Page 82 of Echoes

"Yes," he answers without hesitation. "You better get started. It would be a bit awkward having just 'Av' written there."

I snort. "If I can manage the 'e', at least you'll almost have my nickname."

Theo's eyebrows furrow as he looks at me curiously. "Ave is your nickname?"

"It was Aves," I murmur softly, dipping the needle into the ink. "Paige used to call me that."

"A friend?"

I nod. "She was my best friend. Her family were assholes too."

Theo stays still as I approach him with the needle, my nails brushing over his hip bone. I look at the untainted skin, wondering if I should really ruin it with my name.

He twitches underneath me, jolting slightly from my touch. I drop a little lower, just under the bone. "Here?"

"Perfect spot," he agrees. "What happened to Paige?"

"Her brother murdered her," I tell him dryly, pressing the needle into his skin like he showed me before. "She was like a sister to me."

Theo reaches out to stroke my forearm, making me pause out of fear of bumping the needle. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I say sincerely. "She's free now."

"What was she like?"

I look up at him, gazing in admiration. No one has ever asked me about Paige—no one really cared about my friends.

Smiling, I continue piercing the first letter of name into his lower hip. "She was awesome. Loved country music and made me listen to it all the time, even though I was a pop-punk girl. If there was ever a problem to be solved, even if it was unsolvable, she would damn near drive herself crazy trying to fix it. Deathly allergic to nuts though. I nearly yeeted her from existence with my shampoo once."

"What the fuck?" Theo laughs, caught off-guard.

"I ran out of shampoo and my father refused to buy me more. By the two week mark, I was pretty desperate with greasy hair so I stole a bottle. And I figured if I was going to steal one, I should at least treat myself instead of the usual dirt cheap brandwe used. So, I picked out some fancy blue one. Unfortunately, it had nut oil in it and when Paige hugged me, she went into anaphylactic shock. Luckily, we were at school and they had spare EpiPens."

Theo stares at me, bewildered. "I didn't even know that was possible."

"Me either. Paige thought it was funny though…" I trail off, focusing on the next letter. "I have a question for you though."

"Fire away."

My lips twitch into a smile. "The day you broke into my room to leave the little present."

"You're referring to Hallman's finger?"

"Yep. How did you get in there? The door was locked. I mean, we obviously know Grey and Damon can go wherever they want, but my access pad wasn't smashed to smithereens."

Theo snorts, knowing I'm referring to the day we snuck down to the morgue. "I borrowed a staff card and got the access code."

"Borrowed?"

"Bribed."

"Try again, Theo."

He laughs. "Threatened."

"There we go."

I'm nearly finished with my name when I hear footsteps heading toward the room. Pausing, I glance at Theo first, worried. He doesn't appear to share the same sentiment, just gazing at the doorway casually.

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