Page 42 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
“Sketchy?” I scoffed. “I’m wearing a sweater with a cartoon frog on it. Do I look dressed for sketchy?”
“She’s right,” Liv cut in. “I would’ve been worried if she were dressed in all black.”
I nodded once and slid the seatbelt across my chest, my hands clammy against the material. “It won’t take long.”
“All right,” Ellis muttered, before her tone took on an airy, sarcastic edge in her next words. “Why not? We’re already drivingacross the country. Directions?”
A small breath of relief escaped me as I began guiding her. The shop faded in the rearview mirror, and for the first time since the funeral, something in my chest loosened.
For the first time since Margaret died, something just barely, felt within my control.
Liv was quiet as we drove, her head leaning against the window, watching the street with a far-off look in her eyes. I wondered, briefly, if she had some supernatural way of knowing what I was planning. Could dead people read minds? Did she already know about the empty extra-large sandwich bag and the one full of vacuum dust?
If she did, she didn’t say anything, which surprised me.
By the time we pulled onto Uncle Bill’s street, my stomach was twisting with adrenaline and nerves. I was relieved I hadn’t had any coffee yet. There would’ve been consequences for my stomach with this level of stress building, mixed with caffeine. The car was already tense, my anxiety clearly rubbing off on Ellis, who now gripped the steering wheel like it had personally wronged her. Liv had started bouncing in the back seat.
She knew.
She knewsomething.
“Okay... 2230 Primrose,” Ellis said slowly as she rolled to a stop.
“Nope. Drive three houses up,” I instructed, not looking at Uncle Bill’s house.
“Why?” Ellis asked gruffly, though she drove forward anyway, her hands loose on the steering wheel as she shifted the car into park.
“I need to grab something from my uncle’s, and I’d rather not have him, or his neighbors, see a vintage red Mustang parked out front while I’m doing it.”
Ellis frowned and pursed her lips. “And why would that matter if we’re not doing anything illegal?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, trying to look casual, as if I weren’t about to break into my uncle’s house and steal my dead grandmother. Was it breaking in if I had a key?
“I’ll be five minutes,” I said firmly, ignoring her question as I opened the door.
“Oh, we aren’t all going?” Liv asked, pouting.
I blinked, my seatbelt halfway across my chest. “Nope. Just me.”
Liv tilted her head, an all-too-innocent smile spreading across her face. “Why not?”
“Because,” I said tightly, already feeling my plan begin to unravel, “it’s personal.”
“Everything is personal,” Liv said with a shrug. “That’s what makes it interesting.”
“Why does this feel sketchy?” Ellis asked, her tone stiff as she rested one hand on the wheel, like she was considering driving off.
“Because it is sketchy as hell,” I muttered under my breath, regret pooling in my stomach. I should’ve done this last night—come under the cover of darkness.
“Well,” Liv began, in that tone I’d grown to dread since the reading room, “if we don’t get to come,youdon’t go at all.”
I glared at her. “Are you serious?”
“Deadly,” she said, lips curling around the word with enough irony to make me want to evaporate.
“Wow, you are such a pain in the ass,” I muttered, turning away from her to look at Ellis.
“You’re only just realizing that?” Ellis asked, exasperation flashing across her face. “Listen, I’m not doing anything illegal.”
