“Yes, you will.” She touched her cheek. “You will.”
When Andie opened her mouth to protest, her mother shook her head again. “I know how tough this has been for you, too. And your brothers.” She bent and rested her forehead against Andie’s for a moment. “Thank you, sweetheart. For all the help you’ve been these past weeks. And for being such a good girl for me.”
She squeezed Andie’s fingers, then released them. “Now, you needed to talk to me about something. What is it?”
Andie shrank back in her chair. How could she tell her mother that her “good girl” had been breaking into empty houses and peeking in windows and watching kinky sex? She imagined her mother’s face, her surprise and disappointment, her sigh of defeat. That’s all her mom needed, more to worry about, more disappointment.
No, she couldn’t do that to her. She wouldn’t.
Andie forced a smile. “I just wanted to tell you about the party Sarah Conners is having and ask your opinion about what I should wear. But it can wait.”
“Are you sure? We could go to your closet and—”
“I’m sure.” Andie stood, bent and kissed her cheek. “This is something I have to take care of myself.”
11
Mr. and Mrs. X, as Andie and her friends had begun to call the mystery couple, didn’t show again. After a week, the girls concluded that the couple met only late at night, so they gave up all their day watches and returned to their normal summer routine.
As they went to the mall and the movies or to parties at friends’ houses, Andie could almost believe that it was a normal summer. That everything was as it had always been between her and her best friends.
But nothing was, or had been, normal since the night they had peered at Mr. and Mrs. X through the window. And everything certainly was not as it had always been between the three friends.
Andie glanced from Raven to Julie, then returned her gaze to the tree house floor. The three of them sat at their post, lost in their own thoughts, not speaking. Raven was distracted about anything but their mission. On that she seemed almost frighteningly intent. Julie, on the other hand, was giddy and silly, even more so than usual. In the past days she’d had periods when she couldn’t stop laughing, and there were many times she didn’t seem able to look her friends in the eyes.
Between their two moods, Raven and Julie had been at each other’s throats even more than usual.
Andie herself was nervous and on edge, and spent a good bit of her time with Julie and Raven thinking about Mrs. X and praying that the couple never came back. She had become almost obsessed with them, thinking about them night and day, worrying.
And she spent each day dreading the night. Dreading sneaking out of the house and going to the tree house to wait and watch. She didn’t want to see the couple again. She wanted them to disappear from her life, from all their lives.
If they didn’t, something bad was going to happen.
Andie shivered and rubbed her arms, chilled though the night was warm. She glanced at her friends: Julie who was staring dreamily into space, Raven who had the binoculars trained on the house next door, waiting quietly, like a cat for its prey.
Andie shifted, her butt sore from sitting so long on the hard platform. “Are you guys okay?”
Raven lowered the binoculars. “I’m fine. Why?”
“You’re quiet tonight, that’s all.”
Julie giggled, and Raven scowled at her. Julie immediately shut up.
“Maybe we should go?” Andie offered.
“Go?” Raven repeated. “What do you mean? We haven’t been here that long.”
“Long enough,” Andie said. “They’re not coming.”
“How do you know?”
“Just a hunch.”
“Well, I think they are.”
“Fine.” Andie frowned at her friend, annoyed. “We’ll wait a little longer.”
“Andie,” Julie whispered, leaning toward her. “I met the coolest guy at the pool today, when I took my brothers swimming.” She lowered her voice a bit more, then giggled again. “I had that icky grandma suit on, the one my dad makes me wear, so I didn’t even take off my cover-up. We sat and talked the whole time my brothers swam.”
Andie glanced at Raven, then back at Julie. “What was his name?”
“Bryce. He was so cute.”
“You didn’t make out with him, did you?” Raven asked, not moving her gaze from the house.
Julie bristled. “Right there, in front of my brothers and everybody else? No, I didn’t make out with him.”
“Never can tell with you.”
Julie’s head snapped up, her expression hurt. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Raven lowered the binoculars and looked at her. “Sometimes I wonder. I mean, sometimes it seems like all you care about are boys and making out.”
“Leave her alone, Raven,” Andie said, furious. “It beats what you care about.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“This,” she answered. “Ever since that first night, this is all you can think about. You’re obsessed.”
“I am not! I only want to figure out what’s going on. Who these people are and what they’re doing in this house. You just have a weak stomach.”
“I do not have a weak stomach!” Andie couldn’t believe she and Raven were arguing like this. “I have a feeling something really bad is going to happen to us.”
Julie’s eyes widened. “Like what?”
Raven began clucking her tongue at her. At them both. “Chickenshits … chickenshits.”
“Stop it!” Andie shouted, scrambling to her feet and glaring down at Raven. “You’re really starting to piss me off!”
Julie whimpered. “Guys, don’t fight. We’re supposed to be friends.”
Ignoring Julie, Raven launched to her feet and faced Andie. “And I’m getting pretty sick of your pansy-ass whining.”
“Whining!”
“That’s right. We decided that Mr. X was a freak. We decided to pursue this a little longer. We made a deal.”
“Well, we were wrong. We weren’t thinking clearly.”
“Speak for yourself. I was thinking
