BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  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. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

Mark’s head shot up towards the voice from the doorway, closing the notebook in his hands with a snap. ‘I… I found it under the bed. Thought it might be important.’ He didn’t know why he was trying to justify himself, but couldn’t help it.

Stephanie leaned against the doorframe, seemingly studying him for something. ‘Well, I guess it might be.’

‘You’ve read it?’

Now it was Stephanie’s turn to look towards the floor. ‘Yes, a while ago. I wouldn’t expect to find many answers in there. Emily… she was troubled.’

‘How troubled are we talking here? Because I thought before that it was just, you know, the normal amount for a teenager?’

Stephanie sighed deeply, then looked up at him. ‘If I tell you something, do you promise it won’t change your opinion of her? That you won’t let them stop looking for her, even if it means Emily isn’t who you thought she was?’

Mark swallowed, trying to work out the best answer to her questions. ‘No one will stop looking for her, Stephanie. But, this is the kind of thing we need to know. What kind of trouble was she in?’

‘No, you’ve got it wrong,’ Stephanie replied, a small chuckle escaping from her lips. She walked into the room, her voice dropping lower as she spoke. ‘She wasn’t the one who was in trouble. She was the trouble. I think… I think she might have done something stupid.’

Seventeen

‘So you can see why I say she was trouble,’ Stephanie continued, sitting down next to Mark on the bed. The perfume he’d smelled in the car earlier had faded somewhat now, but a little still lingered.

‘How?’

‘You were reading her book,’ Stephanie replied, a hand gesturing towards the notebook in his hands. She was looking down at the floor, not at him. Her blonde hair covered the side of her face, cascading down like a waterfall of colour. ‘You can see her state of mind.’

‘I didn’t get very far.’

‘We used to share this room before I moved away. Just the two of us in here, every day. Barely enough room for both of us. Looking at it now, I don’t know how we managed it. Everyone expected us to be like two peas in a pod because we’re twins, but we were very different people. We had to share a room when we both wanted our own space. I remember the first night in student halls. My own room. It was like the noise finally came to an end. I’m not talking like Emily was noisy, it just… You live so close to someone, you can’t help but hear every single sound they make. Even when they’re quiet as a mouse.’