Page 47 of Marked

Forty feet.

“Beth was the other half of my soul. She was my sister in every way that counted.”

Thirty.

“She was stubborn as shit. Everyone knew it. Once she had her mind made up, there was no way you were changing it, but I still tried.”

Twenty.

“I spent hours trying to convince her to stay with me.Hours.You wanna know what real pain is, Dave?”

Ten.

Five.

One.

“Ask me what the last words I ever spoke to my best friend were.”

He cleared his throat. “What were they?”

You could’ve heard a pin drop on the grass-covered field. That’s how quiet it had become.

A lone tear tracked down my cheek as I heard the words over and over in my head. It was the worst fight we’d ever had. Horrible things were said by both of us that we never got to take back.

“I said, ‘I hate you.”’

“Oh, Alaina,” Mom cried out.

“I told my best friend, a person I loved with all my heart, that she was reckless and I hated her.” Dave’s eyes welled and I knew it was over. Without looking, I reachedout, taking the gun from his hand. He didn’t resist. “I’ve spent all these years knowing, as she took her last breath, she thought those words were true. That’s the kind of pain I’ve had to live with.”

Without another word, I turned, collapsing into Noah’s waiting arms.

“I want to go home.”

The stars looked the same in Colorado as they did in Huntington. They hung above the mountain ranges like they were painted on the sky by a stroke of an artist’s brush. At least that’s how Beth used to describe them. We spent countless hours gazing up at the heavens while sharing our dreams for the future. If I’d known then hers would be cut short, I would’ve paid closer attention to the sound of her voice and the curve of her smile. All I had left were whispers of her memory. But they’d never be enough.

“I’d ask how you’re holding up, though I’ve never been one to ask foolish questions.”

Waverly lowered herself down, sitting on the top step of my parents’ porch next to me. I suspected there’d been quite a battle between her and Noah to see who got to come out here first. In all honesty, I was glad she’d won. Not that I didn’t want him. I wanted him every minute of every day. But right then, I needed her no-bullshit attitude to yank me out of my pity party.

“Where’s Dave?”

My parents and Noah had spirited me away from the field earlier, leaving my team to deal with the aftermath. Normally, I would’ve balked over leaving someone else toclean up my mess, but this whole situation was about as far from normal as you could get.

“Duncan has him locked down at your brother’s place for now.”

I nodded, staring straight ahead into the darkness.

“When I mentioned choices earlier,” she started, “the assumption was Jill fired those shots. If you’d wanted to circumvent the system in order to get a sick woman the help she needed, I would’ve had your back.”

“Well,” I scoffed. “That’s no longer an option.”

“Not entirely.”

“What do you mean?”

She twisted sideways; a sea of emotion flitting across her face. “He’s going to jail, Lanie. I refuse to stop it. The question is for how long?”

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