Page 93 of Not Quite Dead Yet

‘So it was Luke?’ Jet pressed. ‘Luke went somewhere?’

‘No.’

‘Sophia, tell me!’

‘I can’t tell you anything! Luke was here with me!’

‘You’re lying!’

‘I’m not!’

‘What about those cuts on his hands?’ Jet pressed even harder. ‘Did he come home with those?’

‘Luke didn’t leave home!’

‘Oh, fuck off, Sophia.’

‘Not everything is about you, Jet,’ she shouted. ‘The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know!’

‘Well, I’m the one dying this week, so it can revolve around me just a little bit, ’kay? Temporarily.’

Jet drew back, a phantom itch at the back of her neck, heat just below the surface. She pointed to the Lotrel capsule.

‘Does Luke know? About you poisoning Dad? Did you plan this togeth–’

‘– No, he doesn’t know.’ Sophia sniffed, a wet sucking sound, though there weren’t any tears. ‘And, Jet, you can’t tell him. You have to promise me you won’t tell him.’

Jet folded her lip, scoffed in Sophia’s desperate face. ‘I’m not promising you shit.’

Sophia grabbed Jet’s arm. Her right arm. Jet only knew because she watched her do it, couldn’t feel a thing. Sophia could squeeze as tight as she wanted, dig those nails right in, and Jet wouldn’t flinch. Not a bit.

‘No, Jet. You can’t tell Luke about this.’

Jet narrowed her eyes, took aim, right up through Sophia’s head. ‘I can do whatever I want. I’ve got three days to live. No consequences, Sophia.’

She shoved Sophia away.

Walked past Cameron – happily picking away at the rest of his broccoli – toward the hallway.

‘You’ve been spending a lot of time with Billy Finney this week, haven’t you?’ Sophia called after her, breathless between the words, forcing them out.

Jet ignored her, kept going for the front door.

‘Does Billy know?’ she called. ‘What you did to him? How you ruined his life?’

Jet’s feet faltered, stopping her on theWelcomemat. She pressed her teeth together, swallowed the guilt back where it belonged. Deep down. Farther than that.

‘If you tell Luke about the pills, Jet, I’ll tell Billy about his mom!’

Jet’s heart followed the guilt, down into her gut, hissing in the acid.

‘Fuck you, Sophia!’

‘Fuck you, Jet!’

‘Don’t fucking swear in front of the fucking baby!’ Jet yelled, wrenching the front door open.

Dark outside, the moon hanging low in the sky.

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