Over Your Dead Body Read Online Free PDF

wanted him to think we were normal.”
    “You just want to fit in,” said Brooke. “Everybody wants that.”
    “I never used to.”
    She shrugged and started walking again. Boy Dog heaved himself to his feet and started following. “People change,” said Brooke. I caught up with her in a few long strides. “And circumstances change. When you were a kid you lived in a nice little house full of nice little people, and it was all nice and little and normal, and you wanted to stand out.”
    “I lived in an apartment over a mortuary,” I said. “My dad beat us and then left.”
    “So why you’d pick his favorite music?”
    I thought about it then shook my head. “I don’t know.”
    “Either way,” she said, “your old life was pretty friggin’ normal compared to your current social circle: a possessed girl and a dog with the dumbest name in the history of dog names.”
    “A demon named him,” I said. “So to be fair, that name is not the worst thing it’s ever done.”
    Brooke laughed, and I couldn’t help but smile at the sound. We walked for a while longer, listening to the wind rustle through the trees. After a minute or two Brooke spoke again. “What do you think my favorite song is?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How could you not know? We lived next door to each other for sixteen years.”
    “Since we’re being so open and honest,” I said, “let’s get this out of the way and say that I did, in fact, stalk you for several months—”
    “That’s creepy.”
    “Compared to what aspect of our current situation?”
    “Fair point,” said Brooke. She took a few more steps, then asked, “Because you liked me?”
    “I told myself I was protecting you.”
    “Were you?”
    “Well, you’re not dead.”
    “I did get kidnapped because of you, though.”
    “And rescued.”
    “And possessed.”
    “Are you going to hold that against me forever?”
    “I’m just teasing,” said Brooke. “There’s, like, a million girls in here, and you only ruined one of their lives.”
    “Listen,” I said, “I am doing everything I can to—”
    Brooke burst into laughter. “I’m just teasing!” she insisted. “Come on, John, you know I love you.”
    “And we know that that’s, like, the worst thing that’s ever happened to you.”
    “You’re my best friend,” said Brooke. “You’re literally the only person who knows me—the real, current me, I mean. My family just remembers Mary.”
    “You mean Brooke.”
    “I mean all of them,” said Brooke. “Mary and Brooke and Katherine … honestly, like at least a hundred Katherines. They’re all gone—even Brooke—but whatever I am now, some kind of messed-up, emotional Voltron made out of old, discarded daughters, you’re the only one who knows that me. This me. And I know you don’t love me, but you like me. And … that means a lot.”
    “Well,” I said, not knowing how to respond. “There you go.”
    She raised her eyebrow. “Very romantic.”
    “But my point is,” I said, “that despite stalking you, I never paid attention to the music you listened to.” I paused. “I remember hearing a Pink song once.”
    “How can a song be pink?”
    “Pink was a singer,” I said. “Well, still is, I guess. Sometimes I feel like we’ve left the world, but we’re still in it, just … on the fringes.”
    “What was the name of the song?” she asked.
    “I don’t really know music,” I said, feeling guilty that I couldn’t tell her. “Sorry.”
    “It would be nice to have a favorite song,” she said. A moment later she pointed ahead. “Is that it?”
    I peered down the road; the distance was blurry, but there was definitely something there. People, and a large dark shape that could be the produce stand. “Did we walk the entire way?”
    “Poor little Boy Dog,” said Brooke, bending down to scratch his ears. “His legs are, like, eight inches long. He’s taken ten times as many steps as we have.”
    “We have to be