Vengeance by Megan Miranda Read Free Book Online

me not to. So I didn’t.
    There wasn’t any history in Justin’s basement. Not like at his lake house. Here, we couldn’t see the lake or the trees. We couldn’t look at all the places Carson should’ve been. We couldn’t see the ghost of him running through the kitchen and straight out the back door, cannonballing into the freezing water.
    Janna stood up from the couch when I reached the bottom of the stairs. She was tan. Skinny. Her blond curly hair was longer, past her shoulders now. So not like I remembered her, as Carson’s shadow. I walked over and gave her a one-armed hug. “Hey,” I said. “How was Arizona?”
    “Hot,” she said. “Oh, and turns out my brother’s dead there, too.”
    She fell back onto the cushions and cut her eyes away from me. “Heard about your dad. Sucks.”
    “Yeah,” I said. I liked the way she talked about death. Like you could be mad at it.
    “You guys back for good?” I asked. Their house had satempty—deserted—since February. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if she was gone for a while or gone for good.
    “Me and my mom, anyway.” She tapped her foot on the coffee table.
    Tara strode over to the couch and leaned down to give Janna a hug. “I missed you,” she said. Then, to me, “You okay?”
    Then Janna scanned the room—we were all there: Kevin, Justin, Tara, me. Everyone except Carson. And …
    “Where’s Delaney?” she asked.
    “He dumped her,” Tara said.
    Janna tilted her head to me. Raised her eyebrows.
    “Sitting right here, Tara,” I said. Like that made any difference to her. “Any more gossip you’d like to fill us in on? Oh . Kevin and Tara were together until he dumped her for the girl living in the lake house.”
    There was a moment of silence—I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d mentioned the lake, or the house, or just the fact that I was being an ass to Tara.
    “Screw you, Decker,” she said. She got up, then looked over her shoulder. “And he didn’t dump me.” But she had to whisper it since Kevin was on the other side of the room and he did, actually, dump her. I was there. I didn’t hear what he said, but I heard Tara say, “You’re such a dick,” and saw her walk away.
    I mouthed the words, He totally dumped her , at Janna.
    “God, I missed you guys,” she said. Guess she didn’t remember not calling. Not answering her phone. Not telling anyone she was leaving a month after Carson’s funeral. She lookedaround the room, at all the places she didn’t see him. I did the same thing. Last year at our Labor Day party, he’d said, “ This’ll be the best year ever .” And then Delaney almost died. Carson did die. So did Troy. So did my dad. I thought of Delaney’s bullshit statistics.
    “I want to do something,” Janna said. “For Carson.”
    I pretended I hadn’t heard. Was that what happened? You got over someone’s death and held some memorial and then you moved on?
    And then the room grew quiet. “Who’s that?” Janna asked.
    We saw her legs first: skinny and tan. Next, her brown skirt; white shirt; long, straight brown hair. Brown eyes, maroon nails. “That,” I said, “is Kevin’s new girlfriend. Maya.”
    “Nice skirt,” Tara said to Maya, fake smile. Like she wasn’t upset about getting dumped. Like she wasn’t terrified of being replaced by the new girl who was definitely hotter than her and didn’t even have to try. And Maya didn’t try. She knew she didn’t have to. Probably had known it forever.
    She said, “Thanks,” caught Kevin’s eye, and smiled. Kevin looked past her as I heard someone else walking down the stairs.
    I saw her sneakers first—with the blue stripe and the frayed laces. Then the dark jeans above them. I turned to Janna. Watched as she raised a hand in greeting, forced her mouth to grin as she held her breath.
    Delaney.
    “Wanna get out of here?” I asked.
    “I would like nothing more,” Janna said.
    I bumped Kevin’s shoulder as I passed. “It was Maya’s idea,”