Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton

Author:Linda Joy Singleton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: youth, teen, fiction
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2008-08-31T18:30:00+00:00

Crisp silver foil fell away as I tore into the candy bar. The scent of rich milky chocolate was an intoxicating high that only a true chocoholic could appreciate. I divided the candy into eight perfect cubes, and slipped a pure, one-eighth fraction of joy into my mouth.

“Ooooh,” I moaned in bliss.

I’d died and was reborn with milk chocolate: melting sweet hope. The taste evoked memories of happier times, a connection to my real self. I gazed into Eli’s face, overwhelmed by passion, love and desire. For chocolate.

When I finished off the remaining seven-eighths, I licked my lips. “Do you have more?” I eyed his pockets.

“Greedy girl,” Eli said teasingly. “You didn’t even offer to share.”

“Don’t judge me. I’ve had a bad week.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“But chocolate makes everything seem better. I could eat a dozen of these and still want more.”

He laughed. “You are so not Leah.”

“Well, duh? What have I been trying to tell you?”

“It’s uncanny and impossible.”

“Yet it happened, and I have only one day to get to my real body. It’s at Community Central Hospital. Will you help me get there?”

“On one condition,” he told me seriously.

“What?”

He wagged a finger and gave me a stern look. “Repeat after me: I will not try to kill myself.”

“Oh … that.” I shrugged. “I only wanted to die a little so I could have an out-of-body visit with my grandmother. It wouldn’t have been suicide, but more like a visit to see my grandmother. I knew she would guide me back to my real body if I could just talk with her. I never meant to kill myself.”

“For a smart girl, you have some dumb ideas. You can’t control life and death.”

“Well … it might have worked.”

“You’re nuts.”

“That’s what Leah’s family and her shrink think,” I said with a sigh, gesturing back toward the house. “If I stay much longer, they’ll lock me away in a mental institution. They’ve been keeping me a prisoner in my room, only letting me come out to exercise—which is the same as torture. The whole Montgomery family is messed up. Leah’s mother drinks, her dictator-like father is beyond scary, and her little brother thinks he’s a tough street kid. If I don’t escape, I’m doomed. Let’s get out of here.”

“Uh …” Eli hesitated, looking at me with reddening cheeks. “You’re not exactly dressed for the public.”

“I’m slipping on my sandals now.”

“Uh, that’s good but not enough. I mean … ” He cleared his throat and pointed. “Do you have something to cover up … uh … those.”

I glanced down at my perky cleavage. They were kind of obvious and ripe for drawing attention. So I draped a towel around my shoulders and hurried after Eli as he went to the sprawling oak tree that towered up against the formidable concrete wall.

Jumping up, he grabbed a sturdy branch with both hands. Swinging out with the flexibility of a gymnast, he flipped up and over to straddle the branch. His grass-stained white sneakers dangled over my head as he called down, “Your turn.

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