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Back The Lucky Ones Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-one
  25. Chapter Twenty-two
  26. Chapter Twenty-three
  27. Chapter Twenty-four
  28. Chapter Twenty-five
  29. Chapter Twenty-six
  30. Chapter Twenty-seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-one
  35. Chapter Thirty-two
  36. Chapter Thirty-three
  37. Chapter Thirty-four
  38. Chapter Thirty-five
  39. Chapter Thirty-six
  40. Chapter Thirty-seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-one
  45. Chapter Forty-two
  46. The Letter
  47. Chapter Forty-three
  48. Chapter Forty-four
  49. Chapter Forty-five
  50. Chapter Forty-six
  51. Chapter Forty-seven
  52. Chapter Forty-eight
  53. Chapter Forty-nine
  54. Chapter Fifty
  55. Chapter Fifty-one
  56. Chapter Fifty-two
  57. Chapter Fifty-three
  58. Author’s Note
  59. Resources
  60. Acknowledgments
  61. About the Author
  62. What’s next onyour reading list?

I’m in the closet and the gunshots have stopped and there’s an eerie silence, a silence that’s thick and black, and I’m wrapped in a ball on the ground, my arms wrapped tight around my legs, and it’s all I can do to keep my voice inside my body, but I can’t let it out because then whatever is out there will come for me. And I have to be silent and I have to be quiet and my throat is raw from holding it all in; my entire body aches from holding it all in. And then the door slowly swings open and light pours in and it seems so wrong to see light again. I should be forced to live here in this blackness, in this silence, forever, since I stayed in here and left them all out there with that gun. All of them.

—

Jordan.

—

And then I’m screaming his name and I only stop because a face pokes into the closet and for this awful, heart-wrenching second, I think it’s him—it’s Jordan—but then I see that it’s David Ecchles, who I tutored, who asked me out on dates, who I saw in the hallways, and it takes me a second to put it together: David Ecchles is the boy with the gun and the boy with the gun is David Ecchles, and then the scream I’ve been holding in my throat rips free and it’s loud and it hurts and I’m pretty sure it slices my skin deep, so deep that I’m bleeding straight into my guts.

And then he smiles this horrible, toothy smile, and says, “Hey, May. You look pretty today,” and shuts the door again.

And I scream and I scream and I scream and I scream and I scream.

—

He’s wearing that same smile now.

A scream builds in my throat, but I can’t let it out. They’ll kick me out of here, and I’ve made it this far. I have to get what I came for. On the other side of the window, David Ecchles motions for me to pick up the phone. My hands are shaking violently in my lap, and I ball them into tight fists and finally they still enough for me to reach out and grab the phone.

Chapter Forty-six

Chapter Forty-Six

“Hello, May.”

He leans forward in his seat and puts his palm against the Plexiglas between us. His eyes are glassy; the whites are yellowed from lack of sun. They look reptilian in the fluorescent light. I lurch back, almost fall off my stool.

“I didn’t think you’d come. No one ever comes to see me.”

I’m silent. My throat is dry. My brain and my body disconnect. I’m still breathing, my heart’s still beating, but I’m not really here.