Echoes Read Online Free PDF Page B

my shoulder to see her expression had grown more serious.
    “Best convo I’ve overheard in ages,” she continued. “It’s been so dull around here lately. Just prom, boys, prom, prom, party, prom. Blah.”
    “Nothing happened.” The lie tasted bitter leaving my mouth. “So don’t bother starting any rumors about it.”
    She gave me a withering look. “Were you being serious or were you just messing around just now? Was it really the
Upyri
?”
    My body felt tense and a sick feeling of panic swirled in my stomach. “Mind your own business.”
    “I know about the Upyri, Olivia. I told you about them ages ago. Don’t you remember that?”
    Oh, hell.
That
was where I’d heard the word before. Bree had always been obsessed with the supernatural world. Her oddball parents were just as wacky as she was. I remember once her mother had insisted on reading my Tarot cards.
    “I don’t remember anything.” I’d blocked most of it from my mind, but I did remember her telling me something, which was why it triggered something in me when I heard it again.
    Her penciled-in brows drew together. “Tell me more about what happened.”
    I shook my head. “Forget it. This has nothing to do with you.”
    Bree glared at me. “And here I was trying to help. Should’ve known not to bother. After all, we’re not friends anymore.”
    “Things change. Don’t take it personally. Just like I won’t take it personally that you tried to spread rumors about me being a slut. I guess that was your revenge, right?”
    An edge of actual pain slid behind her dark-rimmed eyes as she pushed herself up to her feet. “Whatever, Olivia. I took the hint long ago and left you the hell alone just like you wanted me to.”
    “It’s ancient history. Let it go.”
    “I have.”
    “Doesn’t sound like it to me.”
    She blew out a breath and studied the ground for a moment, before returning her attention to me. “The Upyri were here in Ravenridge before, but they haven’t been seen for a hundred years. If what you’re saying is true, it sounds like maybe they’re back. Trust me, that’s not a good thing.”
    I swallowed hard. “Wait, Bree, how do you—?”
    “Bye.” She started walking away.
    “Bree!” I called after her. “Wait!”
    She looked over her shoulder. “By the way, I don’t gossip or spread rumors. Never have. I think you’re thinking of your best friend forever, Helen. Total survival tactic to try to pin it on me, though. I guess I can kind of respect that.”
    Then she was gone, leaving me standing in the hallway all by myself.

 

Chapter 3
    Helen said I ignored broken things hoping they would magically fix themselves. But some of the things I wanted to ignore weren’t broken, they were new and shiny and spectacularly ugly.
    “You won’t believe what Bree Margolis said to me,” I told Helen in Art class. We were making paper mache sculptures. Mine was supposed to be a tower from a fantasy novel I’d read, but it was turning out to be disturbingly phallic-looking since I lacked any fraction of artistic talent.
    “What?” Helen’s sculpture was of an eagle and she was so far along that she’d started to paint it.
    “That she has nothing to do with spreading any rumors about anyone, including me. She said it’s...” I hesitated. “That it’s somebody else.”
    Helen’s lips thinned as she dabbed highlights on the eagle’s wing with white paint. “What a liar. I overheard her with one of her friends talking about you. It’s definitely her. Who else could it be?”
    “It doesn’t matter. It’s not like anyone even cares.”
    The idea that Helen was actually the one spreading cruel and untrue gossip around school made me want to laugh. Bree
was
a total liar. Even when we’d been friends she liked to make up fake stories to get herself out of tight situations. Definitely a talent, but not one I had to admire her for.
    Just like what she’d said about the Upyri. She’d seen a good opportunity to