The Similars (The Similars #1)(28)

Levi and I watch as the ambulance’s engine purrs to life, and the vehicle begins to drive off with Prudence and Principal Fleischer inside.

Something inside me springs to life, and I turn to Levi. “This is wrong. We should be with her. Pru needs us!”

“She doesn’t even know me,” Levi points out, his voice quiet.

“I’m her best friend,” I respond. “Her roommate. What if she wakes up and doesn’t know where she is? She’ll be alone,” I say, unable to keep the panic from my voice. Suddenly, I feel lightheaded. I sway.

Levi reaches out to steady me.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asks.

“Yesterday,” I admit as I shrug off his hand.

“Let me walk you back to Cypress,” Levi says, but I want no such thing. I begin walking in the direction of the main house. If Ransom doesn’t want me going to the hospital with Pru, I won’t fight him. I’ll simply find a way to see her on my own.

“Hey,” Levi says, trailing me. “Emma! Wait! Just wait up for a second, okay? I know. I know.”

“Know what?” I croak, hoping if I move fast enough, I’ll lose him.

“I know seeing Pru like that must feel like losing Oliver all over again. I know a person can only handle finding so many bodies in the span of a lifetime.”

“Try a summer,” I say.

I’m flooded once again by the memory of Oliver. I miss him so much. Seeing his face without having access to the person he was only makes that worse.

“Hang on,” I say. “You said I found bodies. Plural. How did you know I found him? Oliver, I mean.”

Levi shrugs. “Everyone knows, don’t they?”

“I guess.”

Levi pulls his arms across his chest. It’s only then that I notice how scratched they are from carrying Pru through the brambles. On instinct, I reach out. He yanks his arm away as though burned.

“Ransom was right. You should see the nurse,” I offer. “She could clean and put something on those.”

“I’m fine,” he says, shrugging off my suggestion.

“Do you think it was an accident?” I blurt.

Levi stares at me, and for a heartbeat I am grateful to him. He carried Pru to safety. Without him, she might still be lying there… Not dead! I scream in my head. Not Prudence too…

“I don’t know,” he answers. “What if someone did this to her? Hit her over the head. Left her in that canoe.”

I nod, because answering him would be too painful. I suddenly feel like I might throw up. I start striding toward the main house again, and Levi calls after me.

“Emma?”

I don’t turn around, and Levi doesn’t say anything more.





The Orphan


That evening, I’m surprised that Prudence is at dinner. She’s sitting by herself at a long, otherwise empty table. My heart leaps as I rush to her.

“Pru?”

She looks up at the sound of her name, and her eyes are puffy and red, no doubt from crying. Though it is Pru’s features I see—same eyes, same small chin, same nose—I deflate. It’s not Pru.

It’s Pippa.

Of course it is. Because Pru isn’t here. She was taken to the hospital. After her accident, or…whatever it was.

“Pippa,” I say, my voice hoarse. I wish I could go back and correct myself, because I’m certain I’ve made her pain a thousand times worse by calling her Pru like that. Reminding her that she looks exactly like the girl who was attacked in the boathouse. Her original.

“It’s okay,” Pippa says. I want to hug her and never let her go, but I don’t. I don’t know this girl. This isn’t my friend. This is her DNA replica. Not Pru at all.

Pippa has heard about Pru’s accident—everyone has—and she’s full of questions for me. What happened? What did I see? What was I doing when I found her? Do I know if Pru is going to be okay?

I tell Pippa what little I know, and Pippa tells me she buzzed her DNA father, but Jaeger hasn’t responded. She explains that she doesn’t feel close enough to the Stanwicks to call them. I see Levi nab a tray and step into the buffet line with his friends. He doesn’t look in my direction. He doesn’t notice me. I, on the other hand, notice everything about him. He’s changed his clothes. Now he wears long sleeves, and I wonder if this clean shirt is strategic, to cover up his scratches from carrying Pru through the woods. He’s stuffed another paperback book into his back jeans pocket.

Before I can wonder what book he’s reading, that boy from American history—Henry Blackstone—approaches the Similars, and all thoughts of Levi’s reading habits vanish. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but it looks like Henry is making an animated proposal, one specifically focused on Theodora.

“I wonder what that’s about,” I murmur. I’m not the only curious one. Plenty of our classmates have stopped their conversations to stare. The Similars have stayed so insulated in their own little group, with the exception of Pippa sitting with me and Pru…

“He’s asking Theodora to go on a date with him,” says Pippa.

“Really?” I ask, momentarily thrown. “That’s…bold of him.” Then something occurs to me. I turn to face Pippa. “How do you know that’s what Henry said? Do you read lips?”