Free Phoenix by Eden Maguire

Jacob. Now do me a favour, tell me where I can find Zak.’
    ‘That would be a no,’ Jacob grunted, sticking his fists deep in his low-slung jeans pockets.’
    ‘N-O, no,’ Taylor echoed, stepping forward and getting right in my face. Taylor is marginally less nasty than Jacob, but then that isn’t too much of a stretch.
    I refused to back off. ‘Where does Zak hang out? Are you going to tell me or do I waste my time hanging out on his street corner until he shows up?’
    I got a second unprintable reply then Zoey interruptedour cosy chat. I guess she thought, rightly, that I needed rescuing from this bunch of gorillas.
    ‘Darina, you missed a great movie!’ she breezed from the driver’s seat of her shiny black SUV – a recent gift from her dad for coming through her surgeries and months of physical therapy. ‘Get in,’ she invited, leaning across to open the passenger door.
    I didn’t want to disappoint her. Besides, Zak’s buddies were quickly sliding out of control with the abuse and physical intimidation. ‘Thanks,’ I sighed, sinking into the black leather seats.
    ‘Do you have time to drive out to Turkey Shoot with me?’
    ‘I have an hour.’ Glancing over my shoulder, I saw a single red rose wrapped in cellophane, resting on the back seat. Turkey Shoot Ridge was where Jonas crashed his Harley – a trip back there would be a pilgrimage for Zoey.
    She nodded. ‘Good. We can talk while we drive.’
    Talking meant Zoey taking care of me, checking that I was doing OK as Phoenix’s anniversary drew near. ‘You look wrecked,’ she began as we drove out through Centennial. ‘I guess you’re not sleeping.’
    ‘Not a whole lot.’
    ‘Twelve months is coming up. Look at it one way, itfeels like a lifetime. Look again, and it just happened yesterday.’
    ‘It hurts the same, if that’s what you mean.’
    ‘I know. I still walk into school and expect to see Jonas sitting with Lucas and Christian. I swear he’s there. Then I blink and he’s gone.’
    ‘I see Phoenix,’ I murmured. Really, I do!
    ‘But somehow it’s not hurting me any more,’ Zoey explained, taking a turn down a quiet residential road. ‘I can drive this street where Jonas picked me up that day and now I’m not in pain. Rather, I remember how sunny it was, how great he looked, how he smiled at me in that special way when he pulled up at the kerb.’
    I told her I was glad to hear it. ‘Getting through the anniversary, watching the procession out of town to Turkey Shoot – was that tough for you?’
    She thought a while. ‘I was really not expecting to get through it like I did. But you recall what happened just before – when I was out in the stable yard that time with Merlin and Pepper, and I felt Jonas came to see me to tell me he was OK, that he loved me and I should live my life knowing that? It sounds weird now, doesn’t it?’
    ‘I remember,’ I murmured. ‘And no, it doesn’t sound weird.’ If I’d done one wholly selfless thing this past year, it had been to argue with Hunter to let BeautifulDead Jonas visit Zoey one last time.
    ‘You have to know the same thing – that Phoenix totally loved you,’ Zoey confided.
    He did, right from the start – I’m certain of that.
     
    In the beginning.
    ‘You dropped this.’ Phoenix Rohr picks up my silver bracelet and hands it to me. His fingertips touch my palm.
    It’s Hannah’s sixteenth birthday party, at her big house next to the bank in the centre of town. I’ve been hanging out with Logan, acting as if I don’t need or like anyone in the whole universe. We’re talking fifteen, sixteen months ago, when I was hyper-uncomfortable in my own skin, hiding behind the biggest new thing in fashion, hair, cosmetics.
    ‘Thanks,’ I mumble, bending my head, struggling to re fasten the bracelet.
    ‘Let me,’ Phoenix offers.
    I hold out my arm, watch his fingers deal with the delicate clasp. Honestly, it feels like an electric shock as he touches my wrist. He