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

“I’m not a tattletale,” Grace insists. He’s a head taller than her, so she has to tilt her head back to look him squarely in the face.

Andy steps closer to her, his finger pointed at her chest. “Listen up, Grace,” he keeps moving, forcing her to back away. “If you hadn’t gone and run to your little mommy about your stupid problems, she wouldn’t have gone to my mom and gotten me in trouble for going to that party, too.” Just as Andy finishes the sentence, he reaches for Grace, grabbing her by the shirt.

Grace jolts away, breaking free from his grasp, but in the process, stumbles on a shoelace and falls to the ground. Andy steps closer, grinning.

I start to move, ready to jump in and stand by her side, defending her, but a voice rings out from behind me, stopping me in my tracks.

“Get away from her,” Leo demands, rushing to place himself between them, his eyes locked on Andy. He’s not as tall as Andy, but he’s stockier.

Andy smirks, but I notice he takes a tiny step backward. “Hey look everyone, loverboy has come to rescue her.” Andy’s friends by the car snicker in response.

Leo ignores them, turning around and holding a hand out to Grace. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” She takes his hand and he pulls her up. Then she dusts herself off. She looks angry, but also like she’s about to break down.

“It’s okay, you can have my leftovers. I’m done with her anyway,” Andy sneers.

Leo whips around, fire blazing in his eyes. “Your leftovers? What do you call Dana, then?”

Andy scowls, but looks confused.

Leo feigns shock. “Oh, you mean you didn’t know? That she’s cheating on you with Jake? And Ben?”

Andy looks taken aback for a moment. He glances over at his friends by the car. One of them—the boy who’d been antagonizing Grace earlier—turns pale and the guy next to him looks down at the ground, avoiding Andy’s gaze.

Then, I see everything happening in slow motion. Andy’s face flashes into a cold rage, his fist curls up into a ball, and he turns around to face Leo again.

“Watch out!” I shout as Andy draws his arm back. Leo looks at me, questioning, a moment before Andy’s fist comes down, crashing into his face.

Everyone starts shouting. Leo stumbles backward, his hand clutching the left side of his face, eyes shut in pain. Grace reaches for him, shouting something at Andy. I step forward to join my friends just as a whistle blows. Everyone falls into silence, turning to face Principle Jackson as she shoves her way toward Andy and Leo.

“Everybody get to class!” she yells, making all of the bystanders spring into action, scattering towards the school buildings. “You three are coming with me. Right now,” she says to Grace, Leo, and Andy. She grabs a shocked Leo and a seething Andy in each arm, then marches in the direction of her office. Grace hesitates, watching them go. Her eyes land on me.

“I—”

Before I can finish, she turns and jogs after them.

At lunch, I find her tucked in a corner of the library between book stacks, eating by herself. I need to fix things with her because I need to have at least one constant in my life. One thing I can control.

“We need to talk,” I say, and she looks up, startled by my presence. Then she narrows her eyes.

“Oh, so now you want to talk?”

“I want us to be friends. What happened this morning wasn’t cool, I want to help make it right.”

“Make it right? Laura, you’ve only made things worse. You couldn’t be there for me when I needed you, and now I’m the laughing stock of the school because of it. And not only that, but when my parents discovered I went to that party, they talked to Andy’s parents, and then everyone else’s parents, and now everyone is in trouble. Because of me. Because of you.”

I wince at her words, but then I harden my gaze at her. “Don’t pin this on me,” I tell her, my voice low.

“You pinned it on yourself, Laura,” she spits. She stands, shoving her things into her backpack. “We’re done here.” She shoves past me, knocking a few books onto the ground. She ignores them, stepping out into the aisle between the book stacks. Then she looks back at me briefly. “What I don’t understand is that you told me you were going to come get me. And then you didn’t. If you weren’t going to show, why did you tell me you were?”

I’ve tried, many times, to come up with some kind of reasonable explanation, but when I open my mouth, not a single one comes out.

“Thanks. Thanks a lot, Laura.” She says my name as if it’s some kind of disease. Then she leaves me alone in the library, a section of books scattered on the floor around me. As I’m gathering them up, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket.

Pulling it out, my focus shifts from Grace back to my previous problem.

It’s a text from Maverick.

I have a plan. Meet up after school?

Chapter 28

I sit in my car in the parking lot, watching my peers walk by. Grace’s car hasn’t appeared in a few days, meaning her driving privileges are most likely still revoked. Leo’s car is here, but he’s nowhere to be seen. I wonder if he got detention for fighting, though technically it was Andy who antagonized him and threw the punch.

I’m not sure what to do about Grace. I just want to be able to tell her everything—about Maverick, about Alice, about the echoes. But it seems like such an impossible task. How would anyone believe it all? Anyone except