Welcome to Corbet's Inlet, North Carolina, where the teenagers act like adults and the adults act like teenagers. It's Griffin Connolly's favorite place in the world. And while she may not be good at making decisions when it comes to her own life, s...
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Charlie rereads the announcement twice.
Evan's right. This is some grade-A bullshit.
December 6th is in less than two weeks. RIGHT HERE on the post already has close to five hundred comments. There's going to be a post-presentation information session. And Griffin's going to be there. Like, Charlie will actually know a precise time and place for where she's going to be, and it's all hinged on a story he stars in just as much as she does.
Charlie doesn't know how many chapters are left to post, but now he's even more terrified of how Griffin's going to wrap up the story. Will it end the way he remembers it? Or will she change it to get more traffic? Leaving it as it happened would make for a pretty depressing end to something that already has over eight million reads. Charlie can already picture millions of sad and/or pissed off readers around the world frowning at their phones as they read what really went down the night of his nineteenth birthday.
"So what'd it say?" Evan yawns. He leans forward and pulls the liquor store bag off the coffee table.
Charlie tosses Evan his phone back, then pushes both hands through his hair. "Just some announcement about their group having to do a final presentation in December."
Evan grunts. "Sounds lame."
Charlie's eyebrows knit together. He can't really explain or justify the tiny bolt of irritation that hits his stomach. "Sounds kinda legit, actually."
Evan's back on his phone and doesn't look up.
"They used this Corbet's story to research their senior thesis project," Charlie says. Unsolicited justification. "And they invited all their readers to come to their presentation. They're tying it in with the last chapters to be released —"
Evan's head whips up. "What?"
Of course mentioning the last chapters gets Evan's attention. The kid's obsessed.
"I said they're tying the last few chapters into their pres —"
"Yeah, yeah, tying chapters into the presentation. I got that part," Evan cuts across him. "What did you say about them inviting readers?"
"Literally that. They invited their readers to the presentation. It's at Wake on December 6th."
Evan presses his tongue into the side of his cheek and squints at Charlie. His eyes flit to the ceiling after a moment, then to the window, then to the kitchen door behind Charlie's head. Every time his gaze hits something new, his expression teeters away from deep-in-thought confusion and toward wide-eyed resolve. A massive smile breaks out across his face.
"They invited the readers," he says.
Charlie watches Evan cautiously. He's seen this look on his face before and it almost always precedes a horrible idea and/or physical harm to anyone involved.
Evan suddenly launches himself off the couch.
"They — ow, shit." He accidentally slams his knee into the coffee table in his own tailspin, but to his credit, he recovers miraculously and throws his hands over his head, still holding the liquor store bag by the bottleneck. "Chuck. They invited the readers."
Charlie stares at him blankly.
Evan lunges toward him. "WE'RE READERS."
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