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Amber Blake is having dreams, and they just might be the key to saving her best friend, Mark.
Unfortunately, she's too preoccupied pretending to hate the boy next door, Carter Hayes. Secretly hoping to rekindle what once was, Amber atte...
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"How do you still have this thing?"
The truck looks even worse than I remember it, and that's saying something. Its rusted red paint is peeling like shedding skin, and the layer underneath ain't much prettier. A light film of grime coats the windshield, and one of the side mirrors hangs precariously from its perch. Even the tires seem reminiscent of the ones ten years ago; I pray to God he's changed them at least once since then.
"Funny, that's your usual line whenever we come home," Carter says, striding past me to reach the passenger side first. The door still creaks when he pulls it open, and I hold back a grimace as I slide across the leather. There's more cracks in it than before, and the edges pull at my leggings when I settle into the seat. Carter doesn't hesitate hopping into his own.
"Have they stopped manufacturing trucks in the last ten years? 'Cause I'm pretty sure we can afford a new one."
"Ah, but where's the sentiment in that?" He runs his hands along the steering wheel like he's greeting an old friend. "This truck's been there through it all."
When he turns the ignition, the car backfires, stalls for a solid minute, then eventually rumbles to life. Even then, it's a dull thrum, like the engine is fighting just to idle in park.
"It's been through it alright," I mutter under my breath. Carter pretends not to hear me and pulls out of the garage.
We take off at a snail's pace down our street, and at each bend, I'm expecting the car to give out. Somehow, it makes it out of our neighborhood in one piece, and it's not long before we're pulling onto the main road and heading across town.
"This is a bad idea," Carter says after some time. His finger taps the wheel to the beat of the music crackling through the speakers, but his grip is tense.
I filled Carter in on the autopsy last night along with what happened at Darren's. It was enough to convince Chloe and Tori of Darren's guilt, but Carter has always been the most level headed in the group. I figured if we're jumping to conclusions too soon, he would bring us back to reality. In the end, he agreed with me; the autopsy isn't enough to connect Mark's death to Darren.
