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"What're we going to do?" I heard myself say.
No one replied. Natasha reached out and slipped her arm around mine, pulling me to her. I had thought this whole thing was over. I had thought the police had done their job.
But now I saw that this was never going to end. That I was going to feel this way forever.
How to Go from on Top of the World to Rock Bottom in Less Than Five Seconds: A Cautionary Tale, by Reed Brennan.
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SOMEONE ELSE
"He did it. We all know he did. I say we take justice into our own hands," Dash said at dinner that night. His eyes were wide and he was unable to sit still. I had never seen him so fidgety, and every time his hand jerked or he shifted in his seat, I flinched. This guy was primed to blow.
"Does anyone know where this fuckhead lives?" Gage said.
"What are we going for now, mob rule?" Noelle joked.
She seemed to have recovered nicely from her initial shock. Of course, teasing the guys was always good for her mood.
"If that's what it takes." Dash let a bit of spittle fly. "I'm not playing here, Noelle."
Noelle rolled her eyes and sighed. We all stared at one another. It had been like this all through dinner, and neither my stomach nor my nerves were enjoying it.
"Can we talk about something else?" I suggested.
"Maybe he didn't do it," Natasha said.
"What did you say?" Dash blurted.
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Noelle leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. Kiran pushed her vegetables around on her plate. Ariana stared down at her book. Taylor was MIA. Probably curled up in a bed in the infirmary, where she seemed to spend half her time lately.
"I'm just saying, clearly they didn't have enough evidence to keep him in custody, so maybe he didn't do it," Natasha said, lifting a shoulder. "Sometimes you just have to trust in the system."
"That's good stuff, coming from you," Gage said.
Natasha dropped her fork and crossed her arms on the table. "Is this going to be another 'Republicans are evil' diatribe? Because I so don't get enough of those," she said sardonically.
"I'd love to hear about why Republicans are evil," Kiran put in. "At least it would be a change of subject."
"Look, Gisele, just because you don't give a shit that Thomas was murdered doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying to figure out who did it," Gage said. "The world does not revo
lve around Kiran Hayes."
"You think I don't give a shit?" Kiran blurted. Her tone was so venomous, it made me jump. Startled tears came to my eyes and I was instantly embarrassed, but I couldn't control it. I was that on edge. "Who the hell do you think you are? You have no idea what I do and don't care about! I would love to know what really happened to Thomas, what the police are thinking. But no one seems to want to tell us, do they? No! They just want us to sit here and suffer."
"Kiran," Ariana said in a warning, soothing tone.
Kiran looked around as if just remembering that anyone other
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than Gage was at the table. "Sorry. I'm just sick of this," she grumbled. "It's too weird. A few weeks ago he was sitting right there being obnoxious and now we're talking about who did and didn't kill him. I mean--"
"I can't listen to this anymore," I blurted.