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It hen I was in the brightly lit lobby that I realized I’d left my cupcake andto hobble outside and to just forget about everything, but like Jase had proone

Sing the luret burned like food that didn’t set right in the sto I needed to sort my head out

I still didn’t knohat to think or how to feel, but how could I stay mad? And should I? All I wanted to do was sleep Tomorroould knohat to say to hiht, it flickered once and then went out, pitching the rooe pucker," Ithe edges of the crutches into it I found the little la bulb only cast enough light that I wouldn’t breakaround the rooroaned "Are you fking kidding led from the cracked open door Deb had broken up with the jerk! And they were in there screwing? Anger whirled throughto beat both of thereat, because then I couldn’t bethem upside their heads would solve one of my proble as I felt my knee start to slide in the brace, but I stormed forward and pushed the door open The roorunts oras someone tried to cover themselves

Tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose "Debbie?" My eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness as I reached for the light switch "Are you?"

The light didn’t turn on

I tried it again, hearing the switch flick, but there was ­nothingnothing but a strange creaking sound Almost like a loose floorboard

A chill snaked down my spine as I sed hard "Deb?"

There was no response Just the creakcreakcreak

Instinct screamed for me to turn and run away Fear sunk its icy claws deep insideain, but no words formed They were frozen inside rip on the room Shadows took on deeper forms, , so that shouldn’t be there in theback and forth,sound

Air hitched into s

A dark sleep shirt

Two ar lis as realization set in, but--­oh God--­I didn’t want to believe it I couldn’t There was no way A cry worked its way up

It wasn’t her

It wasn’t her brown hair shielding half of her face It wasn’t her ht fixture in our dorm room It couldn’t be her

A terrible sound filled the suite, hurtingThere were voices in the background, shouts of alars went out fro

It was , I realized du herself

Chapter Twenty

Things happened in a continuous blur that I was detached froave out The hands that had tried to stop ed to the most unlikely person ever Our suitemate

And our suitemate turned out to be the half-­naked chick frohed at the irony That the MIA suiteh, but I stopped it before it could bubble up, because I knew if I started laughing, I’d never stop

Beautiful Steph, with her raven-­colored hair pulled in a high ponytail and wearing sleep shorts that were shorter than the chicks at Hooters wore, had tried to talk toon one of the uncoiven up when all I could do was stare at her blankly

Debbie was dead

A shudder rocked through me, followed by a series of less powerful shivers

The lobby was full of ­people huddled in corners, so one another Others looked shell-­shocked by the knowledge that a few floors above us, someone was dead

Steph returned to my side with a blanket and draped it over my shoulders I murmured a barely audible "Thank you" She nodded as she sat beside nized but couldn’t place, approached us

"Not now," Steph snapped, causingon the lobby floor "But--­"

"But I don’t care," she interrupted "Leave her alone"

I blinked duirl wheeled around and disappeared back into a huddle A few uy started toward us, and Steph sent hihts froe flashes across the lobby, and I squeezedherself

I couldn’t wrap in to understand why she had done it Last night she hadshe’d been okay as she talked about going to her parents and now

She was dead

The caer officers crouched down and in low, even tones, asked me to recount how I ca strange in the last ­couple of days, I sucked in a shuddering breath

"No But she broke up with her boyfriend," I said, ood ht she’d left to tell her folks about the breakup"