SUCKER PUNCH 🛶 PACEY WITTER [book one]

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

REST IN PEACE, ABBY MORGAN

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HEATHER'S eyes stung as she stared down at her shaking hands. She still felt the chill of the water clinging to her body, droplets trailing from her hair down the nape of her neck. Doug Witter had been one of the officers called to the scene and he had given the Leery girl his gym clothes to change into before he dropped her and Jen home. But with her parents still at the wedding, Heather found herself waiting in her brother's room. Something about the thought of her own had her thinking of her birthday, of Abby, and she just couldn't quite handle it. Not now. Not alone.

Two familiar giggles had Heather's head whip over to her brother's window, and her red rimmed eyes widened slightly as she watched Dawson and Joey stumble through, lips barely detaching long enough to manoeuvre into the room.

Dawson beamed down at the Potter girl as he pulled away from their kiss before his eyes fell on his sister "Heather?"

Joey's head turned to her "Hey, where did you go? You just— what's wrong?"

Heather swallowed the lump in her throat, turning her attention back to her hand "Um, Abby and Jen, they uh, showed up at the wedding. They'd been drinking and Andie kicked them out. But it was dark and cold, and they were drunk so I went after them. I found them on the dock and Abby, she fell and hit her head." The Leery girl exhaled shakily as her lower lip trembled "Maybe that's why she didn't come back up after she went in the water."

Dawson and Joey shared a look of surprise before they sat on either side of the distraught girl. Her brother frowned "Heather, what happened to Abby?"

"I tried to find her, I tried." Heather rushed out, eyes wide and full of tears "I really tried but I couldn't."

"Heather..."

The Leery girl felt a sob crawl up her throat as she pictured Abby's cold and blue tinged body being fished from the water and zipped up in a body bag "She's dead." Heather whispered the words out loud for the first time "Abby's dead."

Joey pulled her best friend into her chest as she stared over Heather's head to Dawson who was as equally shocked as she was "Oh my God."

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MONDAY morning had come, and news of Abby's tragic death had reached every corner of Capeside. Just as Heather's attempts to rescue her had, too. The Leery girl figured that's why everyone in school stared at her and Jen like they were displays in a museum. The two girls who'd been the last to see Abby Morgan alive.