Free The Missing- Volume II- Lies by A. Meredith Walters, A. M. Irvin Page A

anything. That I’d given her my secrets and I’d get nothing in return.
    But then she gave me pieces and I was overjoyed.
    “My mom died when I was little. I don’t really remember her. My dad moves around a lot for work so I’ve always had to make new friends. I actually really suck at meeting people. I feel all awkward and weird.”
    “You? Awkward? Are you nuts? Have you met me?” I joked.
    “Stop it, Nora. I hate it when you do that, make yourself sound bad.” I beamed at her censure.
    “I almost didn’t come to Blackfield. I was . . . uh . . . seeing someone back in Dallas and he wanted me to stay. I thought about it.” She looked away from me and I felt the burn of jealousy.
    I still held Maren’s hand in mine and I could feel her fluttering pulse beneath my thumb.
    “We broke up though. It wasn’t pretty. So I came here with Dad. I didn’t want to stay there after that.”
    I felt a wave of relief.
    “Oh, well, that’s good.” I grinned at her. Maren gave me a strange look.
    “It’s good that I had a messy breakup and moved back in with my father to escape it?” she asked, sounding bitter.
    No!” I backtracked, feeling like a moron. “I just meant that it’s good you’re here. Otherwise we would never have met.”
    Maren relaxed and nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good thing,” she agreed.
    It was good.
    “Tell me about Bradley. What’s his deal?” she asked out of the blue and I bristled at the question.
    “Why are you so interested in Bradley?” I couldn’t help but sound irritated. Because I was.
    “He’s an enigma. A puzzle. I like puzzles,” Maren mused. “One minute, he’s so angry. The next, he seems almost sad. Like something horrible has happened to him.”
    I gritted my teeth together to stop myself from screaming. “We all have horrible things that happen to us,” I countered.
    Maren nodded. “You’re right. But Bradley’s a tormented dude. I can feel it.”
    My Bradley!
    He was mine!
    “I don’t think he’d want me to tell you anything,” I quipped sharply.
    Maren looked contrite. “Of course not. I shouldn’t have asked you that. You’re friends. Of course it wouldn’t be right to talk about him behind his back.” She sighed. “I’m just a sucker for a lost cause.”
    What about me? I raged inside.
    I’m lost too!
    But I wouldn’t say that out loud. I’d sound even more pathetic than I already did.
    “I shouldn’t have teased him the other day. I knew he was upset about us being together, so I messed with him. It wasn’t very nice. I feel like an ass.”
    She stared down at the notebook in her lap, and I felt tense all over, as though she were getting ready to deliver a blow.
    “But I’d like to get to know him. Do you think he’d let me?”
    What was this? Was Maren serious? I felt horrible and sick and upset.
    I didn’t know what to say.
    I felt a flash of unreasonable hatred. Towards Bradley for being broken. Towards Maren for caring about his brokenness. Towards myself for giving my heart away to someone who seemed ready to crush it.
    “I don’t know,” I muttered, full of so much hate.
    Maren must have heard the strange note in my voice. She looked up at me seeming concerned. “But right now, I’d rather spend my time with you, Nora.” She smiled and it erased everything. All the bad stuff. And I felt . . . full.
    “I’d like to spend time with you, too,” I told her. Did she hear the love in my voice? Did she see the passion in my eyes? Did she realize how much I wanted her?
    Maren plucked a piece of hair from my shoulder and I swore her hand lingered.
    I moved a little closer. I wouldn’t think about Bradley. Not here. Not with her.
    “Okay, enough with the heavy stuff, why don’t we work on the song. Can you sing? Your words are so much better than mine. I could listen to you sing all day long,” Maren said, making me glow with her compliments.
    She had a magical way of turning everything around. Of making me happy without