Page 47 of Collided

She makes a plate and takes a seat across from me.

Derek comes in for dinner but doesn’t join us. Good. I’d hate to be around that vigilant man who’s a pain in my ass.

“What’s been going on lately?”

“Nothing.” I take a bite. Like always it’s delicious.

“Marie was telling me about this new friend. She’s in your group now?”

For fuck’s sake.

“She isonlyMarie’s friend.” And Sebastian’s. Definitely not mine.

She shoots me a warm smile. “I think it’s good to make new friends. Don’t you think so?”

I glare. “No.”

“Your go-to answer to everything.” She laughs and I stuff my mouth to not reply. “When you meet new people you get to know their story, sometimes you can even relate to them. I know you don’t like people. But I think it’s worth a try.”

I clutch my silverware tightly. “Only to fuckinglosethem later, right?”

A deadly wave of silence fills the kitchen and creates tension.

Kelly looks at me softly. “You’re not going to lose every person in your life. What happened to Emery—”

“I don’t want to fucking hear it.”

“Sebastian is here.”

“Iwasgoing to lose him last year.”

“You didn’t. That’s what matters,” she says with a finality to her tone.

“Maybe.”

She switches the topic to my studies. I reply in short answers.

When we’re done I offer to wash the dishes, but she pushes me out of the kitchen. She never lets me help her, no matter how persistent I am.

Lying on the couch in the living room, I watch old boxing matches on the forty-inch flat screen. I study the moves and try to memorize them to get better.

Boxing is one thing in life that brings me peace. It also gives me a sense of direction when I feel lost all the time. I don’t know what I’m doing or where I want to go in life. But in the ring and fighting my opponent, that’s the only time I don’t feel lost. I feel like I belong there. I’m meant to do this one thing.

An hour later, Kelly comes into the room with urgency.

I sit up to make space for her. “What is it?”

She clears her throat, her eyes sad. “I don’t know if I should give it to you or not.”

I frown in bewilderment. She never hides anything from me.

“Just tell me.” I insist.

She clears her throat again. “Derek and I were trimming the bushes when I found this in the soil.”

Her hand disappears into her white apron pocket, and she pulls out a ring that belongs to Emery.

I snatch it from her and stare at the purple stone embedded in a silver ring. Nothing fancy. She bought it from a cheap jewelry shop, and raved about how it’s the greatest place on Earth—my sister was dramatic like that. Then she lost it, and we turned the whole mansion upside down but never found it. Until now, when she’s not here anymore.

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