Page 70 of The Road to Ruined

"Hey, everybody. Teagan is here; she had a little hiking accident. She and her friend, Sebastian, are going to eat with us. Sebastian, that's my husband, Patrick, over there on the grill," she says. "And that's Teagan's sister, Blakely…"

"Hi," Blakely says, her brow furrowed with confusion.

"And that's her fiancé, Austin," Mom continues.

"Hey," Austin says, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you, man." Then, he leans over and hugs me. "It's good to see you, too, Teagan. How are you doing? Are you good?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good."

"So, what kind of surgeon are you?" my mom asks.

"Critical Care," he tells her. "So, I do a lot of trauma surgeries, car accidents, GSWs, injuring to the brain, spleen, and liver, stab wounds."

"I'm going to get something to drink," I say. "Do you want a beer or something, B—Sebastian?"

"Yeah, that'd be great," he says. "Thanks."

I take my time in the kitchen, grabbing both of us a beer. When I head back outside, he's standing with my parents telling a surgery story, and even I can't tell if it's real or not.

I hand him his beer and tell him I'm going to go sit in the shade.

Because this shit's weird, and it's hot—it's about fifteen degrees cooler than it was inland but still hot. And I'm still wearing a coffee-stained hoodie.

I sigh, sitting on the swing, and then bring the collar to my nose and inhale, hoping for comfort while I watch Sebastian laugh with my parents and Austin. My sister watches suspiciously.

A few minutes later, he sits down beside me.

"Why are you doing this?" I whisper. "You can't be enjoying it. Are you going to kill them or something?"

He laughs and throws his arm around my shoulders before leaning in and kissing me. "Oh, I'm enjoying it," he says. "And look how happy your mom is. I think she likes me."

"You're making me very nervous," I tell him.

He runs his hand up and down my arm. "You don't need to worry about me. What should concern you is that I'm better at acting like normal people than you are. That's an area of yours that could use improvement."

"You're good at lying," I say. "I've known good liars before. I don't like them."

"That's not necessarily true, is it?"

I look down at the white sneakers Riv bought for me. A pang of longing washes over me. "How will I know that you really let them go?"

"I told you that I'd prove it to you," he says. "Give me a couple of days."

"I miss the way her hair smells."

"Who? The scared, blonde one?"

I nod. "She wasactuallygood. Like…a good person who didn't deserve any of that. I think I could have been a good person for her."

"No, you couldn't," Sebastian says, ripping me to shreds with honesty once again.

"Food's ready," my dad announces.

Sweat pours down my face as we eat our steak and asparagus outside under the covered patio. I listen to Austin and Blakely talk about the wedding and issues they're having coordinating everything in another country. Sebastian asks questions and feigns interest, laughing at Austin's jokes.

This.This feels like a horror movie. Except in this one, I'm not the dumb bitch—I'm one of the serial killers. The sloppy one who's bad at acting.

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