Page 31 of Runaways

"Okay…what's going on?" Charlie asks.

"Nothing. Noah and I used to go to school together—that's all. We were friends, right, Noah?"

Before she can answer, Kendall jumps in. "Well, we don't have the best luck with people from Noah's old school, do we?" she laughs. "You didn't know the dead girl, did you?"

Noah's eyes widen like saucers. She's terrified of how I'll react, and she should be…but I'm not going to react right now.

"Kind of," I say calmly. "Did you?"

Kendall laughs again. "Um, yeah. My boyfriend, Zach, was the one she was stalking and obsessed with before she died. She made up this entire relationship—"

"Did she make it up, though?" I interject.

"Well, yeah," Kendall scoffs. "Shedidmake it up."

Liar. Maybe she even believes it, though. Maybe she's so fucking gullible that she actually thinks this whole relationship happened in Mia's head—that she made those videos of herself on her own and somehow planted them on her boyfriend's phone.

What's more likely is that she doesn't believe it, and she did all of that and went along with the lie because the alternative would have embarrassed her in front of her friends and family.

But I saw Zach sitting in the same Audi that's in the driveway right now, waiting for Mia outside of our school and our apartment for months.

It was weird that he never got out of the car. I didn't think much about it, though; I just thought he was a douchebag. I didn't think he was dangerous.

But he's about to learn the real definition of that word.

"Okay," I say, shrugging. I laugh a little, just to make sure she knows I don't believe her—that I know her boyfriend was fucking Mia. And that's the part that gets her. Rage flashes in her eyes.

"I'm serious! We were scared of her. She was like…weirdly obsessed with us."

"Yeah, I learned my lesson," Zach says, joining the conversation. I tense a little, just in case he recognizes me. We never met, but surely, Mia mentioned her twin brother. Surely, he recognizes the eyes staring back at him as hers. It'd ruin everything if he did, but it makes me a little sad he doesn't…for her. "Don't accept random follow requests from girls online," he continues, laughing. "You never know which ones will end up being crazy. We even had the cops coming to our houses for a few days."

Mia wasn't crazy, either. Her only crime was that she was a little too much like me—too angry, too reactive.

Too passionate.

We didn't really know how to be anything else. Our entire existence hinged on chaos. We never knew quiet in our house—not with death always looming over our heads, threatening to tear our world apart.

So, when Mia found out Zach had a girlfriend, she was heartbroken and angry. Having lived the other side of it, she wanted his girlfriend to know he'd been cheating on her for months. She sent her screenshots of conversations they'd had where he told her he loved her, photos of the two of them together. Mia considered it a kindness.

But Zach told Kendall it was all fake. She slammed her on social media—got her friends to bully her, too. And when that wasn't enough, she put nude photos and videos of Mia online with her name, address, and phone number.

Mia live-streamed her suicide a couple of weeks later.

"Yeah, they were trying to blame us for her death, but it's not my fault her stupid mom died and she went insane."

Zach laughs, and I just about lose it.

"Kendall, Jesus," a guy says from behind me. This one Idon'trecognize. "The girl is fucking dead. Can you stop now?"

She shrugs. "I don't know, Leo. I'll consider it."

"Okay…" Charlie says, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Why don't we go inside and get a drink, Tate? What do you like?"

"Whiskey," I say while my eyes shoot daggers at Kendall. If she were smarter, she'd be afraid, but instead, she returns the same look.

This is your last day on Earth, you fucking bitch. This is the last day you'll ever laugh at my fucking sister. I hope it was worth it.

"Okay, well, we don't have that," Brielle says. "My parents only allow clear drinks in the house."

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