Page 156 of Dare To Fall

His footsteps move across the room and then halt. “We might not have been the best parents in the world to either of you, but you and Eli are not alone, I promise.”

The door clicks shut. I hunch my shoulders, grief hitting me in a wave.

Don’t think. Don’t feel. I can’t stop moving.

I refocus on the box in front of me.

Chapter 105

Eli

It’s been two days since I left Churchill Bradley, and four days since I left my best friend, cold and lifeless, on the altar in the chapel.

Four days.

Ninety-six hours.

Five thousand, seven hundred and sixty minutes.

Like you worked out that math for yourself. Kellan’s voice is a dry whisper inside my head.

“Of course, I didn’t. I asked Google.” The sound of my own voice surprises me and I open my eyes.

I’m lying on my back on the floor in my bedroom, surrounded by empty beer bottles and half-smoked joints. Pages torn out of my sketch pad litter the carpet. Sketches of Kellan, of the chapel, of Miles, and Evan.

I’ve spent the last two days drunk and high, sketching the scene from Saturday feverishly over and over, trying to get all the details right. I have to guess how Evan looked since I wasn’t facing him, but I could hear him. His voice should have told me, warned me what he’d done.

Why hadn’t I fucking realized sooner?

“Eli?” My name is followed by a tap on the door. “Detective Parker is here. Do you think you could come down and talk to him?”

I grope around the floor, lifting bottle after bottle until I find one with some beer left in it and lift it to my lips. Once it’s empty, I drop it and push to my feet. The room spins, and it takes me a couple of attempts to reach the door. Squinting, I take a guess at which of the three doorknobs is the correct one and make a grab for it. I’m wrong, but my knuckles hit the right one, so I adjust my aim and clutch at it, then pull open the door.

My dad is standing in the hallway. He sighs when he sees me.

“What?” I reach deep inside and pull out a smirk.

“Nothing. The detective is in my study. Do you want to take a shower and change first?”

“Nope.” I pop the P.

Stepping out of the room, I stagger past my dad and walk down the hallway. I manage to mostly stay in a straight line. The stairs present a minor inconvenience, and I stumble down at least five of them before regaining my balance.

“Eli.” My dad’s hand curves around my arm, stopping me from diving headfirst down the final few steps. “If you’re not ready to do this …”

“I’m fine.” Maybe if I say it often enough, I will be.

“You don’t have to pretend.”

“I’m not.” My voice is clipped. “You said your study?”

He sighs again but doesn’t try to change my mind. He reaches past me to open the door to his study and walks in, leaving me to follow.

“Detective Parker, can we make this quick? I don’t think my son is really in the right—”

“Have you found him?” I push past my dad and nail the detective seated beside the desk with a glare.

“Not yet. I need you to talk me through what happened when you went to the chapel. Do you think you could do that for me?”

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