Page 7 of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets

“Nah, but his best friend, Art, could’ve done it as a joke. He graduated last year too.”

I consider this. “I guess it’s possible, but unlikely when you put it together with this mystery note Piper got, telling her about a fake meeting at Vanderwild Point.” I flip down the mirror and start to reapply my signature lipstick shade, Roses Are Pink.

Grant nods, eyes focused on the road. “Jacey could’ve threatened your sister.”

“What?” My lipstick tube halts in midair. “I thought everything was perfect between those two ever since the carnival.”

“Jacey didn’t seem too happy when Piper joined the club. She yelled at her.”

No way. CouldJaceyreally have threatened Piper? I know Jacey hatesme, but I thought she and Piper were thick as thieves. Sure, they had a falling-out a while back, but this year, they were back to being attached at the hip.

At least, I think they were. I’ve been a bit preoccupied with my own problems these days.

“What did Jacey yell?” I ask.

Grant shrugs. “I don’t remember. Girl stuff.”

“Super helpful. Thank you, Grant.”

“Sorry if I try not to get too involved in Jacey’s affairs.”

Point taken.

“Should I drive you home?” he asks, clearly done with this conversation.

“No.” My house has been quieter than a tomb since Piper’s “accident.” I’m not sure what will happen if my sister never wakes up. My parents may disintegrate. They lived for her debate tournaments and science experiments. Everything has always been about Piper, their little clone, even though she’s a year younger than me.

The proudest my parents have ever been of me was when I got an A on a biology report freshman year. I still have that report stuffed beneath all the papers at the bottom of my desk. Sure, Piper stayed up all night doing the research for me, but my parents didn’t know that.

Maybe things would be different if I got better grades. If I could go to a prestigious college and major in bio.

Too bad I hate bio.

Grant fiddles with his iPhone, and the pop playlist he made for me starts pumping through the speakers. But I don’t hum along like I usually would. I don’t hear the beats. My mind is on last night’s dinner. On the grating sound the forks made, that unnerving screeching, scraping sound of a knife on a plate. The clink of a glass against the table. The crunch of lettuce between teeth.

I’d never been so aware of these sounds before. It took sitting through a dinner with my parents in utter silence for me to notice just how noisy eating really is.

It took sitting through dinner without Piper across the table to realize just how invisible I am.

Most days, I feel like taking both of my parents by the shoulders and shaking them. I want to scream at them until they wake up and see that I’m the one who fits in. The one thriving in high school. The soccer star. The homecoming queen. The one any girl at school would kill to be.

But to my parents, none of that matters. At my house, I’m a freak.

They’re not the only reason I can’t go home, though. I can’t go home because someone threatened my sister, and I have to find out if it was Jacey.

“Let’s go to Bonnie’s. We can study there.” I’m willing to bet I’ll find Jacey at the diner. The three amigos—Jacey, Piper, and Noah—practically lived at that place before Piper’s fall.

Grant cocks a brow at me. It’s unlike me to want to study.

“Colleges look at first-semester transcripts senior year,” I explain. “Even if I get a soccer scholarship, I need to keep my grades up.”

“You’ll get one. I know it.”

My stomach roils. I’d better, hadn’t I? My gaze drifts to the window, away from Grant, to watch the bony trees fly by. I press my fingers against the little charm dangling from my neck, blink back tears. It would be a shame to flunk chemistry and ruin my chances at MLC now after everything I’ve done to get in.

“We’ll both get into MLC, and it will be amazing,” Grant says. “Now, can we talk about the club? You’re not really coming on this weekend’s hike, are you?”

“Of course not. I’m just trying to find out what happened to my sister.”

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