Page 131 of As the Rain Falls
Her eyes are the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. Bright green with little flickers of brown around the pupil. Her light eyebrows rise with surprise when I don’t pull her away and choose to lean into her touch instead, but I’m so tired of not having a place to go to for comfort.
My throat burns, emotions rising.
“Was she being bullied?”
“Hey, no,” Cassandra’s voice is quiet but steady. “No one would bully a girl like Lucia and get away with it.”
“How can you be so sure? You guys weren’t even friends, just neighbors.”
Don’t do this.
Don’t go all mean on her.
Ask her about the jewelry box.
Find out what really happened.
If she’s really your friend, she’s going to tell you the truth.
The corner of her lips twitches. “No offense, but I knew her well enough to know she was scary, Beckett. She made a teacher cry in middle school, remember?”
Cassandra doesn’t know it, but this is a story I don’t like to think about very often. Lucia had these intense outbursts back when we were kids that led her to make poor decisions regardingconflicts. She made me feel a little embarrassed about being her brother sometimes. I could tell she was disliked by the way some of the teachers would speak to us with thinly veiled contempt at meetings. Truthfully, her reputation wasn’t the greatest at all throughout middle school because she would constantly pick up fights.
I knew deep down she only meant to defend me and our friends, but my sister often took it too far. Cutting people’s hair, spreading rumors, and isolating them from her friend group. As soon as Lucia saw a potential threat, she’d return whatever offense they’d made against her tenfold. She could be a heartless bully if you did her wrong, too.
“Yeah.” I pull back, and her expression softens, like she knows why I’m lashing out.
“Don’t cry,” Cassandra whispers. “Please, Beckett. Don’t cry.”
“I’m not, uh, I’m not crying,” I lie, my voice cracking. I’m not crying, though. I’m barely tearing up. “I’m just tired.”
Cassandra drops Pepe’s leash. I watch him walk away from us, feeling her thumb pressing against the side of my face to dry the stubborn tears that won’t stop falling. Her touch feels good. The pressure is soft against my skin; it doesn’t overwhelm me.
“You need to lie down for a second.” She pulls me towards the old merry-go-round. “Come sit with me.”
“Actually, maybe I should go home.”
“Please,” Cassandra begs, her voice barely above a whisper. “Just for a minute, Beckett. I promise, it won’t be long.”
Here’s the thing that people don’t know about my neighbor: Cassandra can be stubborn. Between one text about Pepé and another about some stupid show, this friendship is blooming into the kind that slips right underneath my skin.It’s a familiarity that I don’t find very often, but the thing is, we don’t even hang out all that much.
We shouldn’t be this close, but it feels like we are. And I know it sounds absolutely crazy, but sometimes I get the feeling that she just gets me a little too well, which is impossible, of course.
It must be because we’ve known each other since we were little, always orbiting around each other. I just—
I don’t get it.I don’t getwhyit bugs me so much that she’s going out withhim. Deep down, it’s all I can think about. She shouldn’t be going out with Caleb. In fact, Cassandra shouldn’t be going out with anyone but…
“Close your eyes.” She pulls me down, guiding my head to her lap. “And take a deep breath.”
“What are you doing?” I ask. “Cass?”
“Please.”
I hesitate before closing my eyes. Her fingers thread gently into my hair, massaging my scalp.
“My mom used to do this to me all the time when I couldn’t sleep. I swear, it works,” she murmurs. “Don’t worry about Pepé, I can watch him. Just close your eyes for a bit and relax. You’re too tense.”
While she works on massaging my scalp, I steal a glance at her neck, noticing some kind of redness hidden near her collarbones.Caleb did it. He marked her; I know he did.Her long French braid does very little to conceal it, and the makeup she must have put on earlier is coming off now. He marked her skin, which he wouldn’t do if he didn’t want others to know about them being together. The thought really pisses me off.
