Eyes Open // "The tricky thing is yesterday we were just children." People always told Kristen Gregory that she would amount to something one day, but no one had ever told her that she'd become one of the number one most wanted people in America. A little warning would have been nice.

.o.

"...nineteen year-olds Jamie and Ryan Marvil were found dead in their home yesterday in Westchester. The Marvil girls' mother, Merri-Lee, said she had walked into their home after coming home from a business trip in Manhattan to find her daughters brutally stabbed to death. Police have reported that Jamie Marvil had been stabbed thirty times in the chest and stomach, and Ryan twice in the back. This is Becca Filler of Channel 4 news, and you heard it first from m-"

I extend my hand out as fast as I could, hitting the volume button hard to turn the radio off. I chance a look at the girl sitting in the passenger seat beside me, her long red hair tied back with a gold ribbon. She has a firm grip on the arm rest, knuckles white. I think it would be best for me not to say anything, so I don't. I'm having a hard time remembering exactly who I am myself, and if this is the person I want to be.

I try to recollect my thoughts, since Dr. Yang said that's the best thing I can do in bad situations. Taking a deep breath, I take in my surroundings and the people I am with. There's me, Kristen Gregory, who totally didn't expect to be in a car with this small group of people a few days ago, let alone driving it. There's Dylan Marvil, the beautiful volleyball captain and most popular girl in school, sitting in the passenger seat. Then there is Olivia Ryan, with her big blue eyes and white blonde hair, who's not all there. Sitting in the back with her, there's Danny Robbins, who has messy dark hair and green eyes, and whom I've never spoken to in my entire life. Dylan is a size zero teenage dream,Olivia is a strange childlike girl, Danny is the hot lacrosse god of St. Mary's High School, and I'm the quiet loser girl who spends lunch in the library.

They're all likeable- I'm definitely not- and come from different groups of friends, and none of us belong in this car together.

Olivia speaks up for the first time since we left San Antonio in my stupid red jeep. "I need to change my uniform and wash my hair and wash my hands," she says in her high-pitched voice, holding her blood-caked hands in front of her face. Her white button down shirt is stained with bloody streaks, looking as if she had used it to clean a knife. Her long, pretty hair is tangled and dark at the ends, as if she had used that to clean a bloody knife, too.

I feel sad for the poor girl, and wonder how she had even gotten mixed up with this horrible group. She looks like a child with her frilly, flowery socks and the messy shirt. I try to pretend that she's covered in finger paint, and that makes her look even more childlike. My stomach twists up in a big knot, and I try my hardest to remain focused on the road ahead of me.

"Kristen, pull over."

I ignore Dylan, pushing forward into the afternoon daylight.

"Kristen, let me drive."

Trees fly past us, and I clench my jaw as I continue to drive along the empty road.

"Would you just let her drive, Kristen?"

I don't look at Danny or Dylan, I just keep driving until we find a gas station. We're well into Austin already, and I don't intend on wasting the day light. "I'm stopping at the next gas station so we can get cleaned up and maybe eat something. Then you can drive."

I run a hand through my dirty blonde hair, finally letting out the huge breath I'd been holding in ever since-

No, don't think about that, I tell myself.

Olivia leans forward in her seat to shout, "Look! Gas station!" She's pointing to the Valero ahead of us with her bloody fingers, and I choose to start breathing through my mouth only.

I pull into the joint grocery store and gas station steadily, and try to block out Olivia's innocent cheers.

We all agree that I need to go into the store alone, because I'm the only one who's not caked with blood. That makes me think of Dylan, who Is almost completely soaked in the substance. After I change into a pink dress from my gym bag, I leave to the store.

I come back to the car in less than fifteen minutes to find Dylan and Olivia cleaning each other off with a window scrubber and water hose. I can just make out Danny's head in the back of my car.

"I picked up a lot- tampons, shampoo, food, and some other stuff. We can keep it in my trunk."

Dylan's beautiful hair is still tied back, miraculously bloodless. Her and Olivia are now fresh and clean. "What about clothes? We all need to change out of our uniforms."

"I found clothes in my gym bag, but I have a lot more in my trunk. My cousin and his girlfriend left their bags in my trunk yesterday after driving my car home from college."

Dylan finds a red skirt and a collared, sleeveless top and changes into that quickly, slipping into my own black oxfords. Olivia throws on jean shorts and a yellow tee with a purple dinosaur pictured on it.

"I brought this for me just in case!" she shouts with glee.

Dylan quickly shushes her, pushing the disturbingly happy girl away.

I take some of my cousin's clothes into the back of my car, looking hesitantly at Danny. He's shirtless now, so he pulls on a gray shirt and looks at me expectantly until I hand him the navy jeans and look away while he changes.

"Can I be honest with you?"

I look to him again, taking in his emotionless face. "We've been in a car together for almost twenty-four hours after I helped you murder two teenage girls, and you think you can't be honest with me?"

Danny gives a dry laugh, eyes softening. "Well, I have no idea why you're even here. You should be back at St. Mary's, reading or something. You never even touched blood."

"Yeah, whatever," is all I can say.

Dylan climbs into the driver's seat, flicking on the radio. Olivia is in the passenger seat just as quick.

I sit back next to Danny, thinking about how just a week ago I had been sitting in the library during lunch when Dylan approached me. You're Kristen, right? I'm Dylan, is what the popular girl had said. Just the day before that, Dylan had written the word loser across my locker with hot pink lipstick, associated with her best friend Massie Block, and then she had pretended like we didn't know each other. It baffled me to no end.

I know how I ended up here, even if Danny doesn't. I'd been weak, stupid to succumb to Dylan's sob story about needing a tutor because she'd been failing math and offer to help the girl out. I'd also been an idiot to actually let them into my car when they ran from the house covered in blood, when they hadn't even bothered to tell me the plan.

"My hair is still tangled and bloody," Olivia complained. "Dylan wouldn't let me scrub it with the window cleaner."

"You're mostly clean now. And safe- that's all that matters," said Dylan as she drove through the open road.

And safe. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, and no idea what happened yesterday, yet I'm still acting calm and rational. I deserve answers. "Olivia, there's scissors in the glove compartment. You can tell me what happened at the Marvil house while you cut away the bloody hair," I say softly, speaking to the girl as if she's a child. And in a sad way, she is just a child.

Olivia giggled as she carefully snipped away a lock of long, beach-wavy hair. "Well, you know what happened with Dylan and her sisters, right?"

Before I can say no, the radio turns to the news channel. I want to glare at Dylan, but I keep my eyes glued to Olivia as she cuts off her hair.

"...update on the Marvil murder now: four teenagers have been reported missing, Dylan Marvil among them. The kids were last seen walking out of the Marvil house in the early morning, three of them getting into a jeep driven by another missing teenager. This is the only way they are linked to the murder as of now-"

Dylan turns the radio off immediately, cursing loudly. "Who saw us?"

"We weren't hard to miss, Dylan," Danny snaps at her, and it's the first I've seen him angry.

I look at the boy sitting next to me, a chill running through my body. His body language shows just how angry he is, with his hands clenched in tense fists and his neck flushed. "Maybe next time you wanna murder someone, do it yourself. Don't make me do it for you- and don't even think about asking poor Olivia to help you with anything ever again. She's already messed up enough."

Locks of bloody, wavy hair drop to Olivia's lap. The next few hours in my car are silent, except for the snipping of scissors and occasional whimper from the innocent teen.

I spend the quiet time eating sour gummy worms from the grocery bag I found under my seat, and thinking of how I'm going to handle this whole situation. Only one word comes to mind when I think of how I'm acting right now- irresponsible.

.o.

I wake up when it's dark outside, and it looks to be about three in the morning. I hadn't realized I even fell asleep. My heart is beating from the nightmare I've just had, and I look to Danny. He's about as far away from me as he can be, but his eyes are watching me with curiosity. I must have thrashed around or something, and now he knows I had a nightmare. Great.

"Sorry for bothering you," is all I think to say. Now I sound pathetic, and I just want to eat my scarf so I'll stay quiet. He could of stabbed me and I probably would have apologized for getting my blood on the knife.

Danny's eyes flicker with some sort of emotion that I don't catch, but it's there. "You're not. You slept quite peacefully, actually. Well, except for when you woke up. That was kind of scary."

"Um, I had a bad dream. That's all," I say dismissively. But that's not all, and it's not something I want to dismiss.

My dream had started out as me in Dylan's place, like I had actually been her. It felt so real, and that was what scared me the most. As Dylan, I had walked into her room to find a thin box sitting on her bed. It had a note attached to it, and had a few words written in red pen- "Do exactly as I say, or you're dead."

Inside of the box had been a short, pretty white dress, with a lot of lace and delicate material. There was a dry cleaning tag attached to it with a woman's name written on it, and a phone number I hadn't recognized. Along with the dress, there was an invitation to a wedding for the woman the dress belonged to and Dylan's father. I'd only talked to her father once, and all I remembered about him was that he was very young.

As Dylan, I had sat down on her bed and started to cry really hard. I'd only stopped crying long enough to hastily hide the box underneath the bed, and then had continued to cry until I woke up as myself again.

I can easily say that was the weirdest dream I'd ever had, and I'm unsure if I can really call it a nightmare.

Danny looks me right in the eye and it's the first time I've ever actually looked at him. He's got the prettiest green eyes, and I'm slightly envious of them. But they're also warm, and a total opposite from what his personality. At least from what I've seen.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

I say, "I will be."

"I mean, with this. Are you okay with us just using you like this?" he asks me. I know he's just trying to get me uncomfortable or something, because he'd have to be stupid to think I was actually okay with all of this.

I realize that's the first time since two days ago that I've admitted to myself that this is not okay. To keep myself from screaming out in frustration, I ask, "Well, are you okay with having someone as unpopular as me in the car with you?"

"It is your car, so I don't think I have any choice," Danny says with the first smile I've seen from any of us- except for Olivia, who is always smiling. Even when she cries, there's the ghost of a smile on her pretty face.

I can't find the strength to smile back at him. Instead, I change the subject, hoping for some answers. "Did her dad get married recently?" I ask in a whisper, trying to keep Dylan from hearing me.

"Yes."

My head turns to the front seat immediately, and I'm completely ready to throw myself down on my knees and apologize for snooping into her personal life when Dylan says again, "Yes. He married some floozy named Ginevra Cook, if you're interested in knowing her name. My mother was pissed, as usual."

Ginevra Cook- the name on the dry cleaning tag on the white dress in my dream. I think I deserve to know a little more, so I ask, "Did anything interesting happen at the wedding?"

Dylan gives me a weird look in the rearview mirror. "What does that even mean?"

"Well, you know how weddings can be. Family drama and everything," I try, even though I've never actually attended a wedding before.

A strange laugh comes from Dylan's throat, loud and cackle-like. Olivia wakes up with a yelp, dropping the scissors on the floorboard beneath her. I see that her hair now stops at her chin, wavy and smooth like some Grecian goddess. Sometime during the night she had tied a lavender bow into her honey-brown hair.

Dylan says, "Oh yeah, family drama. Don't even get me started."

I want to press the issue further, but one warning look from Danny and I'm dropping the subject completely. Not knowing what exactly happened back at Dylan's house is eating me alive. I only know what little information I've been able to gather from that one news report, and the bloody evidence that I'd seen before they cleaned up. I have no idea what kind of person I am for just letting them use me like this, but I figure maybe it's the right thing to do.

Who am I kidding? I'm in a car full of criminals, and now that I've done nothing to stop them I'll be considered one, too.

The radio flips to the news channel again.

"...four missing teenagers, Dylan Marvil, Danny Robbins, Olivia Ryan, and Kristen Gregory, have been officially linked to the Marvil murder. A witness has said that he saw three of the missing teens running from the house early in them morning, while it was still dark outside, and that they all piled into a car driven by a fourth missing teenager. It is said that one of them was carrying a knife, and that is what has linked them to the murder as of now. Unfortunately, there has been no vehicle identification. If you see these teens, do not approach them. They may be young, but they are being considered highly dangerous-"

Dylan sighs from the front seat, turning the radio off. Her long, immaculate red hair blows lightly in the AC. "Danny, I'm tired. You and Kristen trade places with me and Olivia in an hour, okay?"

Olivia cheers softly, shaking her short hair around. "When do I get to drive?" she asks.

"Olivia, you don't even know how to drive," Dylan says in an equally soft tone.

Danny rolls his eyes at me in an amused way, but I make myself look away from him. I will not further associate myself with these people again. Once we stop in an hour, I'm going to get away. I have a plan that is risky, but I'm almost one hundred percent sure it'll work.

In just an hour, I'll be free.

.o.