Page 163 of Past the Broken Bridges

Heisworth it.

Paxtonis worth it.

I don’t know what I have to lose anymore,Paxton said.

Unlike him, my future doesn’t matter.

“Or what?” I challenge Marco.

Something digs into my stomach.

When I look down, my body freezes.

“Scared yet?” he taunts, jabbing the barrel of the gun farther into me. His shirt sleeve rises up, revealing the edge of the tattoo I’ve seen before. “Dawson Gable was just as much of a scumbag as me; he just hid it better. It’s not my fault that you were too dick-blind to it. So how about an apology, hmm?”

He drags the barrel upward, keeping it between my breasts and hidden from plain sight if anybody were to pass us.

Don’t do it,a voice pleads in my head.Be smart with your next words.

Professor Banks’s words echo in the back of my head.That mouth is going to get you into trouble someday.

I don’t know what I have to lose anymore.

I take a deep breath. “Did Dawson get an apology?”

Marco’s eyes narrow. “Do you have a death wish?”

I lean into the gun to show him I’m not afraid.

I am not afraid.

“He didn’t deserve to die,” I tell him. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say that. “There’s nothing you can say that will change my perspective on him. He was my friend. He was a lot of people’s friends. And you took that away from all of us. I will not apologize to you because you don’t deserve it. I can only hope you get what’s coming to you in the end, the way we all will. So do it. Pull the trigger.”

I put my hand over the barrel.

Not moving it.

Not trying to push it away.

“Do it,” I taunt, voice breaking.

“Marco,” one of the guys calls out. “Come on. She ain’t worth it.”

I stare Marco straight in the eyes. “Do. It.”

His eyes get dark, darker than they were before. “You psycho little—”

One loudbangcracks, so loud it’s deafening.

But I barely hear it at all before I’m falling.

Falling.

Falling.

I see the horrified look on Marco’s face above me beforehe and his friends all bolt, scattering as darkness blankets over me.

I think I hear somebody say, “I didn’t pull it. I didn’t do it.”

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