River of Bones

I haven’t seen or heard from you in years. Where have you been hiding yourself?”
Paige had Justine’s phone number, but Justine blocked Paige on social media. Nothing personal, but she’d blocked every name she recognized from Wolf Lake. She didn’t want the memories.
“I’m still outside Rochester.”
“You’re only ninety minutes away. Why don’t you ever visit?”
The girl behind the counter glared at Justine as though she were an outsider in hostile territory. And perhaps she was. Justine looked at her phone.
“Work keeps me busy. If you don’t mind, I’m supposed to meet my cousin at ten-thirty.”
That was a lie. Though Justine’s parents still lived in Wolf Lake, most of her family had scattered over the years.
“You just got here, and you’re already running off.”
“Paige, we’re here for one reason. Are we going to talk about it?”
Paige pulled her lips tight and drummed her nails against the table. After a moment, she sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
“I don’t know what to make of the newspaper article. What if it’s her?”
Justine set her chin on her fist.
“Maybe it’s not Skye.”
“The newspaper said it’s a female in her teens or early twenties. We were eighteen when Skye vanished.”
Justine stared into her empty mug, wishing she had another latte. Not because she was thirsty. She needed something to distract her, ground her, convince Justine the world wasn’t spinning too fast for her to hang on.
“All the police said is they found a girl’s remains. For all we know, Skye might have left Wolf Lake. She didn’t like it here.”
Paige widened her eyes and fell back in her chair.
“Didn’t like it here? Skye was the most popular girl in high school.”
“No, Paige. You were the most popular girl at Wolf Lake High. And Skye wasn’t happy. She told me many times she couldn’t wait for college, that she’d leave and never come back.”
“Are you sure that’s not you you’re talking about? You graduated high school and fell off the face of the earth. And anyway, why would Skye want to leave?”
Justine glared at Paige through the tops of her eyes.
“You know why.”
Paige scrunched her brow.
“Wait, are you talking about Dawn?”
“Shh,” Justine said, leaning over the table. Everyone was staring at them now. “Keep your voice down.”
Paige’s jaw dropped.
“I can’t believe you still think we had something to do with that. It’s terrible what happened. But Dawn Samson was crazy, Justine. C-R-A-Z-Y.”
Justine turned away.
“Only because we made her that way.”
“You can’t make someone kill herself.” Justine winced at Paige’s words, wishing her friend would lower her voice. “Suicide is a selfish act. Killing yourself only hurts the ones around you. It shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Dawn was such a bitch.”
Justine’s blood boiled. Suddenly, she was a teenager in high school again, angry and scared. She wanted to reach across the table and slap the taste out of Paige’s mouth.
“You made Dawn’s life a living hell.”
Paige’s brow creased.
“That’s a bit melodramatic, Justine. The girl couldn’t take a joke.”
“When does joking cross the line to bullying?”
“Everybody gets bullied, dear. It’s part of growing up. Either you fight back, or you learn to laugh it off. We were just having fun.”
If only that were true. Justine cringed at unwanted memories. The notes Paige stuffed into Dawn’s locker, calling her ugly and fat, threatening she’d beat up Dawn after school. During their sophomore years, Paige and half the cheer team cornered Dawn beside the tennis court. Justine hated herself for not intervening. Outnumbered, she couldn’t have prevented the beating. But she only had herself to blame for not speaking up and snitching on her friends. Had Skye been there, she would have stood up for Dawn and made things right.
“Fight back,” Paige kept saying, each time she slapped Dawn across the face.
The slaps left red welts on the girl’s face and drew tears. Had Dawn fought back and held her own, the other girls would have jumped in. Dawn never stood a chance. The bullying began years before and worsened as the girls grew older. To this day, Justine couldn’t remember how it started, or why Paige targeted Dawn. Was it a perceived slight? Or was it predatory—the pack identifying a weaker, injured member and eating their own?
“You were terrible to her,” Justine said. “If I’d stepped in, none of this would have happened.”
Paige’s face froze in shock. A thousand pounds fell off Justine’s shoulders, and her heart hammered, as if she’d just run a marathon. She’d waited too many years to tell Paige she’d been wrong. Coming here today, she never believed the words would leave her lips.
“None of what would have happened?”
“Dawn killing herself, Skye disappearing.”
Paige slapped her hand against the table. Justine flinched. Until now, she’d forgotten how Paige controlled conversations. Even with a master’s degree and a high-paying job, Justine still felt beneath Paige. Yet she cared about the woman and had since Skye, Paige, and Justine became inseparable friends during grade school.
“Dawn’s suicide has nothing to do with Skye vanishing. And it’s like you said. The bones probably aren’t Skye’s.”
Drawing in a breath, Justine said, “If we didn’t believe there was a chance it’s Skye, neither of us would be here. We have to face this, Paige.”
Quiet fell between the women, each lost in their own memories. After a long time, Paige shook her head.
“I can’t accept it’s Skye.” A tear rolled down the woman’s cheek, evidence she still had a heart. “After we lost her, I convinced myself she ran away after a fight with her parents. Or something happened with that loser she dated.”
“You mean Benny Pritchard?”
Paige scoffed.
“Total loser. We should have recognized the signs that something was wrong when she dated that guy.”
An argument poised behind Justine’s lips. She swallowed it for now.
“I tell myself every day that Skye is still alive, that there’s a logical explanation for what happened. I can’t face the alternative.”
Paige removed a tissue from her purse and dabbed her eyes. Somehow, the woman’s eyeliner didn’t run. A giggle escaped Paige’s chest.
“I still wear it, you