Page 105 of Pretty Lies

She knew that all too well.

And how much it hurt.

Thing was … Jennika didn’t pull the trigger.

Della counted the seconds.

She had all the time in the world.

Do it.

Just fucking do it.

She was mad—hurt and bitter. It was devastating to realize someone who meant everything to you thought you were nothing. Maybe she blamed Della. Fuck. It was possible her friend was just sick. In her mind. Because all her life, people left her; she never had anyone except herself, and that could really do a number on someone’s sense of self-worth

She didn’t pull the trigger, though.

“Just do it!” Della shouted, vibrating from head to toe.

The gun bit harder into her forehead.

The trigger didn’t click.

Neither girl looked away.

“Because you can’t,” Della said.

Jennika’s arm trembled, and her teeth clenched as a sound escaped that ached. “You don’t fucking know anything. You just—”

“Because what are you going to do after this? Do you think you’re making it out of here?” Della was the one laughing then, the sound bouncing from wall to wall in the room and back again. She was sure that she looked just as fucking crazy as Jennika in that moment, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care, either. “After you killed me, what were you going to do then? Did you even think about that? You never did plan for the follow through very well, Jenn.”

She could see the girl’s finger twitch on the trigger. Della wouldn’t give her the chance to pull it.

“You never planned beyond this,” Della said, her hands coming up fast between them to grab the butt of the gun and Jennika’s wrist at the same time. She bent both the gun and Jennika’s wrist back while the other woman was distracted by her emotions. Those were always a person’s weakest spot. Her finger wrapped around Jennika’s on the trigger, and she fought to pull it back as she shoved the barrel up hard. It found the middle of Jennika’s jaw when the two slammed into the doors. “We’re all you fucking had—he’s gone, we wouldn’t take you back once we knew the truth. Where were you gonna go? You’ve got no one and you knew it. You’re nobody.”

They were all Jennika had. It was worth repeating. She didn’t plan to make it out of here alive.

Except all the thoughts shattered in Della’s mind when she finally pulled the trigger back on the gun. The bang was explosive. In sound, and action. Her ears rang as all at once, Jennika’s body slumped between her and the door. Blood sprayed from the exit wound and dribbled from the spot where it had entered under her chin.

A lot of blood, really.

Della watched the pooling crimson grow as she stepped away from the door. The gun, and Jennika fell to the floor.

In the background, Della could hear shouting.

Familiar voices.

The after spray of the gunshot must have hit her in the face because she tasted blood when she licked her lips. Unmoving, unseeing eyes stared upward from the bleeding heap of what used to be her friend on the floor.

Della was still trying to digest it all.

Process everything.

By the time her father, the undertaker, and Cory got the double doors open, Della had found a spot on the floor a few feet away from her friend’s body. She stayed just out of reach of the puddling blood while she lit a cigarette from the purse Jennika had tossed aside when they first entered the room.

“Holy fuck,” Cory mumbled, stumbling over the body toward her.

“Della!”