Page 120 of Time to Bounce

I’d do just about anything to help.

Even pray to a god that I never felt was there for me when I needed him.

Being a sleepy girl with a busy life is hard.

—Text from Athena to Gable

GABLE

It was weird.

I decided I was dead.

I stared at the open air in front of me.

Everything was white.

Pure.

Bright.

But my eyes didn’t hurt.

My body was at peace.

And there was no more pain.

“What are you doing here, man?”

I looked over and found myself smiling. “Gavrel.”

“You can’t leave her alone,” he murmured. “You leave and she has no one left.”

I frowned. “Who?”

He looked at me like I was dumb.

“Why are you dressed like that?” I asked.

He flicked at his white tee and said, “This is your afterlife, not mine. I don’t choose what people wear in the afterlife; you do.”

“Afterlife?” I asked. “There’s an afterlife?”

He touched his temple. “Why did you leave her? I thought you’d take care of her.”

Her?

Her.

Her.

Her.

Athena’s face slammed into my mind like an anvil.

One second, she was in the periphery, there, but not there.

Then, she was all I could think about.

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