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PROLOGUE

I couldn’t ht, muscles burned like they’d been lit on fire, and my bones ached deep into the marrow

Confusion swa I tried to lift hed down, full of lead

I thought I heard a steady beeping sound and voices, but all of it seemed far away, as if I was on one end of the tunnel and everything else was on the other

I couldn’t speak Therethere was so in my throat, in the back of , and there was a tug at the top of my hand

Why wouldn’t my eyes open?

Panic started to dig in Why couldn’t I move?

So I just wanted to open my eyes I wanted—

I love you, Lena

I love you, too

The voices echoed in my head, one of them mine Definitely mine, and the other

“She’s starting to wake up” A fehts from somewhere on the other side of the tunnel

Footsteps neared and athe propofol in now”

“This is the second tihter Herto be happy to hear that”

Fighter? I didn’t understand what they were talking about, why they thought my mom would be happy to hear this—

Maybe I should drive?

War at the base of h hts and no voices

YESTERDAY

CHAPTER ONE

Thursday, August 10

“All I have to say is that you almost had sex with that”

Scrunching my nose, I stared down at the phone Darynda Jones—Dary for short—had shoved ininto Joanna’s

Joanna’s had been a staple in don Clearbrook since I was knee-high to a grasshopper The restaurant was kind of stuck in the past, weirdly existing so-hair bands and the rise of Britney Spears, but it was clean and cozy, and practically everything that came out of the kitchen was fried Plus it had the best sweet tea in the entire state of Virginia

“Oh ?”

“What does it look like?” Dary’s eyes widened behind her white plastic-fra a blow-up dolphin”

I pressed ether, because yep, that hat it looked like

Whipping her phone out of my face, she cocked her head to the side “What were you thinking?”

“He’s cute—was cute,” I explained lalanced over e “And I didn’t have sex with him”

She rolled dark brown eyes “Your mouth was on his mouth, and his hands—”

“All right” I threw up et it Hooking up with Cody was ato erase all of that fro”

Leaning over the counter I was standing behind, she whispered, “I’ll never let you live that down” She grinned when my eyes narrowed “But I understand He has muscles on top of muscles He’s kind of dumb but fun” There was a dramatic pause

Everything about Dary was dra she wore to the super-short hair, cropped on the sides and a riot of curls on the top Right now her hair was black Last month it was lavender In two months it would probably be pink