Echoes by Marissa Lete (best books for students to read txt) 📕

was great that he was trying to protect me, but I feel a twinge of anger bubbling up inside me. How could he just delete me from his life like that? How could he just let me go? Couldn’t there have been some other way?

Maverick grimaces. “I didn’t know that she had been watching me and already knew about you. I didn’t think she would use you, since you weren’t in my life anymore. If I had known…” he trails off.

I feel my anger building, hot and sudden. “You would have done what? Not done it? A few days ago, I was listening to the coffee shop worker tell me about how we were so in love and now I’m learning that you cut me out of your life just like that? How could you?” My heart is thrumming in my ears by the time I finish.

Maverick looks like he’s just been punched in the gut. He shakes his head. “I didn’t know. I thought it was the best decision.”

“The best decision,” I scoff. I can’t control the anger inside of me. I’ve had a part of my life ripped from me, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I can see Maverick trying his best to stay calm, but when he speaks, his words are saturated with frustration. “Do you know how hard it was to live with the memory of you every single day, knowing there was nothing I could do to get you back? Do you know how hard it was to find out that my enemy knew about you all along, and that it was all for nothing?” His eyes burn into mine like a million suns. I’m speechless for a moment, a tear streaming down my cheek. Then I find my voice.

“Do you know how hard it was for me? To hear myself talking to you, getting to know you, and not remember any of it? To wonder whether I was going crazy or not? Then to find out you’re real, but you’re also the reason I don’t even remember my first kiss? The first guy I supposedly loved?”

“I—” Maverick chokes out. “I didn’t know about your ability, I didn’t think this would happen.”

“But you were okay with just accepting that I was gone forever?” I spit, not bothering to hide my anger.

“No!” he replies, angry, too. “If I could take it all back, I would. Laura, I’m so, so sorry. You have to believe that.” The look in his eyes tells me he truly means it, but I can’t stand the thought of sitting here for another second.

“I’m sorry, too.” Tears flowing freely now, I stand, knocking over a glass as I do. It topples over and shatters, spraying water and glass across the table but I ignore it, turning towards the door we came through, and run. When I finally get to my room, one glance in the mirror tells me I look like a tired, frantic mess. I spread out across the bed, taking deep breaths, trying to calm myself down.

When my heart finally slows and my breathing is normal again, fatigue hits me. Aside from the brief nap in the car, I haven’t slept in a long time. My eyes feel heavy, and I don’t fight them as they close. I embrace the sleep, letting it take me down into a dark, silent abyss.

Chapter 23

When I wake up, the sky is a light gray, the sun beginning its ascent somewhere far away. I turn away from the window, blinking a few times before I notice an alarm clock on the stand beside me. 6:06 A.M. In the corner, there’s the date. Sunday.

It dawns on me that I haven’t been home in over 24 hours. Mom and Dad. They’re probably out of their minds, wondering where I could be. The police are involved by now, no doubt, and there’s probably a massive search party out looking for me.

I stand up in a hurry, opening the door and poking my head out before I leave the room. Something about the grandness of this place makes me feel like I have to move in secrecy so I don’t disturb the peace.

I walk down the almost-familiar hallway, down the staircase, and into the entranceway. I peek my head into the doorway I’d seen Jacob come from yesterday. No one is there, so I continue down the hallway, checking inside each door as I pass by. I’m backing out of a doorway when I bump into someone, startling me. I whip my head around, meeting Maverick’s eyes. He looks down at my hand, still on the doorknob.

“I—” I start, feeling a little bit guilty. The tension of our fight last night hangs in the air between us, making it hard to breathe. “You’re up early,” I say, trying to break it up.

Maverick blinks his yellow eyes at me. “So are you.”

I’m not sure how to respond, so I just cut to the chase. “I think I need to call my parents, they’re probably worried about me.”

Maverick blinks again, taking a deep breath. “Actually, they… uh… probably aren’t worried yet,” he says tentatively, like he knows he has to say it but he doesn’t want to.

I blink back, confused.

“After Alice let me go yesterday, before I came to break you out, I… made sure they weren’t worried about you. They think you’re at Grace’s for the weekend,” he explains.

“How did you…?” I trail off, realization hitting me. “Oh. Right. You can make people forget things.” The words taste bitter in my mouth, and I can see the hurt in Maverick’s eyes after I say them.

“I just wanted to get you back and take you home. I didn’t want there to be any further disturbance in your life,” he tells me.

“Oh, so you made my parents forget about me?”