Page 75 of Dead Pretty

Jack finally blinks and puts the bottle to his lips. He takes a drink and then places it back down to the table, cradling it in his big hands.

“And here I was, thinking you were going to say something like … you’d cheated on an exam.”

I laugh out loud. It’s a maniacal-sounding laugh.

Cheated on an exam. Ha. If only.

“Nope. Never cheated on an exam. You?”

“Once. Tenth grade. I was failing math. Some kid in our school hacked into the school computers and got the answers. I paid him twenty bucks for a copy.”

We go from talking about me being a harbinger of death directly to talking about his tenth-grade math test.

If this isn’t weird, then I don’t know what is.

“Did you get caught?” I ask.

“Nope. And I’m also not proud of that fact either,” he emphasizes.

“So, is cheating on your school test your worst?” I ask him.

Jack shakes his head, eyes fixed on mine. “No.”

You can tell a lot from one word. And that singular no he just said spoke volumes.

“Want to tell me about it?”

His gaze lifts to mine. “Want to expand on you being the reason people have died?”

I shake my head.

“That’s what I thought.”

There’s a beat of silence before I ask, “So, did it work?” My voice is scratchy. Sounds like it hasn’t been used in years.

“Putting me off you?” Jack checks.

“Yes.” I take a swig of my beer, trying to appear unaffected by whatever he might say.

But the truth is that I am going to be affected by his answer either way.

Yes or no.

I want him. I shouldn’t want him.

The dark, broken parts of me want Jack’s light so very badly.

But the smart part of my brain says no.

If you like him, then stay away from him.

I can’t win this war that is waging in my head when it comes to Jack.

I guess there is nothing left for me to do but accept whatever is going to happen.

Jack laughs a soft, sad kind of sound. “We’re not so different, you and me, Audrey.”

“In what way?”