"We could build a fire."

It was Nelson who offered, after noticing the goosebumps on the girl's arms and legs.

But despite making the offer, when he looked across at the old fireplace - and at the loose red bricks framing it, with their degraded mortar edges - he wasn't sure he wanted to risk it. His family cottage where they had taken shelter when the storm started had been abandoned long ago and who knew what was living in that fireplace now. If it was blocked at any point along the chimney shaft, the smoke might get trapped and fill the cabin while they slept.

He sat on the old sofa, his leg stretched out in front of him, staring towards the piles of rotted logs stacked neatly along the wall where his father had left them years ago. The dusty mirror above the mantlepiece distorted his image, reflecting back a young man with short unnaturally blond hair gelled up at the front, and pale skin that look almost greyish in the fading light.

"Better not risk it," Darren said from his place on the wooden floor beside the only girl in the room. His wet black hair lay flat against his scalp, and despite being the fastest and the first to get to the cottage porch, when the rain started, his short-sleeved striped shirt looked damp against his muscular frame. "Don't want to burn the place down," he said. His words were meant for the guys, but his dark eyes remained on the girl.

Nelson watched his eyes roam over her and knew that like himself he had taken in her wet wavy blonde hair, long bare legs, and tight T-shirt. The rain had made the white cotton cling to her chest, accentuating the fullness of her breasts, and revealing her taut nipples through what looked like a lacy pink bra.

As if sensing their gaze, she looked up from where she sat cross-legged, drawing faces in the dusty floor. Finding three sets of eyes on her, she looked down again.

A clap of thunder filled the air and the girl covered her ears with both hands. Her startled eyes darted from one face to the next, before slowly lowering her hands, letting them fall to her lap. She swallowed, and then after a few moments of suspended stillness, resumed drawing on the floor with her index finger.

He wondered if she felt on edge in this small cottage, cut off from the rest of the world with three strangers. He knew he felt it - an undercurrent of something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

But in her case, it was sheer stupidity to even be here. What smart girl would go rowing alone with three guys she'd never met, just because one of them had asked her when they spotted her eating alone at the diner they'd chosen to meet for lunch? Bad things happened to girls like this. And then the world blamed the guys. Girls were always getting breaks now, even getting things they didn't deserve. He thought of the scholarship he'd worked so hard for and how it had gone to Li Jing instead, just because women were underrepresented in the Sciences. Even awards were being handed out based not on what you had between your ears, but instead on what you had between your legs.

"You okay?"

The question came from Josh. He was wearing his forest green university sweatshirt and he walked towards her from where he'd been leaning against the wall watching her. He was taller than both Nelson and Darren but walked with stooped shoulders as if he'd been ashamed of his height during puberty and had never gotten over the habit. He stopped in front of her.

"I'm good," she said, her eyes going uneasily up his legs and eventually coming to rest on his face and the beginnings of a receding hairline.

Josh walked past her to the window where he stopped to look out. Rain pelted the glass pane making it hard to see through, though they could all hear the angry waves crashing on the shore. The slashing rain against the window mixed with the sound of creaking wood as the wind rattled the frames. Nelson wondered, not for the first time if the old cottage would survive the storm. The place smelled like mildew and rot, though he was getting used to it now so that he only faintly smelled it when a draft from the cracks around the windows and door carried it towards him.

"Do you guys have any food?" the girl asked suddenly turning blue eyes towards them.

For a minute, there was a scramble as each boy found his knapsack and hunted through. She reached for her own bag made from what looked like recycled jeans and pulled out a box of animal crackers. Together they came up with the crackers, two granola bars, a Kit Kat, and a pack of gum. Each had their own water. It was something Nelson had noticed that his generation did – carry a water bottle or thermos in their bags at all times.

They each took a seat on the floor around the stash as they thought about how to divide it. They started with the animal crackers, with the girl taking one from the box and passing it around.

"Elephant," she said showing them the cracker, that looked more like a cookie to Nelson.

"Think the pipes are okay if I want to top this off?" Josh asked looking at Nelson and holding up his stainless-steel thermos.

"Probably. They're copper pipes. I can't see them having degraded in ten years. Just let the water run for ten or twelve minutes to flush out the system."

Josh nodded and ambled over towards the kitchen with its painted white cabinets. He turned on the water and they heard a cough and sputter followed by a splash as the water shot from the pipe and hit the sink. Josh left it running and came back to join their circle.

"So, you used to live here?" the girl asked over the sound of the running water. She looked at Nelson, but then her eyes darted away again when his gaze fell on her. He heard the thunder receding – it was still an earth-shaking rumble, only lower and about a mile off.

Nelson took a cracker from the box she offered, but all the while, he wished she had a sweater in her weird bag. It was distracting as hell to see her boobs through her top like that, and have to pretend that he wasn't being affected by them. He looked away, taking small bites from the camel cracker, eating first the head, and then the feet before tackling the hump. "We all did," he said at last. "Darren's cottage was about half a mile to my left and Josh's cottage was the same only in the opposite direction. We used to come here with our families every summer."

"Do you guys still own yours?" she asked taking both Josh and Darren in with a quick look from one to the other.

They spoke at the same time, Darren saying, "My dad sold it when my mom died," while Josh said, "We sold ours last year."

"And your family let yours fall apart?" she asked, her gentle voice rising on the last word as if she was really asking Why? but was too shy or afraid to say so. Her blue eyes rested on Nelson as she waited for an answer.

Even in the dim light, he could see the freckles that stretched across the bridge of her nose. Her skin was a golden color he never saw on the girls on campus. It's because she's not in the Sciences. The thought popped into his head as he found his eyes drifting down towards her chest again. She looked like she could be a model; the kind that graced the cover of Sports Illustrated - Swimsuit Edition. Though he doubted she was old enough. Even if she was old enough to be in university, she was probably too dumb to get into a real program. She was most likely studying something like Interpretive Dance or some other bullshit program girls like her took to meet guys... guys like him with a future and the chance of making big money.

She shifted uncomfortably, and he glanced away. "My mom wouldn't let us come back here," he said, "and my dad wouldn't let my mom sell it, so instead they let it fall apart."

"Why wouldn't she let you guys come here?" The box of animal crackers made a second-round with each of them taking one and examining the animal they pulled out.

"Is that a dog?" Darren asked holding his up.

"I think it's a goat," Josh said.

"A goat? Why the fuck would they make a goat? A lion, or bear, or even a cat I get. What kid is going to know this thing is a goat?"

Nelson ignored them, continuing his explanation, "There was an accident. A kid drowned. It freaked her out because it happened right here... from our part of the beach. It's stupid when you think about it. I mean it could have happened anywhere."

"That was the last time?" Her voice was soft and melodic. It didn't quite mesh with the way he thought it should be... sexy and seductive, like her body.

He nodded keeping his eyes fixed on the food in the pile in front of him.

"Was the kid a friend of yours?" she asked reaching in her bag for a pink thermos with peace symbols and unscrewing the top. Nelson watched as she tilted her head back, her long neck extended as she swallowed the liquid. He caught Darren looking and they exchanged a look.

Josh who seemed oblivious to the tension in the room spoke for them. "He was one of our neighbors. Only Evan's family lived here year-round. I think they still do."

"In a cottage?" she asked, her big blue eyes widening in surprise.

"Well, yes and no," Josh said, warming to the attention, his cheeks growing a pale shade of pink. "It's technically a cottage but it's more like a house because it's been renovated and winterized – with a furnace and everything," he added as if he didn't think she'd understand otherwise.

"So, he drowned right outside here?" she paused and then as if a thought occurred to her asked, "Did they ever find his body?"

Darren spoke first, his voice gruff. "For fucks sake, can we talk about something else. This is morbid." An angry flush had spread across his face. Despite this, he was still the best looking of the three friends with his square jaw and strong bone structure.

The girl looked startled and Nelson, feeling pity for her, cut in to soften Darren's harsh words. "We haven't really talked about it since it happened. But no, they never found the body."

"What happened?" she asked, lowering her voice and avoiding looking towards Darren.

Josh answered for the group. "We don't know. We were having a sleepover here at Nelson's place. His dad had set up a tent outside. When we woke up, Evan was gone. They found his slippers by the water as if he'd decided to go for a swim alone that night."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Darren asked. "That's bullshit. We weren't having a sleepover. You're mixing up the night he drowned with the night we camped. It didn't happen the same night."

Josh's eyebrows furrowed, his eyes looking first at Darren then over to Nelson.

"Don't ask me," Nelson said. "Was it the night we were drinking? You know, the night we stole the beers from Evan's dad's stash in his shed?"

Josh shook his head adamantly. "It was the night of the sleepover. And no, we weren't drinking that night. We were in the tent. You and Darren were on one side, and me and Evan, we were on the other. I remember because I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and he wasn't there. I was the one who woke everyone up."

"Now that's bullshit," Nelson said. "I was the one who found the slippers. I would have been the one to tell everyone."

"What the fuck!" Darren exploded. "Why are we even talking about this shit. It didn't happen the day we camped outside. We were all sleeping in our own beds. In our own houses."

"So, Evan went outside, walked all the way to Nelson's house, took off his slippers, and decided to go for a swim right there? Instead of the beach forty feet from his back door?" Josh shook his head in disgust. "I can't believe you guys don't remember the night Evan disappeared."

"Wait... I thought you said he drowned. How do you know?" the girl said suddenly, reminding them all that she was still there.

Darren turned hostile eyes towards her. "What the fuck is it of your business? You come in here swanning around in your short shorts with your tits hanging out asking all these fuckin' questions like you're from the fuckin' National Enquirer? What the fuck's your problem?"

The girl looked down and as if realizing for the first time how much they could see of her and wrapped her arms around her chest protectively. "Sorry... I didn't..."

"Sorry," he mocked her. "This is a story to you, but it's our fuckin' life. We lived through it."

She stayed quiet, bringing her knees up as if trying to make herself smaller.

"Fuck this," Darren said jumping to his feet and kicking the pile of food so the Kit Kat flew past, narrowly missing her before it slid across the floor stopping only when it hit the wall. "I'm going to bed. Thanks for inviting her, Josh."

"You asked her," Nelson said springing to his feet. "We were all sitting in that diner catching up on old times when you decided to walk up and ask her to join us. Who the hell does that? We haven't seen each other in years. We made plans to meet for lunch and then come out here. Then you had to invite a chick along, just because you like how her tits looked in a T-shirt? Don't blame Josh. That was all you."

The girl got quietly to her feet while Nelson was speaking. It was something he took in but his focus remained on Darren. She took a step back, her shoes making no noise as she began to ease away from them. Step by step, she backed up towards the door. Only when the wooden floorboard creaked suddenly from under her, did three sets of eyes turn towards her.