Isaiah’s lips twitched. “I seem to remember Luke switching lab partners behind your back so he could sit next to her.”
Beth’s eyes narrowed. “Dick.”
“Focus for me. Echo? Not your pathetic lives.” Like an old married couple, the two of them enjoyed bickering. Isaiah and Beth were a year behind me, but the age difference never bothered us.
Beth sat up on the mattress. She loved to dish dirt. “So Echo’s sophomore year, she’s the star of the school, right? She’s on the dance team, advanced classes, honor roll, art guru, Miss Popularity, and she’s got Luke Manning feeling her up between classes. One month before school lets out—she disappears.” Beth’s eyes widened and she spread her fingers out like a magician doing a trick.
This was not where I thought this story would go. Isaiah watched my reaction and nodded. “Poof.”
“Gone,” added Beth.
“Vanished,” said Isaiah.
“Lost.”
“Evaporated.”
“Gone,” repeated Beth. Her eyes glazed over and she stared down at her toes.
“Beth,” I prodded.
She blinked. “What?”
“The story.” This was the problem with hanging out with stoners. “Echo. Continue.”
“Oh, yeah, so she disappeared,” said Beth.
“Poof,” added Isaiah.
Not this again. “I got it. Moving along.”
“She comes back junior year a completely different person— like Body Snatcher different. It’s still Echo, right? She’s got red curly hair and a rockin’ body,” said Beth.
Isaiah laughed. “You just called her body rocking.”
Beth threw a pillow at him before continuing, “But she’s not Miss Social anymore. Luke and her are history. He moved on to some other girl. Though the rumor is she broke up with him before her disappearance. She quits the dance team, stops entering art contests and barely talks to anyone. Not that I would have talked to anyone either, the way rumors flew around about her.”
“The gossip was brutal, man,” said Isaiah. Beth, Isaiah and I understood gossip. Foster kids and those from bad homes lay low for a reason.
“What did they say?” I had a sinking feeling where this conversation was headed and it didn’t sit well with me.
Beth wrapped her arms around her knees. “On the first day of our junior year she came back wearing a long-sleeve shirt and the same thing the day after that and on and on. It was ninety degrees for the first three weeks of school. What do you think people said?”
Isaiah made a circling motion with his finger. “Her little friends circled the wagons and kept her out of sight.”
“And she started meeting with the school counselor.” Beth paused. “You gotta feel bad for her.”
My eyes had been drifting closed, but Beth’s statement shocked them open. “What?” Beth lacked the sympathy gene.
She lay down on the bed, her eyes fluttering. “Obviously something f**ked-up happened to her. Plus, her brother died a couple of months before she disappeared. They were super close. He was only three years older than her and took her to parties and stuff when he was in town. I used to hate her for having an older brother who cared.” Now Beth’s eyes shut completely.
Isaiah stood. “Roll over.”
Beth rolled against the wall. Isaiah grabbed a blanket off the floor and draped it over her. Our storyteller passed out.
Isaiah joined me on the couch. “Most people call Echo a cutter. Some said she tried to commit suicide.” He shook his head. “It’s all messed up, man.”
I was tempted to say I agreed and tell him what happened at the library, but I didn’t. “What happened to her brother?”
“Aires? He was a good guy. Cool to everyone. Joined the Marines out of high school and got himself blown to hell over in Afghanistan.”
Aires and Echo Emerson. Their mother must have hated them to give them names like that. Now I needed to find a way to make nice with the girl. She was my ticket to getting my brothers back.
Echo
I held Noah’s black leather jacket over my arm and headed toward my locker. The temptation to wear it overwhelmed me. I loved the way it smelled, how warm it made me feel and how it reminded me of our moment together outside Michael Blair’s house.
Get a grip, Echo. You’re not an idiot. I knew the gossip regarding Noah. He only attended parties to get high and browse the drunken female crowd for a one-night stand. If I’d gone off to get high with him, I would have been it. I wasn’t interested in a one-night stand, but it was nice to be considered. After all, since my sophomore year, no other guy at this school had showed an ounce of interest in me.
“What’s your problem? You look like a four-year-old who lost her balloon.” Lila joined me as I walked down the hall.
“I’m destined to die a virgin.” My own admission shocked me. Had those words left my mouth? I rubbed the smooth material of Noah’s jacket. Maybe I should have gone off with him. Not to get high, but to … well … not die a virgin.
Lila laughed so loudly several people gawked as we walked past. I lowered my head, let my curls hide my face and willed everyone to look away. We reached our lockers and I opened mine with the hopes of crawling inside.
“Hardly likely. But I thought you weren’t into hookups.” Lila rifled through her own locker, which was next to mine.
“I’m not. I held out with Luke because I wasn’t ready. I never imagined there would come a day when nobody would want me.”