Free Echoes by Michelle Rowen Page B

compose myself again. Being close to Ethan had a way of making me feel extremely lightheaded.
    When I turned in the opposite direction to head to my second class, I noticed that Helen was standing there watching me with a confused expression on her face.
    Crap.
    “What’s going on, Liv?” she asked.
    I tensed. “I, uh, have to get to class now.”
    “Is he the guy you like now?” She grabbed my arm as I tried to pass her. “Ethan Cole isn’t even in the same social stratosphere as you.”
    I didn’t want to talk about this now. “Just forget it, Helen.”
    “I know I told you that Peter’s not good enough for you, but at least he’s part of our crowd.”
    “It’s not what you think.”
    “I have eyes, Liv. I saw the way you looked at him. You like him. Like,
really
like him.”
    “Helen, you don’t understand.”
    “I thought we were friends, but you’d hide something this major from me?”
    “I’m not hiding anything.”
    “You’re embarrassed that you’re interested in Ethan? Is that it?”
    My cheeks warmed. “No, I...just drop it, Helen. I mean it.”
    “Is this because Peter doesn’t pay enough attention to you? You need a loser guy as your boyfriend who’s going to worship the ground you walk on?”
    Helen and I had been in the popular crowd ever since entering high school. Anything outside of our large group of friends was essentially invisible to us.
    Stupid and unfair, but true.
    I already knew Ethan was outside of that circle because he had been invisible to me. Until now. He wasn’t invisible anymore and I didn’t need permission from my best friend to talk to him. And the look she was giving me, as if I’d betrayed her confidence by making a new friend, was pissing me off. I didn’t want to argue. Not now. Not with her.
    “I have to go,” I said as I brushed past her.
    “This thing with your mother’s messing with your head even more than I thought it was.”
    Of course that’s what she’d think. Me being screwed up because of my mother and latching on to some guy who wasn’t right for me.
    If only she knew the truth.

 

Chapter 6
    The day felt like it lasted about five years.
    Ethan didn’t show up for history, which meant I had an hour to worry about whether or not he’d taken off and not told me anything. After class, I headed directly to his locker.
    I felt somebody staring at me. Bree stood off to the side of the hallway, her iPod jacked into her ears. She blew a very large pink gum bubble in my general direction.
    “You’re still alive.” She pulled the earbuds out and they dangled over her shoulders. She wore all black today. No big surprise there.
    I couldn’t help but snort at her bluntness. “For the moment.”
    “Are they really back? The Upyri?” Despite the scent of bubblegum and the muffled sound of Nine Inch Nails coming out of her MP3 player, she looked very serious.
    I had a sudden urge to be honest with her. “Yes.”
    She stared at me for a long, drawn out moment. Finally she began to smile. “That’s so awesome.”
    “Awesome?” I repeated incredulously. “You can’t be serious.”
    “That there are Upyri in town right now wreaking havoc? Hell yeah, I’m serious. This town...it’s so boring sometimes I think I’m slipping into a coma. The fact there’s something around that will spice things up a bit, well, it fills me with glee.”
    “Glee.”
    “Yep.”
    I glared at her. “You’re crazy, Bree.”
    “Rhymes with glee, doesn’t it?” Her grin widened as I glared at her with outrage. “What’s your problem?”
    I pointed at my chest. “
My
problem? I think that’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?”
    “Did you find out what you needed to know?”
    “How do you know anything about this? There isn’t even that much info on the Internet about them, but you seem to be some sort of expert.”
    “Hardly.” She leaned against the locker behind her. “I guess you forgot what I told you about my great-great-grandfather back when