While her best friend Cassidy snacks on brie and boys in France, Darcy Li-Quinn must face her last year of high school and the unpredictable wrath of her sister, Danica, alone. Darcy's plan for dealing with Danica and her heinous friends is simple-b...
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I saw Archer this morning.
At least, I thought I did. Which is dumb because he's dead. The rational part of my brain knows it; feels the loss like a kettle ball heavy on my chest. But the rest of me still hopes, still dreams, still sees my brother in strangers on the corner and side-eye flashes of blond.
I swear I heard him laughing once. That low raspy chuckle that was always more surprised than amused, as though the world had caught him off guard with its funny.
I miss his stupid laugh.
"I need to talk to you." She appears at my elbow like a soggy apparition, wet braid dripping on my chemistry notes. A Granville Grammar swim team duffle thuds unceremoniously onto the table as her schoolbag hits the library floor. We have a couple of classes together, but I don't remember her name. Daisy? Davie? Something like that. Not that it matters.
"I'm busy." Keeping my voice hard and flat, I raise a single eyebrow in what has become my trademark way of broadcasting that I have no interest in anyone. Instead of backing off, she arches an inky brow of her own.
"Don't be a dick." Her onyx eyes flash. "I have no more desire to speak to you than you do to me, but I promised I would." She yanks a metal chair out from the table and sits down opposite me.
Even glaring, she's undeniably cute. Hair the colour of winter at midnight, clear tawny skin, an overly full bottom lip, and long, long limbs. The old me would have turned on the Viera charm. Flipped my dark hair off my forehead, flashed a cheeky grin, leaned forward, flirted up a storm. The new me just wants to go to sleep in a quiet corner of this library and pretend I don't exist until the school day starts. Maybe for much longer than that.
"Look." Soggy Girl sighs. "There's no way to tell you this without sounding like I've lost the plot. I need you to listen and try to keep an open mind."
I stay stubbornly silent. She huffs and mutters something under her breath that sounds weirdly like 'should have gone skydiving'. But when she raises her pretty eyes to mine, her gaze is so intensely serious I can't look away.
"I saw your brother this morning," she says.
I'm up and out of my chair so fast it tips backwards, clattering to the carpeted floor with a muffled thud. The girl flinches at the noise but doesn't break eye contact.
"Why would you say that?" I growl. My fists clench reflexively at my sides. "Don't say that to me."
"I'm sorry," she whispers. "This must be hard to wrap your mind around. I can't imagine... but it's true. I promise. I met Archer on the bus this morning and he wants to talk to you."
My laugh is a bitter bark. "Now I know you're delusional. My brother would never voluntarily catch public transport."
"Somehow, I don't think it was his choice. He says he's been there since he died a few weeks ago."
