B00AO57VOY EBOK by AJ Myers Read Free Book Online Page A

stupid reason, I couldn’t seem to stop trying.  As
expected, he cut me off again .
    “Because I just spent two
hours in a coffin, that’s why!” he roared.  Guess he was mad after all.
     “So did I!” I yelled back,
snapping under the pressure at long last.  “Do you really think that experience
was any better for me than it was for you?!  Think again, buddy!  I’ll have
nightmares about that coffin until I end up in one for real!”
    He so needed to get
over himself!  Okay, so it hadn’t been ideal, I’d be the first to admit it, but
at least we weren’t in jail.  Nathan was obviously having a hard time seeing it
that way, though.  He was acting like I’d planned the whole fiasco.  Yeah,
because I had just known The Donut and his bungling band of idiots were
going to hang out for two hours. 
    “Just tell me I didn’t go
through that for nothing,” Nathan grumbled finally, giving me a look that said
I’d damn well better tell him that.  “Did you find out where he is?”
    “Yes.  No.  Kind of.  God, I
don’t know,” I told him softly, blinking back tears again as I looked away. 
    I suddenly wished we’d never
gone to the funeral home at all—and not because I’d just spent more time than I
ever wanted to in a coffin.  Seriously, after that, I intended to let everyone
I knew know that I wanted to be cremated.  I never wanted to be put in
another box.  Like, ever . 
    Even my coffin experience
didn’t compare with the horrible scene I’d had to witness when I’d spent
Casey’s last few minutes on earth with her though.  I had been planning to
summon Casey’s ghost .  I’d thought I could just call her up and get her
to tell me where Jack was so I could end the whole thing.  I hadn’t figured
actually seeing what had happened to her into my brilliant scheme. 
    I had about as much of a
chance of erasing the last few minutes of that girl’s life from my memory as I
had of forgetting what it had been like to be shut in that coffin.  It was
something I would never be able to forget.
    Nathan was quiet for the
rest of the ride home, his expression tense and unhappy.  As we pulled into the
driveway, he took a deep breath and I saw him shudder.  When the garage door
closed behind us, he cut the engine and finally turned to look at me again. 
When he saw the tears standing in my eyes, his expression finally softened. 
     “Baby, are you okay?”  When
I tried to look away, he grasped my chin and gently turned my head so I was
facing him. 
    “I just want to go to bed,”
I told him, pulling my chin free.  “I need…”
    I shook my head and reached
for the door without finishing that sentence.  I didn’t know what I needed.  I
needed somewhere quiet to be alone.  I needed to cry and scream and rage at the
twisted Fate that kept messing with me.  I needed someone to tell me it was all
right so I could tell them they were wrong. 
    What I didn’t need
was what was waiting for me. 
    Grams was standing framed in
the doorway to the kitchen looking like someone had just pissed in her anti-wrinkle
potion.
    For a long, tense, silent
moment we just looked at each other.  Her graying red curls were coming loose
from the twist she usually wore them in.  The shoulders of her long wool
overcoat were dusted with snow and her leaf-green eyes were practically
shooting sparks.  She looked tired and almost weak. 
    She also looked like she was
ready to decapitate someone.  Considering she was staring at me instead of
Nathan, I had a pretty good idea who was about to get the axe.
    “Uh…hi, Grams,” I finally
squeaked, going for a smile—that immediately slipped off my face when her glare
got a little darker.  By the time Nathan got out of the car and joined me, I
was ready to bolt.
    “Shea,” Nathan said by way
of a greeting, arching an eyebrow when she turned her glare on him instead of
me.  “I thought you said they’d cancelled your flight again.”
    “They did,”