BooksBarbecue
Back She's Gone Save as PDF
Chapters (95)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Video #1
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Video #2
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Video #3
  73. Sixty-Six
  74. Sixty-Seven
  75. Sixty-Eight
  76. Sixty-Nine
  77. Seventy
  78. Seventy-One
  79. Seventy-Two
  80. Seventy-Three
  81. Seventy-Four
  82. Seventy-Five
  83. Seventy-Six
  84. Seventy-Seven
  85. Seventy-Eight
  86. Seventy-Nine
  87. Eighty
  88. Eighty-One
  89. Eighty-Two
  90. Eighty-Three
  91. The Final Video
  92. Acknowledgments
  93. About the Author
  95. Back Cover

The school comes in sight. Rows of yellow buses, the endless procession of student cars. I used to pick up Chloe and drive her to school. She and Olivia would text jokes back and forth while I drove. They’d laugh and laugh and sometimes not let me in on it. Then we’d park in the lot, and Olivia would sprint into the school looking for Gabriela while Chloe and I walked together holding hands.

I wish I could hold her hand again. Like in the dream. Like we used to do walking into school. Just hold her hand…

I find an empty spot, aware that Olivia still hasn’t answered my question.

“Well?” I ask.

Olivia is staring straight ahead, but then she whips around to face me. “You look stiff. Like in school pictures. You always look like you’re sitting on a nail or something.” She takes a big breath, her shoulders rising and falling. “Like I said, I know who you are. But all these people who don’t…and, my God, Hunter, a lot of people have probably shared it now.” She gestures to the parking lot, the school, the town beyond. “I’m afraid they’re going to think you look guilty.”

Five

Olivia stays glued to my side as we walk toward the school.

“What are you doing?” I ask. “Aren’t you meeting Gabby?”

“Yeah.”

“So why are you here? With me?”

“Because I want to be.”

We join a stream of students. Kids from every one of the four grades, kids from every social background, kids from every race. Garrett Morgan High is a big school because our small city in Kentucky just keeps growing. There are two other high schools out in the county, and there’s talk of a third, but Garrett Morgan is the biggest with almost two thousand kids. I try not to dwell on the irony of going to a school named after a Kentuckian who patented the stoplight because he witnessed a horrible car accident.

“You can go on,” I say to Olivia. “I’m fine. I’m just going to go to class and blend in. And try not to look guilty.”

“I never should have told you the truth,” she says.

“You’ve never not told the truth in your life. Go find Gabriela. Go be sickeningly cute together. I’m okay.”

Once she’s gone, I continue my slow walk into the building—past the display case full of trophies won by the football team, past the giant painting of Abraham Lincoln, past the grinning, cheesy portrait of the current president—and begin to feel like everything might be okay. The online trolls don’t represent the rest of the world. People post things online they would never have the guts to utter in real life.