Page 180 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
Dove grinned and tugged on a piece of my hair before leaning in to press a chaste kiss against my lips. I savored that small taste of her before she pulled away.
“Come on, help me fold these clothes so we can get back to Jedd’s.” She let me go, and I moved to pick up a pair of pants. “I want to see how far along he is with the fireworks. Dusk is at six tonight. We’ve got, like, five hours.”
I watched as Liv drifted in slow circuits along the far wall, arms folded and humming under her breath as she read the posters and rule cards taped up. I wondered if she was actually reading them or simply lost in the torrent of her own mind, grappling with everything that was soon to come for her.
I hummed under my breath as I picked up Dove’s favorite oversized tie-dye tee and folded it with what was frankly embarrassing care. Domesticity shouldn’t have made my heart thump, but there it was, this tiny, ordinary moment as we did chores side by side, and I was enjoying myself, purely wanting more of it.
“What are you wearing tonight?” I asked, setting down her shirt and trying to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks at my own thoughts.
“Probably just some jeans and a nice shirt,” Dove said with a shrug.
“Bold,” Liv deadpanned as she floated toward us, a smirk tugging at her lips. “Thanks for letting me hang around for this bit.” Her voice had lost its usual sass, shifting into something I might even dare to call shy.
Dove grinned at her and began tucking socks into each other. “You’ve been around for scattering her along the way. It’s only right you’re here for the final one. I mean, without you,I probably never would have had the chance to fulfill her final wishes anyway.”
Liv’s mouth twisted into a smile, and she sighed. “Can’t believe this ride is almost over.”
Dove glanced at me, then tipped her chin, eyeing Liv carefully. “How do you feel about tomorrow? Seeing your mom?”
Liv made a face. “Honestly? Like… a little better prepared, I think. Jedd was a good warm-up for what we might have to deal with. Mom is a little more… spiritually open, so she might be easy enough to clock from the get-go, but I feel a little more confident.”
I smiled and began helping Dove pair the socks. “How do you feel about everything you learned yesterday? We haven’t really had a moment to debrief since Jedd told us everything.”
“I don’t know,” Liv murmured, winding a pink strand of hair around her finger. “I don’t know how to feel. I—I spent a year thinking I ran. That I abandoned my best friend.” Her mouth pulled, and she winced visibly. “Now I learn I threw myself over her like a human shield. Not coward Liv, butbraveLiv.” Her brows knit together, and I watched her with pure empathy. “Jedd was rambling a lot last night, clearly hoping I was in the loft with him. There are some documentary people sniffing around, and he thinks it’s part of the reason Bri packed up and left. It’s why he was so suspicious when you two showed up.”
“God, people are the worst,” I groaned, shaking my head. “Why can’t they just leave shit alone?”
“One person’s trauma is another person’s payday,” Dove said with a heavy sigh.
“Ten out of ten will haunt anyone who tries to immortalize that day on screen,” Liv grumbled. “Jedd says he feels better, though—like he has closure—and I’m glad I gave that to him… but I also think I’m scared now.”
“Scared?” Dove asked, her voice gentle as she paused her folding.
Liv’s eyes flashed up to meet ours. “Scared of being forgotten. I—I’ve been loud my whole life, front and center, and now… the idea… the very thought that I’ll just fade? That people will move on from me and I’ll become some cautionary tale or a paragraph in a true-crime podcast and not a person anymore? I hate that.”
I set down the green sweater I had been folding as her words hit me like a fist, and I shook my head firmly.
“Liv,” I said, my voice coming out a lot steadier than I felt. “You are impossible to forget. Dove and I will never forget you. Bri will never forget you. And there’s no way in hell Jedd forgets you, even if—and when—he moves on. You’re the kind of person who leaves marks on people’s souls. That’s not something that just disappears from people’s memories.”
Liv watched me for a long heartbeat, studying my face as if searching for something she’d misplaced. Then she huffed, her eyes suspiciously shiny. “You’re different now, Ellis. I actually think Ilikeyou.”
I snorted at her words. “Well, that’s good, I guess.”
We finished the last load of clothes and began piling them into freshly washed and dried canvas bags. It was going to be good to stop playing clothing roulette for a while. We separated our things into our own bags, and I thought back on my conversation with Thomas over lunch.
“Thomas said I looked alive,” I told Dove. “And that I had a bit of a tan.”
Dove regarded me through her brown eyes, smiling. “Well, you do. You certainly don’t look like the girl who wandered into my shop wearing judgment like a jacket.”
“Hey!” I nudged her slightly with my arm. “Why are you bringing up the past like that? And you were just as judgy.”
She shot me a wink, but then her expression sobered. “I do see it, though. You look different, Ellis. It probably surprised him.”
We made our way out to the Mustang, Liv already climbing inside, and we put our bags in the trunk as the early afternoon sun touched my cheek. As Dove closed the trunk, she turned, took my hand, and pressed a quick kiss against the back of it before her eyes met mine.
“I’m proud of you,” she told me. “What you did today was huge.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, her words filling me with that nervous flutter in my chest I was slowly becoming used to.
