Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
I ended the call and felt around, hitting the right buttons until I felt my phone buzzing from the ringing.
I made a mental note, thanking myself that I silenced my phone before wanting to go into the room. I hadn’t wanted to wake Kristina and Casey up.
“I heard about you last semester. All the girls were talking about you. Shay’s like a celebrity here.” She lifted a shoulder, holding it against her cheek a moment. “I never told anyone I knew him. I mean, I kind of do. I kind of don’t. I didn’t actually go to the school where Cameron and Shay did. My parents homeschooled me. Said I was different. Special. They found out about my weird habits, and I became something else. Scary. I overheard one of Cameron’s girlfriends saying that about me. I don’t know why she would care. I mean, it isn’t like my brother cared about me or anything. Sabrina’s the only one who does. She visits me sometimes.”
I coughed. “She told me that.”
She nodded, letting her shoulder drop again, and she raised her arms to hug herself tightly. Her eyes didn’t track back to mine.
Maybe I didn’t need to worry?
Maybe I had overreacted?
I started to wonder, and then Phoebe kept talking. “You see, I normally wouldn’t care. I don’t care about a lot of people, but I like Sabrina. She’s the glue that makes Cameron still like me sometimes.” Her head whipped back to mine.
I sucked in my breath, startled by how piercing her gaze was.
It was so clear, like she knew exactly what she was saying, what she was doing.
She asked, “Your brother loves you. I can tell from the things I’ve heard. That’s nice. You’ve never had to feel like a burden to your family. I did. That’s how Cameron looked at me. Me and Shay. Cameron used to be so jealous of Shay. He liked him, but he hated him, too.” A soft laugh slipped from her.
It sent another wave of chills down my spine.
“I felt this camaraderie with Shay. He was all my brother thought about. He had to get the girls Shay got. He had to break the records Shay made. He had to get better grades than Shay. All these things.” Her head hung low. She was still hugging herself tightly. “It made it all confusing in my head. Things go round and round. You stop noticing what’s up or down, where the ground is. You just focus on what’s ahead of you.” She paused, lost in thought.
I edged backward, pressing against the closed door. I could run this way if I had to. Sprint for it.
“I came here because of Shay. I wanted to keep an eye on him for Cameron. If he did well, I wanted my brother to know. He could break Shay’s record at his school. That was the plan. Shay doesn’t know me, but I know him. I know him better than anybody.”
Her eyes found me again.
I felt sick to my stomach.
“I do know you, don’t I?”
She ignored my question. “I probably know him better than even you.”
My mouth was parched. I tried to talk, but nothing came out. A whisper then, “You’re a freshman?”
“Sophomore. I’m here because I couldn’t get a single in a regular sophomore dorm. No one wanted to room with me. The girl they assigned to me refused, so they put me back here. The RA knows about me, about my special circumstances.”
Her special circumstances?
That she was a psycho?
I tried again, my voice a little louder now, “What circumstances?”
“That I’m crazy.”
She said it as if it made total sense and I was the idiot for not acknowledging it.
My eyes shot to hers. “What?”
She rolled hers. “I’m angry at him because he’s only allowed my brother to be number two all his life. Cameron deserves to be number one. Then Sabrina entered the picture. Shay dated her, and I didn’t care. She didn’t know my brother. That changed one day.” Her eyes narrowed. Her face tilted to the side again, still watching me with the unnerving resolve. “It was the end of classes, and I begged my parents to make Cameron pick me up. He did, and Sabrina was there. We lived on the same dorm floor last year. She was walking out as he was walking in, and he did a double take. I think he fell in love that day with her.” Her gaze darkened, and her top lip curled up. “I knew it was my job to watch over them, and they were doing great . . . until she met you.” Her head lowered, but she never looked away from me. “She wants another chance with Shay, and as long as you’re here, as long as she keeps running into you, I know she can’t help herself. You’ll remind her what she didn’t have with him, and she’ll always yearn for a second shot.”