He clears his throat before stepping up to the microphone. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Shy pauses and swallows. He keeps his hands in the pockets of his slacks and looks down at his feet. When he lifts his gaze again, he searches the crowd. I get the feeling he’s looking for me. “Lily believed everyone was worth her time. I don’t think she understood how much it meant to people. Maybe that’s my fault. I never told her. I guess hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’ll spend the rest of my life remembering how lucky I was to have had so much of her time—that she chose to share her smile, her laugh, her love, with us. When you leave here today, consider what you will miss most in the people you love—memorize it—and remember how lucky you are to love and to be loved.”

His challenge is morbid, but I understand. I press my hand against my chest where my poppa’s coin rests. Feeling the familiar pressure is comforting. I close my eyes and inhale, imagining I smell him—mint from the cream he rubbed on his hands, tobacco from the pouch he kept in his pocket for his pipe. I loved him so much, but it hadn’t been enough to keep him here.

My eyes water, and when I open them, Shy’s moving off the stage. He pauses to hug Lily’s father and then sits.

There’s a final prayer given by the headmaster—a strange one that doesn’t mention God or heaven—and then it’s over and everyone files out of the auditorium. I’m hoping to make a quick exit when Lennon stops me.

“Hey, since all the homecoming events are cancelled and everything sucks right now, would you want to hang out sometime this week? We could eat a bunch of ice cream and veg out or whatever? Maybe tomorrow?”

“Uh, sure,” I say. “I’ll ask Mom.”

Lennon smiles. “I’ll text you.”

I slip out of the auditorium and cross campus, heading to wait at Emerson Hall for Mom. I also want to check out the scene where Lily attacked me. A part of me hopes I might find my coin there, which is ridiculous, but I still have to look. Thane’s words echo in my head: This will keep happening…

That’s the last thing I want, so I have to do everything in my power to get my coin back and find the person who did this to Lily.

As I come around the side of Emerson, I stop, finding someone already there.

Shy.

He stands, staring up at the place over the doors where Lily hanged herself and where Vera had hung before that. Now there is nothing—not even the phantom noose. His hands are in his pockets, and while he appears casual, I sense his aggression.