Two Winters by Lauren Emily Whalen

Author:Lauren Emily Whalen [Whalen, Lauren Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636790206
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2021-08-04T17:52:36+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

No one knew how it ended for Blair-Marie Elliott. According to her parents, though, they found her after a day and a half in a corner of the basement. Little. Helpless. No longer breathing. Her mom told the press through waterfalls of mascara running down her face, “It didn’t feel real. And then it did.”

Now I knew what she meant. Seeing Max’s tiny, crumpled body didn’t feel real. Until the moment it did, after Moose broke down the door. He was in front of the gun cabinet—the one I knew was there but didn’t think to double-check when I shut him in. Eight years old, on the verge of his First Communion, a cracker melting on his tongue and sip of wine that would make him and his classmates giggle.

Mia jostled me and caught me by the waist. Her face went white. “Pal,” she whispered. “Do something.” Her big brown eyes met mine. “Pal! Paulina,” she said louder, putting a delicate hand over my mouth.

I was still screaming.

Tes scooped up his brother. I could see the blood seeping down his button-down shirt. And that finally silenced me.

The house, still full, was now deathly quiet.

Why had Max aimed the gun at his own chest? Or had it just gone off? Had it been deliberate, the result of a bored little kid shut in a room while everyone partied and accused and cried around him? Would we ever know?

Mia dragged me by the arm, through the hallway as the population of St. Cecelia’s made room for us, scooting up against the walls like trapped bugs and averting their eyes. As we ran alongside Tes, he mumbled to himself. As we got closer to the car, I made out the words, over and over like a dark mantra: shouldhavebeenme shouldhavebeenme shouldhavebeenme.

* * *

“Go go go go go!”

As we made our way down the endless driveway, sneakers flopping on concrete, all I could see was Tes’s back. He held a bleeding, silent little boy to him as we raced to the Bear, Mia in tow.

“Tes, you’re drunk!” I recognized the voice behind me as Xander’s. Cameron was behind him, her arm around a waddling Mia. “You can’t drive.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Tes screamed, animalistic, like nothing I’d ever heard before.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cameron whisper into Mia’s ear. “Cameron will drive,” Mia called. Keys flew through the air, which Cameron caught one-handed.

But once we reached the car, she hesitated.

I was the only one close enough to see her frantic eyes and hear her whisper, “I can’t drive stick.”

“Get in the back seat,” I told her, my voice a good octave lower. “I can.”

I didn’t own a car, only used my mom’s if it was snowing and absolutely not fathomable for me to walk or bike or ride with Tes. I got my license because it was the thing to do when you turn sixteen.

But when I was ten, months before he died, Dad took me outside of Havendale, to the country roads where every kid learned to drive, and taught me how.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.