Page 69 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
“What is she doing?” Ellis suddenly blurted, her face going pale as she pointed.
I spun around.
Liv.
She was standing on the railing a little farther down, facing the water, arms spread like wings. The wind tugged at her hair, and her sequined outfit shimmered under the sunlight, and for a moment, I was struck by the beauty of it. Her eyes were locked on the river below, and I frowned, wondering what she was seeing.
And then she fell forward.
“Alexis!” Ellis screamed, her voice tearing through the air like a siren. Her hands flew to her mouth as she dropped to her knees, breaths coming hard and fast, like she was trying to remember how her lungs worked.
“Ellis!” I gasped, crouching in front of her, gripping her arms. “Ellis—hey—hey! She’s already dead, remember? She’s dead. That fall won’t kill her.”
Ellis sucked in a lungful of air, her eyes widening with realization. “I—I f-forgot. Oh God. I forgot. I thought I saw—”
“Who’s Alexis?” I asked with a frown, her scream still ringing in my ears.
She looked ready to crumble right there on the concrete.
“Always wanted to jump off a bridge,” Liv said, suddenly appearing beside us, her tone infuriatingly cheerful. “Just to see what goes through someone’s head on the way down, you know?”
My heart pounded like I’d just sprinted a mile, and I stared at her incredulously.
“Spoiler alert, your life doesnotflash before your eyes. It’s basically just oh no, oh no, oh shi—” She cut herself off with a wink. “Nice to know you care, though, Ellis.”
Ellis was trembling as she got to her feet, gripping my arm for support as she stared at Liv.
“You’re a fucking asshole,” she whispered, her voice shaking.
Then she turned on her heel and walked back the way we’d come. The smirk had faded slightly from Liv’s face, enough to make her look just a little sorry. I rubbed my face, shook my head, and followed after Ellis.
As we neared the end of the bridge, after what might have been the tensest silence of the entire trip, Ellis was still scowling, like she was horrified with herself for reacting the way she had. Like something had short-circuited in her brain and activated something primal. But part of me knew this had nothing to do with Liv and everything to do with this Alexis person.
Who was Alexis, and what had happened to her to trigger that kind of reaction in Ellis?
Liv walked beside me, arms crossed, mouth pressed into a tight line. That stillness didn’t feel like her at all.
No flippant remarks.
No exaggerated sighs.
No eye rolls.
Just silence.
“What was that about?” I asked finally, keeping my voice low.
She didn’t look at me. The wind blew again, pushing her pink hair across her face.
“Today’s my dad’s anniversary,” she murmured with a shrug.
Ellis’s footsteps ahead slowed slightly.
“He jumped off a bridge. Back home, in California,” Liv continued, her voice somber. “He just climbed up and walked off. Never came back up. Never saw him again.”
The breeze whipped through once more, tugging at the hem of her ridiculous sequined skirt, and the absolute absurdity of it all hit me. The girl who handed out sharp remarks and commentary like Oprah giving away gifts, now walking quietly after diving off a bridge, telling me something that had clearly split her in half.
Because I wasn’t imagining the pain on her face. I felt it in me. The hurt. The anger. The confusion of it all.
