BooksBarbecue
Back Admission
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Julie Buxbaum
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  52. EPILOGUE
  53. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  55. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  56. What’s next onyour reading list?

“What does that even mean? ‘Didn’t know’?” I ask, and we both dissolve into giggles, and then, as the report flashes photos of my mother on the screen, we sober up.

“Poor Mom,” Isla says, and I wonder if she’s finally softening. “I mean, Aunt Candy is her person.”

“Dad is her person. I’m her person,” I say, then add as an afterthought: “You’re her person.”

Isla smirks. Okay, fine. We both know Isla is not her person. Her mini-me, maybe, but not her person.

“Maybe she has a few people. You can have a few people,” she says, and that sweep of sadness whenever I think of Shola takes hold of me again.

“It’s good to have backup,” I say.

“I’m sorry about Shola.”

“Me too. She’s right, though. I don’t think I’d forgive me.”

“It’s not like you killed anyone.”

“I killed people’s dreams,” I say with a teary half-smile, and she nods, because it’s kinda true. “It’s so big, the scale of it, what it all meant, and I don’t know how I didn’t realize that when it was happening. I was so clueless. I should have listened to you.”

My phone chimes and I see that my Signal group is active again. After they went quiet in the wake of all the plea bargaining, I found myself missing them. Beyond my sister, they’re the closest thing I’ve had to friends since this mess began.

TheIgster: That dude deserves a beatdown. How dare he?

Slyse: Right? What a POS

PhinnyB: We were going to be found out somehow eventually. If it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else

ALC: My therapist says I need to learn from this experience. That maybe this is a good thing that happened to all of us. A wakeup call

Slyse: Screw your therapist

TheIgster: I wish I could screw my therapist. She’s smokin’

ALC: Ew

TheIgster: Why’d a billionaire need Dr. Wilson anyway? Why didn’t he buy a freakin’ building? That’s what I keep telling my parents they should have done

PrettyPen: I wish I was a billionaire. I lost my LipPlump endorsement deal. My career is over

Slyse: Being an influencer is not a real career

PrettyPen: Tell that to my seven million subscribers

ALC: Who added Penny back on the thread?

PrettyPen: Up yours, bitches

CHAPTER FORTY

Then