Page 121 of Catch the Sun

Hesitation grips me for a beat before I whirl around, my attention landing on a man with the lightest blue eyes and the nicest arms in the whole wide world. I may only be a freshman in high school, but I know nice arms when Isee them. When the man smiles at me, dimples pop on both cheeks, making me swoon. He stares at me like he knows me.

I think he does.

I close my eyes and memories churn and spin. Stones skip across water and the sky lights up with dazzling star patterns. Music fills my ears as a crisp wind rushes in through an open window, tires flying down a deserted road. He takes my hand. Our fingers interlock and everything is golden.

“Max,” I whisper.

I swivel back around toward Jonah, excited to tell him everything.

Max.

It’s Max.

“Jonah, you’re right. That’s—”

A scream rips from my throat. Erin stands beside Jonah, spattered in stains of crimson. Blood oozes from holes in her chest as she sends me a wave and a smile.

Jonah wraps his arm around her waist, tugging her closer. “Erin is here,” he says, looking proud and in love. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

Her face is a mess of gore.

Her body is riddled in bullet holes.

Terror sinks me as I look down at the lemonade in my hand, watching as the pale-yellow liquid swirls with red. This isn’t right. This isn’t real.

No, no, no.

There’s a beeping noise filtering into my psyche. Persistent and shrieky. I slam both hands over my ears and shake my head. “What’s that noise?”

Jonah smiles. “It’s time to go.”

“Go where?” Anxiety cinches my chest. “There’s nowhere left to go.”

“There’s always somewhere. No one stays lost forever.”

“But…I didn’t finish writing you that letter,” I tell him. Suddenly, that’s the only thing that matters. I need to finish my letter. Jonah has been gone for years and I never wrote to him. I never told him that I still care, that I still love him and miss him terribly.

I was never able to piece together my fairy-tale letter, the one where I fell in love with a boy in the forest who swung from vines and feasted on berries and rainwater. Somehow, it feels important. He has to know that I’m okay. Mylove story prevailed.

Jonah nods agreeably, still holding on to a bloodied Erin. “So write the letter, Piglet. There’s still time.”

“I can’t.”

“Sure you can.”

“But—”

He snaps his fingers.

And I’m in the clearing.

Birds chirp from tree canopies as sunlight seeps in through leafy branches, casting ribbons of gold at my feet. Max is seated across from me, his knees drawn to his chest, both hands dangling between them as he leans back against a giant trunk. There’s a notebook in my lap, a pink pen fisted in my hand. I blink up at Max, studying him. Taking in his mop of hair and crystalline eyes.

But before I can process anything, there’s a small stone barreling toward me at the speed of light. I don’t think as my hand flies out and catches it with eerie precision.

“Nice reflexes,” Max says, his dark eyebrows pinched together.

“I’m…good at catching things.”

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