Her Destiny (Reverie #2)(7)

“Sure. We might be able to,” Evan says easily. Another lie. He’s so smooth. His lies never trip him up. I could take a lesson from him.

He stands and starts toward the door, practically shaking Mom off as she tries to grab at him.

“Is everything okay?” Dad reaches out and places his hand over mine on the table just as I try to stand, effectively trapping me. “Living with Evan, your schoolwork…it’s all going fine, right?”

I study him, see the concern etched all over his handsome face. Evan got his good looks from Dad. His attractive features are overshadowed by worry. Dark circles under his eyes, wrinkles in his face, his skin pale. He doesn’t look well.

Facing jail will do that to a person I suppose.

“Everything’s great,” I say, pleased with how easy the lie comes. It’s not so bad living with Evan, but school? That’s a joke. So stupid because I need to graduate and this is my last year. I shouldn’t make it so hard on myself.

But it’s like I can’t help it.

“Really?” he asks, his gaze dark. Intent. As if he’s waiting for me to slip up and confess all. Like I’d tell him anything.

And like he cares. I’ve come to discover my parents are completely self-absorbed.

“Really. Everything’s fine,” I say firmly with a nod. I don’t want to go into any more details.

I get away from Dad as fast as I can, give Mother a brief hug before I practically run out the door, Evan right behind me. I take in big gulps of air the moment I escape from their cloying suite. It’s like I can’t breathe when I’m with them.

It’s weird how I never felt like that with them before.

“That bad?” Evan asks on the ride down in the elevator.

“Always,” I say, keeping my gaze averted.

“Yeah.” He pauses. “Me too.”

Chapter Seven

Reverie,

When it’s late at night, I usually can’t sleep. All I can do is think about you. Wondering where you are. Who you’re with. How you’re doing. I worry about you. I want you…

I have a job, working construction. It’s hard work but I like everyone there and the money is good. I don’t really have any friends. Michael’s away at college and I miss him. The guys I work with are mostly older with girlfriends or families. I really have nothing in common with them.

You know what happened to me before and how my best friend accused me of a crime I never committed. I still don’t understand why it happened. Why he said what he did. I ran into him today. David. Totally random moment in the grocery store, he was there with some girl. He told me we should get together sometime.

I don’t want to. He’s ruined everything. Our friendship, which meant more to me than anything else, was trashed when he confessed that we beat some guy into a bloody pulp. Why would he do something like that? He said the cops wouldn’t stop. He said he finally said we did just to shut them up.

It makes no sense. He makes no sense. My life was almost ruined by his so-called confession. I know I should let it go but it’s hard. My past haunts me to do this day. Krista is murdered and they automatically think I had something to do with it because of my past.

You’ll never read this but it feels good to get everything out. Seeing David today…all the old resentment and anger rose up within me and I felt like I was going to burst. I had no one to talk to about it. So here I am, writing you an email you’ll never get, expressing my feelings and admitting I have hatred for someone who used to mean the world to me.

I hate my ex-best friend. Sometimes I feel like I have no one to talk to and I wish…

Yeah. I have no time for wishes.

They say the truth hurts. I disagree. There’s nothing better than the truth. Nothing.

And the truth is…I love you Reverie. I wish I could say those words to your face.

Again with the wishes. I’m such an idiot.

Love,

Nick

Chapter Eight

October 11th

“You’re failing.” Mrs. Davis looks at me from over the top of her glasses, which have slid halfway down her nose. “Two classes, Rev. History and English. Your favorite classes, I might add. This makes no sense to me considering how well you’ve done in the past.”

She hands me a sheet of paper and I take it from her, scanning the progress report as dread fills my stomach and makes me nauseous. I have a C in Algebra 2 and I have no idea how that happened. I used to love math. The C- in Chemistry and a B in P.E. are both no surprises. I despise chemistry. I like P.E. so I can only guess the B is because I’ve missed a few classes.

And the two F’s—I can’t imagine what my parents would say if they saw that. But they won’t. All mail is coming to our address at the apartment and they don’t see that. If they find out I’m failing they’ll make me come back and live with them, which would either be a complete joke or complete torture, take your pick.

Of course, Evan’s going to kill me when he sees those grades, because he will. Better he knows than Mom and Dad though.

“I know there’s been some…turmoil within your family lately,” my counselor starts to say, her voice gentle, her expression kind. I’ve always liked Mrs. Davis. She’s been helpful and sweet, guiding me well throughout the last three years. “I understand that could affect your grades tremendously. If you need any help at all I—”