“Wow,” I say. If I lived here I would die for this to be my room.
“You should see it during a storm. I’d come up here when I was younger to lie on the floor and watch the rain slide down the windows.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Make it a room,” Wes says. “Take out the ladder and put in stairs.”
“I bet people would pay good money to stay in here,” I say, walking out onto the small terrace, just outside the room. It’s only big enough for two, but the view is breathtaking. You can see the entire beach. The salty breeze whips my hair around, and I tuck it behind my ears.
“I bet they would too. But it isn’t about the money; it’s about the experience. Me and my sisters have so many good memories here. I want that for other people. I want to give them that.” Wes leans on the railing, looking out into the ocean before us, which stretches on and on, and I can’t imagine a more perfect moment. We watch the sun dip below the horizon as the night sky darkens above us. And for the first time in a long time, I feel like everything is going to be okay.
Chapter 29
“So you’ll have to, like, testify against him, right? Like, you’ll be going to court?” Annica asks from the pool chair beside me.
“I mean, yeah, I guess so.” I honestly hadn’t even thought of that fact until right now. I’ll be called as a witness, especially since it was my journal, and I was there for most of the deaths. They’ll likely walk through them all and I’ll have to relive them dying all over again. They might even read the pages aloud. The idea fills me with instant dread.
“What, did I say something wrong? Your face is, like, white right now,” Annica says.
“No, I’m fine. Let’s just try to not talk about it this week. I’m tired of talking about it.”
“Talking about what?” Asher asks, walking out to the pool in swim trunks and no shirt. I look away, suddenly really admiring the outdoor umbrellas and the yellow-and-white-striped pattern on them.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Annica says.
Erin chimes in then from behind him. “You’re the girl, right? The one everyone was calling the Pembroke Psycho? Bet you’reglad that’s over. Although I’m kind of jealous. I wish someone would go around killingmyexes. That’d be nice.”
I sit up and lower my sunglasses so she can see the glare I give her. “Well, sure, if you think holding a dying person in your arms and not being able to do anything to help, plus knowing that it’s your fault they were shot in the first place, isnice... then yeah.”
Erin blinks. “I just meant that, like, as a joke.”
“Hilarious,” Annica mutters.
I imagine pushing Asher’s girlfriend into the pool. Erin shuts up, thankfully, and gets in the water. Without me having to push her.
“Someone’s not playing nice today,” Asher says, walking behind my chair to take a seat on the other side of me.
I turn to him, talking just above a whisper. “What I went through has been traumatic enough to send your Goth Barbie girlfriend into a spiral, so if she wants to make jokes, I’ll gladly tell her why they aren’t funny.”
“Hm, so I take it I won’t be able to talk you into an apology?”
“Apology? You wantmeto apologize to her?” I look at him incredulously.
“She was only trying to make conversation.” He shrugs. “And you nearly bit her head off.”
I think about pushing Asher into the pool as well.
“Who wants to play a game?” Jake yells from the patio, tossing a volleyball in the air.
Wes leaves for the market, and the rest of us make our way to a worn-down volleyball net on the beach. “All right, Dani and Charlie are team captains,” Jake says. “Dani gets to pick first because she’s a girl.”
“Asher,” she says immediately.
I scoff. “Dani, what the hell? You know I played in high school.”
“I know, but we played the other day and Asher is really good. I’ll pick you next, promise.”
“Hey!” Annica whines.
