“Pam,” Dennis said, reaching for me again, but I shrunk away from him against the car door. I had no interest in his hand on my knee at that moment; all I wanted to do was go home.
“Mark, tell us where we’re going or I swear to god I won’t put out until after graduation.” Barb emphasized this by crossing both her arms and her legs.
Mark sighed and slowed the car to a stop.
“Okay, Jesus Christ woman,” he said, leaving the ignition running. He turned to face both Barb and the two of us in the backseat. “We’re going to Bubblehead Road, it won’t be that long and then we’ll go see a fucking movie, any fucking movie you ladies want, okay? How’s that sound?”
“Take me home,” I said at once. If we hadn’t already driven a mile or two deep in the woods I would’ve gotten out right then and there.
“Pam,” Dennis said again. “It’s not gonna be anything bad, I promise.”
“You know what they say about that place! It’s fucking haunted, or worse—“
“Oh, it’s way worse than that,” Mark said, grinning.
“You fuck,” Barb snapped. She picked her purse up off the floor and hit him halfheartedly in the shoulder with it. “I told you hate scary shit! You heard Pam, take us home!”
“So you’re saying you don’t know the legend of Bubblehead Road?” Mark raised his eyebrows at us.
“I don’t care about any legend of anything, I want to go see ‘Manhattan’!”
Dennis put a tentative arm around me. I didn’t move out of it, mostly because I was preoccupied by the fact we were in the woods where the light was quickly fading and I just wanted to go somewhere else.
“Pam, listen,” he murmured in my ear. “Some of the guys on the football team, they gave us this stupid dare and we needed you to see us do it. They won’t believe us if we said we did. We’ll be in and out, I promise.”
“I would’ve just lied for you,” I hissed back.
“Yeah, but you’re a terrible liar.” He smiled at me, that smile that still made my stomach do acrobats, and wiggled a playful finger in my side. I laughed despite myself.
“What stupid shit did you two get yourselves into?” Barb demanded.
“It’s easy-peasy baby,” Mark said, reaching towards her so he could play with her long brown hair. “We go to the house at the end of Bubblehead Road, touch the front door, and leave. That’s it. You two sexy ladies use this—“ He picked up a Polaroid camera from the floor near his feet and dumped it unceremoniously in Barb’s lap. “—snap a pic for proof, and all the guys owe us beer on graduation night.”
“Let’s get this over with,” she sighed.
“Barb!” I tried to lean towards her and Dennis pulled me back into his arms.
“What? Let them do their stupid thing and then we can go to the movies, like Mark said.” She tossed her hair back, picked up the camera. “But you’re buying me popcorn. And soda. And any candy I want.”
“Sure thing, babe,” Mark said, grinning again. He put the car into gear and we continued along the road – Bubblehead Road.
“I didn’t agree to this,” I whispered to Dennis, whose arms had relaxed now that he saw we were back on track. “You’re a real jerk for making me go along, you know, and not even telling me. I heard this place is dangerous.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered back, but Mark’s eyes were on me in the rearview mirror.
“What exactly did you hear, Pammy?”
I fucking hated it when he called me Pammy.
“I heard they took drugs,” Barb said, like he’d spoken to her. “Everybody in the family, they didn’t have much money so the government made ‘em guinea pigs for cash and their heads got huh-YOOGE.” She demonstrated this by miming an explosion over her skull. “When it went wrong they got dropped out here so they couldn’t tell anyone else, government paid ‘em off. Right babe?”
“You’re stupid, babe,” Mark said flatly.
“I heard they were just inbred hillbillies,” Dennis offered. “They settled out here when they were pioneers and only married each other for years and years and years and now they’re all—“ He searched for the word, didn’t find it, and shrugged. “—fucked up, I guess.”
“Big heads, right?” Barb twisted in her seat again to look at us. I could see the dying light of the day reflected in her shiny lipstick.
“Yeah, big heads. Bubbleheads is what they call them.”
“I heard they eat people,” Mark said.
“Oh Jesus, Mark, that’s disgusting.” She swatted his shoulder lightly. I wanted to sock him in the mouth.
