Overboard by Sandra Madera Read Free Book Online

home.”
    “Fine,” Brenna answered shortly.
    After a long moment, Dylan walked across the room and
sat on the edge of Brenna’s bed. “What are you thinking? You look
scared...”
    “I can’t believe it,” she told him, her tone as soft
as a whisper.
    He nodded.
    “The pieces don’t fit,” she said, thinking aloud.
“This trip has been a disaster from the beginning. We have been
more at odds with each other than ever before.”
    He stared at her, appearing to try to follow her
thought pattern.
    “Things just don’t make sense in my head right now,”
she said, mashing her palms into her forehead.
    With his green eyes intent, Dylan grabbed her hands
to prevent her from injuring herself. “Talk to me. What is going on
in your head right now?”
    “No one could fall off that railing,” she told him.
“It was a calm night. There weren’t any huge waves rocking the
boat. She would have had to climb over the railing and fall
over.”
    “She could have decided to end her life by drowning
herself.”
    Brenna scoffed. “She was not suicidal.”
    Dylan looked at her pensively. “You didn’t know
Marissa.”
    “She was one of my closest friends, Dylan. I knew her
better than anyone else on this boat,” she told him
matter-of-factly.
    “You knew the side she wanted you to see,” Dylan
said, running his hands through his black hair. “You didn’t know
the real Marissa.”
    “What are you talking about?” she asked softly,
trying her best to make sense of the circumstances she found
herself in.
    Dylan hesitated.
    “Tell me, Dylan. Tell me the truth for once in your
life,” Brenna scolded, her mind racing with what Marissa could have
had over his head. “Did Marissa know about you and Morgan? Were the
two of you together?”
    He shook his head. “Hallie convinced her I was seeing
Morgan while we were dating... Before the accident last summer,
there was a fling... I didn’t want to hurt you, Brenna. I thought
if I just pretended like it didn’t happen, then it would all be
wiped away. Then Morgan died, and Hallie suspected me. She
suspected you... You were different. I had never seen you so
depressed. You just isolated yourself, and focused only on school.
Your chance for a scholarship seemed more important than me.”
    “I was trying to cope with my friend’s death by doing
what I do best. School work was a way out of what I was feeling.
The more work the less I had to feel. I was not punishing you,”
Brenna told him, trying hard to listen to him without judgment.
Yet, she was hurt. Everyone had disappointed her, but none more
than Dylan. “What did Marissa threaten to do?”
    “Marissa found out everything last summer before
school ended and you went to work at the camp. She said she was
going to tell you if I didn’t stop seeing Morgan,” he said
shamefully. “I wanted to. I knew it wasn’t right. Morgan was
furious though. She didn’t want to let go...”
    Brenna folded her hands over her chest. “And?”
    “After Morgan’s accident, Marissa just wouldn’t let
it go. I think Hallie had convinced her that something was not
right about the way Morgan died. She said you were her best friend,
and she had to be honest with you. She was going to tell you during
this trip. That’s why I didn’t want to come,” he said, looking
heartbroken. “I felt like she was toying with me. She held that
secret over my head like she enjoyed torturing me. She was cruel
that way... Orman told me some things she did to him. She was not
the person you thought she was. I couldn’t take being with her on
this boat. She threatened me all of the time, following me around
the boat.”
    Brenna stood quietly, unable to find the words that
would justify how she felt. She had been lied to by the two people
she trusted; her boyfriend and her best friend. “You should have
told me.”
    “I shouldn’t have kept anything from you,” he said,
looking at the floor. “I guess I wanted to hurt you at first, but