Chris nervously gripped the armrest as he watched the movie, wide-eyes.
Justin, who sat next to him, grinned at Lance, and motioned vaguely to watch. Justin slowly put his hand over Chris's knee, and held it there.
A minute later, when everyone on the screen was running and screaming, Justin grabbed Chris's knee.
Chris let loose a blood-curdling scream, and Joey and JC turned to face him.
"What the hell is wrong with you, man?" JC asked him.
Chris looked at Justin evilly. "Mr. Every-Teenage-Girl-Used-To-Want-My-Body over here grabbed my knee and scared the fucking shit out of me."
Justin smacked him in the back of the head.
"Ow!" chris groaned. "What was that for?"
"Whatcha mean, 'used to'?" Justin demanded.
***
Jamie opened her eyes to a blur. She touched her aching, hurting chest tenderly, and brought back a bloody hand to her face.
Through the foggy vision, she could see that she was bleeding badly.
Dirt was in her mouth, and Jamie found that she was lying on the ground.
She could hear cars faintly, and wondered if she was close enough to the road to where people might see her, or if she was just imagining the noise.
Her head pounded and she whispered, "Daddy . . . I don't want to die alone," as she began to slip away, hurting, stranded.
***
Joey turned the light on, and laughed at Chris and JC's expression's. Chris's mouth was wide open as were his eyes. JC's face was ten shades paler, and was clutching the table leg, that was beside him.
"Chris, if you open your mouth anymore," started Joey, "You could fit a decent sized car in there."
Chris looked at Joey. He didn't say anything, but shook his head.
"You're a loser," Lance told him.
"I'm tired," Chris said, ignoring him. "What time is it?"
"1:45," replied JC.
Lance looked at him. "1:45? Did anyone see Jamie come in?"
His friends shook their heads no.
She was supposed to be back at 12:00. She might have been 15 or 20 minutes late, I can understand that," Lance said. His expression was a worried one. "But 2 hours?"
"Don't let it get to you," Justin told him. "She's 16. You remember how early 12:00 seemed when we were still singing, right?"
"Yeah," Joey put in. "Give her at least another hour."
"Okay." Lance relaxed a little bit.
Chris got up then. "I'm gonna jet."
"Yeah, me too," JC said.
As Chris walked to the door, he muttered to himself, "I'm never going hiking again."
Lance would have laughed, like Justin, but his thoughts were still on Jamie, and the nagging feeling that still lurked in his mind.
Joey said 'bye', and told him that he was going to buy the movie for himself.
When Lance looked up again, Justin was the only one left, and staring at him.
"Still worried?" he asked.
"What makes you think that?" Lance wondered.
"I know that look on your face," Justin replied.
Lance weakly smiled. Justin continued. "She's fine. She's out, with her boyfriend, at some party."
Lance's eyes went wide, with realization. "You don't think-"
"Lance. I'm gonna hate saying this, but she's not nearly as irresponsible as her mother. Or you. And God knows you weren't that bad." Justin looked at the clock, then back at Lance. "And if she were having sex it would be protected. But I know she's not. She's got morals."
Lance heaved a sigh. "I know."
The clock read 2:07 am.
"You should go home, Justin," he told him. "Your wife is gonna want some." He laughed dryly.
Justin smiled at the thought of Mina. "Yep. I be leavin' now."
He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door to his car. "See ya," he called before shutting the car door.
Lance waved. He shut the front door, and looked at the clock again.
2:14 am.
And he knew something was wrong.