Page 110 of The Sound of Him

I set the nightmare alarm on my phone.

Then I lay my head down on the wheel and let myself fucking sleep.

Chapter Twenty-one

Matt

Nolan finds me.

He crawls under the bed and wraps his arms around me.

It's nice, but it's nothing like Ace. My mind just spins, spins, spins.Dead, he's dead, Mica is dead - but so am I.

I start to cry again, but it's soft this time, just tears slowly leaking out of my eyes.

“Matty, I gotta tell you something.”

I already know,I want to tell him.Please don't make me hear it again.

“Travis is back and - and he killed Mica. He's gone now, Matty. He's dead.”

Like me.

“Matty?”

I force myself to nod my head. He probably can't see it in the darkness, but he can feel it. It has to be enough. I beg whatever god is listening that it's enough. That he gets the point - I understand, I don't want to discuss it, please never bring it up again.

Please, no more words. Shh.

Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh-

“-was just waiting for him to be killed or something, because now he's going to leave.”

Wait.

I-

What?

Leave? Leave here?

Who is leaving here?

Who?

Who - who is - no, no, no-

“Casey is going with him.”

With who?

Casey and who are leaving?

I missed it, go back, who?

Nolan huffs, sounding - sounding -what's that word?Not angry, but close. Like angry and hurt together. I can't find it. My feelings wheel is in my head, but it's spinning around and around, a blur of colors.

“Carter is going to go tofucking college. Like he was before… well, before allthis. Like it's that simple. Like he and Casey can just go back to normal.”