Page 75 of Remember Us This Way

“Linc’s grave,” I tell her, watching for her response. “I haven’t been since the funeral.”

Her eyes widen. “You haven’t?”

My lips press into a hard line, and I shake my head, almost embarrassed by my admission. “I’ve never known what to do if I went or what to say. I’ve had this fucked-up vision stuck in my head that he’d claw out of there like some shitty zombie movie and try to drag me back down with him.”

Zo gives me a blank stare. “You know, he probably would just to screw with you.”

“I’m more than aware.”

Zoey laughs and settles into her seat as I close the door and make my way around to the driver’s side. I’m kicking over the engine when a smirk stretches across Zoey’s lips, and she swivels in her seat to look at me. “Okay, so you should probably know that Hazel leaves letters for him all the time, and I, umm . . .” She cringes, and I raise my brow, waiting to hear what’s about to fly out of her mouth. “I kinda respond to them as Linc, so she’s convinced he’s actually coming back from the dead to write her letters.”

I gape at her in shock, but I’m also a little impressed she’s been able to keep this going for three years without Hazel being the least bit suspicious. “You have to tell her.”

“Hell no, I don’t. It’ll crush her.”

“Zoey Erica James.”

“Noah McFunPolice Ryan.”

I let out a sigh, knowing a lost cause when it’s staring me in the face. “What are you writing to her?”

“Nothing that will get me in trouble,” she admits. “It started out innocent. I went to his grave a few days after Mom and Hazel had been, and I saw the letter and couldn’t help reading it. Then I was sitting there for a while and thought maybe it was a good idea to leave him a message too, so I flipped her letter over and wrote I miss you on the back, and next thing I knew I was walking in the door after school and Hazel was running up to me saying that Linc had responded. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was me. Then it just got a little out of control from there.”

“How out of control?”

“Like, almost once a week,” she says sheepishly. “But I always keep it short and sweet. Like when she needs someone to tell her that she’s doing okay or when she needs guidance. Though I may have used it to my advantage when she was crushing on this asshole kid at school by suggesting that Linc thought he was a piece of shit.”

A wide grin stretches across my face, and I reach over the center console to take her hand, feeling more at peace every day. Talking about Linc used to be so fucking hard that I would crumble, and now . . . I find myself welcoming it. Even needing it.

“Soooo . . . If I have to be on trial, then so do you,” Zoey says.

I narrow my stare on her, glancing at her for a moment before looking back at the road. “Yes?” I question, unsure why I feel so nervous.

“Okay, I’ve been dying to know, but I didn’t want to seem like the gossipy type, but if you don’t tell me, I think I might go insane,” she starts, pausing for a second and watching me as if still debating if she’s going to ask or not. “The other week at your first game of the season, what the hell did you say to Shannan that got her to fade out of existence?”

I laugh. “Really? That’s the big question that’s been plaguing your pretty little mind?”

“Uh . . . yeah.”

“Who would have known that Zoey James was so nosey?”

“You, Noah,” she says bluntly. “You knew that.”

I grin. Yeah, I did.

“Okay, fine,” I finally say, sparing her a quick glance. “So, despite the semester only just starting, Shannan was already failing a few classes and had been skipping enough to get the principal’s attention. Then during my week of lunchtime detentions with Daniels, I overheard that she’d been offering some of her teachers sexual favors for better grades.”

Her mouth drops, and I have to force myself to keep my eyes on the road. “You’re lying,” she gasps, her eyes widening. “Tell me you’re lying.”

“I don’t lie,” I tell her.

Zoey scoffs. “I have literally sat with you and helped you come up with lies before.”

I smirk. “Okay, fine. I lie occasionally, but I’m not lying now.”

“Holy crap,” she breathes. “That is some juicy gossip.”

“Zo,” I warn.

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