waitressing job?” you ask, feeling a bit skeptical. In your experience, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
“Well,” Avery amends, “it’s a little more involved than that. You’ll be gone the whole night, and it’s a bit of a drive.”
“A bit of a drive?”
“The house is at Peyton’s Peak.”
Peyton’s Peak is a mountain about two hours from here.
There are houses on the peak, most of them large estates owned by extremely wealthy and eccentric individuals who long for the isolation of living on a mountain.
At this time of year, with all the snow on the ground, it will be a treacherous drive.
“Also,” she adds, “the GPS doesn’t work very well on the mountain. I’ll have to give you written directions.”
Written directions? Is she serious? What is this—the dinosaur era?
“I don’t have a car,” you remind Avery. “Can you give me a ride?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t,” she says. “I’m already here. But doesn’t Blair have a car? Could you borrow it?”
Blair has, on occasion, allowed you to borrow her car, which was also a gift from her parents. If you tell her that you need it to get the rent money, there is a reasonable chance she’ll let you borrow it.
“So?” Avery asks eagerly. “Are you interested?”
This job seems like the answer to your prayers. But at the same time, there’s something in your gut telling you this isn’t a good idea. Are you really this desperate for money?
To take the waitressing job, turn to Chapter 7 (page 13)
To decline the job because it will almost certainly get you killed, turn to Chapter 5 (page 16)