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Back When the Light Went Out Save as PDF
Chapters (46)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. July 11
  8. 2
  9. July 11
  10. 3
  11. July 11
  12. 4
  13. July 11
  14. 5
  15. July 11
  16. 6
  17. July 11
  18. 7
  19. Part Two
  20. 8
  21. July 11
  22. 9
  23. July 11
  24. 10
  25. July 11
  26. 11
  27. July 11
  28. 12
  29. July 11
  30. 13
  31. July 11
  32. 14
  33. July 11
  34. 15
  35. Part Three
  36. 16
  37. 17
  38. 18
  39. 19
  40. 20
  41. 21
  42. Acknowledgments
  43. Excerpt from What You Left Me
  44. About the Author
  46. Back Cover

It was Cadence, California, with Xs over places we’d already been, and Xs over places we’d yet to explore.

July 11

Five Years Prior

Marley Bricket always had a way of being coy. She presented a calculated yet attainable distance from the rest of us, which we all aided. She’d been to high school: a much-coveted, little understood land of promise and mystery. Still, she chose our neighborhood group for the summer. We did whatever was needed to keep it that way. We laid ourselves out like red carpet for her to walk all over.

Want to eat the last cupcake even though Harrison didn’t have one and you’ve had two already? Go ahead. Need to put your dirty clothes in my laundry pile so your mom doesn’t yell at you for spilling rum on your shirt? Sign me up.

The trade-off was daily excitement. A new game to play. Better, more scandalous things to talk about: kissing, and drinking, and what our parents did when we weren’t home. Learning what no one else would teach us. Seeing what no one else could dare to imagine.

There was never a dull moment with Marley Bricket around.

That space we’d provided her with, out of respect and fear and admiration, expanded into an empty ocean of blue marble swirls in her eyes. A startling vacancy covered up all of her trademark mischief. She—of scandalous red bikinis and house raids and endless adventure—was dead. We all knew it, yet Aidy sat with one hand pressed over Marley’s bullet wound, her phone up to her ear, and told a 911 dispatcher things like, “She isn’t responding yet,” and, “Just a little blood.”

The same Aidy—who called my parents to tell them how I was breaking the rules and going to Marley’s to swim—was bending truth.

That’s how bad it was.

Ruby rushed to Marley’s other side and held her hand. I wanted to copy. Earn my spot in the group through dedication, not blood relation to our second-in-command. I agreed to be called Ollie instead of Olivia, so I could have an -ee name like the other girls. I gave up both soccer and softball, so I didn’t miss out on any house raids, or trips to the park, or spontaneous relay races down Albany. I stopped watching TV. I didn’t have favorite musicians or movies. I’d given everything to our group, and still my instincts were wrong. I forgot to call 911. I didn’t think to hold Marley’s dead hand. I wanted to hide her under the bed until I found a way to reverse time.