AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He looks surprised. “Nevada?”
I nod and tuck my pink hair behind my ears.
“How long were you there?”
“I don’t know, a few weeks, maybe?”
“So how long are you here?”
Grinning, I peer up at him. “A few weeks, maybe? I don’t know, Nok. Why are you so interested?”
“Wait… Salt Lake High?” He looks lost in thought for a moment. “A girl died there, right?”
I stop and think back to my time there. “I don’t know. Lots of people die in lots of places.”
“Yeah, but this was different. She was murdered. I think. Is it the same place?”
“Maybe, I don’t know, I didn’t do a history check while I was there.” To be honest, Salt Lake High isn’t my last school, it’s one of the first ones I attended, but I don’t ever remember a girl being murdered there. He’s probably remembering wrong. “Anything else?”
“Nope.”
“Then why are you following me?”
His answering smile is devious and makes my core give a painful ache of arousal. He ducks into a classroom and I hear somebody yell his name.
Maybe he was just walking with me, but then why was he waiting for me outside of the office?
He’s so weird, but in a hot way.
I enter my own class and look behind me when Barbie waves my way. She pats the desk beside her so I look around the room frantically for another.
“Come here, Lily.”
I fucking hate being called Lily. I pad to her and slide into my seat.
“You and Nok?”
I knew it would be about that.
I groan. “Don’t… don’t make it about that. I’m not dating him, I don’t want to date him.”
She frowns. “No, you’ve got me all wrong. That’s not… I’m not jealous. I just thought well… I wanted to make sure you know what you’re doing.”
My teeth trap my lips for a moment. “Oh, I do.”
“He was vile to me, that’s all. If I can save somebody else the same treatment, I’ll try.”
I look at her and place my hand on her arm. “He’s not going to get away with anything he’s done. Okay?”
Fear flashes in her eyes. “Why? What are you going to do?”
“Nothing, I just believe in karma is all.”
“Eyes front, please, girls!” the teacher calls, tapping the whiteboard with her fingers.
We look up front for a while until I whisper, “Is it true? Did he really sleep with you and then abandon you at a gas stop?”
She nods, her eyes watery at the memory. “I was a virgin too. I really thought he liked me.”
“What a monster,” I breathe, looking back at the board.
“He’s very convincing so be careful, okay?”
I nod. Oh, I’ll be careful all right.
“Thanks for telling me, it can’t be easy to talk about.”
“It’s not, but anything I can do to help a sister.”
She’s so fake. I hate that about her. Even while being honest she’s just so insincere, it rubs me the wrong way. I want to tell her that I don’t like her and to stop talking to me, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry.
“I saw something on the news earlier,” Willow tells me as I thread my fingers through her hair. She’s on the floor between my knees, her head resting back on my thighs. “They found a body off the I-5.”
“Eww.” What is it with everybody’s obsession with death today?
She snorts. “Not eww. It’s sad.”
I blink. “I don’t want to talk about death and murder and anything else. Okay?”
“But…”
“No,” I snap. “You know I don’t like it.”
She pushes away and glares at me. “You’re such a bitch these days.”
“Well, I’m under a lot of pressure, what do you expect?”
“You mean taking care of me?”
“No.” I soften my features. “Never because of you… just… All the moving and I don’t have a fucking clue what they’re talking about in classes. I feel like an idiot.”
“I’ve been doing your homework.”
“I know and I appreciate it.” I mutter and hug her. She’s so frail. I can feel her slipping from me and I can’t cope with it. I have to do something to make her stronger again. “Did you take your medication?”
“It makes me woozy.”
“You’re already woozy,” I grumble and pull her back to me so I can braid her hair.
She laughs gently, breathily. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“We need to get you out and get you some sunshine, you look awful.”
“Thanks, sis,” she grumbles and curls under my arm on the couch.
Approximately ten minutes later there’s a knock at my door. An odd occurrence seeing as our neighbors did the welcome wagon already and we haven’t given out our address to anybody in town.
“I’ll get it,” I say to Willow who is almost asleep. She hums and curls into a ball, remaining where she is. As bad as it sounds to an outsider, sometimes I envy her illness. To have a constant excuse to not deal with people and a quick exit out of life without having to bring it upon yourself.
