Autumn's Wish by Bella Thorne Read Free Book Online

that’s so gorgeous I should totally be owning the room, but I shrink into it. I look thin, but not healthy thin. Gaunt. And my hair…it’s not even orange anymore. It’s mouse-poop brown.
    Erick asks me again if I want to speak, but I shake my head, keeping my eyes focused on the plate in front of me.
    Blood starts pounding in my ears. Something is terribly wrong with me. Am I sick? Am I dying? Did something bad happen to me? Why do I look like that? Why am I acting that way?
    “I still can’t believe that’s Autumn,” Nathan whispers to Jack. “That’s not how you described her at all.”
    “She’s different now,” Jack says.
    “She’s been different for a long time,” Reenzie clarifies. “Since that panic attack senior year. She was so freaked out about everyone splitting up and leaving, she lost it. Wouldn’t send out any college applications. Which was stupid because then everyone
did
leave and she was stuck here alone.”
    “I told her she should go to community college and transfer,” Tee says, “but she wouldn’t. She got a job working the front desk at Century Acres and kind of fell off the grid. I haven’t even seen her in a year. None of us have.”
    “Really?” Nathan asks. “But she invited you to the wedding.”
    Jack shakes his head. “I told you—
Gwen
invited us. She thought maybe seeing us all would help Autumn.”
    “
Something
better help her,” Reenzie sighs, “or Gwen’ll be stuck with Autumn living in her old room forever. Not what she wants with a new man in her life.”
    “Reenzie,” Taylor scolds.
    “What? It’s the truth. Autumn’s a mess. If you ask me, there’s only one thing that could make it better, and that’s…”
    “What?!” I scream when she doesn’t finish the sentence. “What’ll make it better?!?!?”

“Ow, my ear!” Jenna wails. “Stop screaming!”
    I’m hyperventilating. I know everything has changed, but it takes a second to make any sense of it at all. I’m on Eddy’s bed. Eddy’s still asleep in her chair. My cell phone’s on the bedspread in front of me. That’s where Jenna’s voice is coming from.
    I pick up the phone. “Jenna?”
    “Of course it’s me. I just said—” Her voice stops, and when it comes back it’s breathy and excited. “Oh my God, you just went, didn’t you? You went and it brought you back like a second after you left, so no time passed at all. What was it like? What did you see?”
    The more I look around Eddy’s room, the more everything I saw feels like a dream. Already, some of the details are slipping away, like my brain can’t handle them and wants to pretend they never existed. I rush to say the details out loud, just to cement them all in my head.
    “It was horrible,” I say, and my voice sounds cracked and harsh. “It was my mom’s wedding, and—”
    “Your mom’s getting
married
?” Jenna gasps. “In
three years
? Were you and I totally freaking out?”
    “You weren’t there,” I realize.
    “What do you mean I wasn’t there? Why wouldn’t I be at your mom’s wedding? Your mom would totally invite me to her wedding!” She stops for a second, then squeaks. “Oh my God…am I dead?”
    “You’re not dead,” I assure her.
    “How do you know?! Did someone
say
I wasn’t dead?”
    “Jenna!” I snap. “Listen! You’re not dead! It wasn’t about that. It’s everything else. It’s all messed up.”
    I tell her everything I saw. Sure, there were some good things, like Taylor finding the perfect guy and Jack out of the closet and happy, but most of it was absolutely horrible.
    “I don’t get it!” I finish. “Why would my dad’s spirit give me a locket that lets me know I’ll be a complete loser?”
    “He wouldn’t,” Jenna says. “We talked about this before, remember? It’s why you can’t use the locket to go back in time. The past is done. The future you can change. Your dad doesn’t
want
your mom to marry this guy. He doesn’t want you to be a complete