Free Arcadia's Gift (Arcadia Trilogy) by Jesi Lea Ryan Page A

sitting in the middle of it.
    Once the hall was mostly empty of students, Mr. Small crouched down and whispered something to Bryan.
    I felt his head bob in a nod. "I'll take her home now." Bryan bent his mouth to my ear. "Let's get you out of here."
    As Bryan helped me to my feet, I caught a pair of green eyes, blazing with molten hatred staring right at me, causing my body to jerk in shock. Cane Matthews stood across the hall. It was the first time I’d seen him since the funeral. His face appeared to have aged, gray smudges spread beneath his eyes and his jaw clenched tightly. He bent down and picked up a torn photograph of Lony that had been taken over the summer at cheerleading camp. His gaze softened slightly on the photo, but when he looked at me again, I felt a stab in my gut. The icy pain rolled off Cane so thickly the air felt like water, making my lungs heave for breath. I shivered uncontrollably.
    Bryan relieved me of the broken backpack without a word, took my hand. “Ignore him. Come on.” He steered me toward the doors.
    I felt Cane’s glare on my back the whole way down the hall and out the front doors.
     
    Bryan offered to stay with me, but I made him go back to school. I spent the rest of the day in my pj's huddled in bed with the covers over my head.
    The doorbell rang around 3:00, but neither my mother nor I made a move to answer it. Just after dark, I woke from a nap to someone knocking on my bedroom door.
    "Can I come in?" Aaron's guff voice called from the hall outside.
    I yanked the covers down from the tent I had made with my pillows to block out the harsh afternoon sunlight.
    "Yeah,” I croaked. “Come in."
    Aaron stepped into the room and glanced around. It had been a long time since he had been in my bedroom. My brother and I have never been very close. He was only fourteen months older, but he’d always held himself apart from us. I'm not sure if that was because we were girls or because he felt excluded by our twin-ness.
    He didn't turn on the light, just wandered over and sat down by my feet.
    "I heard what happened this morning."
    "I don't know why I freaked out like that,” I groaned.
    Aaron nodded in sympathy. In the light emanating from the hallway, I could see dark smudges under his lower lashes and hollowness in his cheeks. All at once I felt guilty for not being there more for him. I hadn't given much thought to the fact that he also lost a sister. My hand snaked out from beneath my peppermint-colored comforter and squeezed his. After a moment, he squeezed back.
    "I would have warned you about the locker if I'd known you were going to go to school this morning. I couldn't look at it either."
    "I shouldn't have flipped out like that. Lony had tons of friends. They have a right to mourn her the way they need to."
    Aaron just bobbed his head and mashed his lips together.
    "How are you, Aaron? Do you want to talk about it?"
    He let out a whoosh of air. "Oh, I don't know, Cady. I imagine I'm feeling about like you are right now; sadness, anger —mostly at myself for not spending more time with her —with you both. And then this house... I’ve been kind of thinking about going to stay with Dad for a while."
    “Have you told Mom yet?"
    “Are you kidding?” He said with a raised eye brow, the metal bar through it glinting in the low light. “She's so doped up there’s no talking to her. I don't think she's taken a shower since the funeral. Besides, she probably wouldn’t even notice if I left."
    I didn't know what to say. In the space of only a few weeks, our family as we knew it changed into something from a bad after-school special.
    "I'd like to go see Dad tomorrow," I said. "Think you want to come with me?"
    "Sure," he replied.
    We lapsed into silence, nothing more to say. He clung to me with one hand and picked at the cuticle of his thumb with the other. Eventually, he stood up and shuffled toward the door.
    Just before entering the hallway, Aaron turned back to me, his face