Free Kiss Me, Kill Me by Allison Brennan

state of her body.
    She should have gone to the hospital. What must she have looked like when that guy found her running through the parking lot?
    You weren’t running. You’d fallen, remember?
    She didn’t remember much, mostly only her feeling. Disconnected when the blond guy was screwing her against the wall. Cold when she was outside. Shock when she found Jessie dead. Fear as she ran because she heard something, thought she was being chased. Was she? She’d heard a voice, but she didn’t recognize it. She thought it was Jessie’s murderer, but maybe it was help. Or just another partygoer.
    She’d never forget her friend’s dead eyes.
    “What happened to you, Jessie?” she whispered.
    Don’t you dare, bitch …
    Kirsten lowered herself slowly into the water. “Ow, ow, ow!” She kept the water only a little warmer than lukewarm, but whatever the temperature, every cut and scrape on her body screamed in protest. Then the sharp pains subsided to a constant, but bearable, ache.
    She wanted to believe that Jessie’s death had been an accident, but Kirsten knew it wasn’t. Someone had been lurking around Jessie’s body. It was the text message that tipped her off, that someone wanted Jessie and her dead. But why? What had she done? And if Kirsten went to the police, what would she tell them? She didn’t know anything! She didn’t know why Jessie had been scared or even why she had asked Kirsten to come to New York.
    Jessie had been involved in Party Girl a lot longer than Kirsten, but they didn’t talk about their online activities when they met up at the secret parties in New York. They kept an eye out for each other. Kirsten had been thinking of going to Columbia with Jessie next year, had even sent off an application without telling her mother. But her grades had tanked last semester and she didn’t think she’d get in.
    Maybe quitting softball had been a mistake. She had an amazing batting average, and last year was the third-ranked pitcher in the state and twenty-ninth in the nation. She still had two weeks before she had to commit to her final high school season.
    She stared at her feet. How could she run in two weeks when she couldn’t even walk today? How could she think about college when her only true friend was dead? What if they found out about Party Girl ?
    Heart racing, she realized that she’d never considered what anyone would think about her online activities. She almost didn’t care if her parents found out, but it wasn’t as if she’d announced to everyone at school that she was “Ashleigh.” Maybe in the back of her mind she thought no one would recognize her, or she could say, Wow, that girl looks a lot like me. Don’t they say everyone has a double?
    For the first time since she joined Party Girl , she considered her future. It looked bleak.
    She washed her hair under the bathtub faucet, which was difficult and cumbersome, but it was too painful to stand in the shower. Her arms shook when she hoisted herself out of the tub. When she’d been conditioning for softball last year, she could bench-press ninety pounds. Now, she didn’t think she could lift a ten-pound weight over her head.
    She rebandaged her feet and put a large Band-Aid on her knee where the scab had split.
    A knock at the door provoked a scream, but she cut it off quickly.
    “It’s me, Dennis,” the voice said.
    Dennis? Who was Dennis? She didn’t remember the name of the guy who’d found her. It could have been Dennis. It sounded right.
    “Kirsten? Are you okay?”
    “Yes,” she said, her voice scratchy. “I’m just cleaning up.”
    “I’m glad you’re feeling better. I brought you some clothes. I’ll wait in the kitchen.”
    He walked away. Kirsten had flashes of a boy, not much older than she, carrying her into an elevator that smelled of mint and lavender. There was something off about him, but she had been so sick she couldn’t figure it out. He’d brought her water and chicken broth, and she