Page 40 of We’re All Going to Die Tonight!

“I’m just annoyed,” I say, which is true. “He and Avery act like they’ve been appointed by god to be in charge. Sorry, this isn’t about the fucking debate team anymore. People are dying.”

I stumble, snagging my foot on a log, but Javi catches me easily. I let myself lean against him for a few steps, appreciating the steady pressure of him beside me.

“I thought you might be thinking about what he said during the game,” Javi says. “About not, um. Loving you.”

I look at him and let out a sharp laugh. “Uh, no, babe. I’d pretty much forgotten that when someone was, you know. Murdered.”

He looks down, a little guilty, lifting his hand to run through his hair but stopping when he hits his hood instead.

“Right,” he says. “I just thought…”

“You were jealous,” I say, smiling in spite of the general misery of the situation. “Trust me. I don’t give a shit about Caulder or his repressed bullshit.”

Javi doesn’t smile back. “Don’t lie to me, Kait. You’ve never been good at it.”

The sharpness of his words jolts me. They stir the anger back up, but it’s different than before. Not quite the same poison.

“I’m not lying,” I say. “I really don’t care. But it is shitty to say you never loved someone when you dated them for a year.”

Javi considers me. “But you didn’t love him.”

I huff, exasperated. “That’s different.”

“Why?” Javi asks.

“Because she wants everyone to love her,” a voice behind me says.

I whip around, and Marlene’s hovering at my shoulder being a nosy little brat.

“Excuse me?”

Her brown eyes flit to me. “It’s the truth, isn’t it? You wanted Caulder to love you because you want everyone to love you. And you get pissed when they don’t.”

I bark out a laugh. “Mari, girly, I know you’re new—”

“Don’t call me Mari,” Marlene snaps, a bite to her voice I haven’t heard before. I file the knowledge away for another day.

“Fine, Marlene,” I say. “But maybe you’re still getting used to the ecosystem at Coastal. People either love me or want to burn me alive, and I’d actually argue that some people are in both camps. I’m very used to not being loved.”

Marlene doesn’t say anything. She just keeps trudging through the mud.

“Oh, suddenly you’re speechless?” I ask, my hand over my heart in faux shock. “How convenient.”

“Careful, Kaitlyn,” Marlene says, gaze shifting from me to Javi. “You still didn’t answer his question.”

I glare at her, wondering how far I could punt her tiny ass. I turn to Javi, finding his eyes searching me.

“Yeah, okay, maybe I’m a bit hurt that he felt okay telling our whole debate team that he didn’t care about me,” I say, stopping in front of Javi so he has to stop, too. “But the only person I have ever loved is right in front of me, okay?”

For good measure—and because I want to—I take his face in my hands and kiss him. His lips are full and warm, and even while the world continues to shatter all around us, he is grounded. He is perfect and real and, thank god, kissing me back.

“Oh no,” Marlene says from behind us, and the terrified edge in her voice makes me and Javi stop. We look back, and she’s standing, staring at something hidden by a turn in the path, so we retrace our steps and freeze when we see what she sees.

It takes me a second to understand what, exactly, we’re all looking at. To process it all. We’ve made it to the hill we climbed up from the highway, but the hill itself isn’t really there anymore. Instead, the ground’s slick, a river of mud cascading down, an enormous tree crossing the path with no discernable way to get around it. Not to mention the near-boulder-size rocks sliding down in the mud, heading straight at Marlene before she jumps aside.

A mudslide is erasing our only path to the road.

“We can try to climb it,” I say, but Javi only laughs.