❛𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐈 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒!❜
⸻ in which Rory Hargrove is obsessed to uncover
the truth behind Barbara Holland's disappearance, while
facing her brother's enemy and buried se...
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THE COLD MORNING BREEZE BLEW THROUGH THE CRACK IN THE OPEN WINDOW and into the room with pastel green walls already covered with posters of The Beatles and Back to the Future, fluttering the old translucent white curtains.
It looked like a hurricane had torn through the room. The small wooden desk, already full of small potted plants, had a cassette player and a record player, and was full of notebooks and drawings. A few unpinned posters of bands and movies were scattered on the floor, along with piles of clothes, paperbacks, and tapes.
The sheets and blankets that covered the single bed were almost on the floor. And Rory was tangled in the middle of them, asleep, until the alarm clock on the nightstand just under the window started screaming and vibrating.
"Shit!" She whispered in response to the shock that made her shudder and almost fall out of bed. Her heart still pounding, she craned her neck to look at the time on the clock, trying to regulate her breathing. It was fifteen minutes to eight. She widened her eyes. She had set the time wrong the night before. Damn.
She sank her face into the pillow in denial. Tried to let out a scream to relieve the stress, but she'd had so little sleep that it sounded more like a sigh. She didn't even have the energy for that. But it was the first day of school. At the new school.
When she realized this, she gained enough strength to scream audibly against the pillow. Better do that there than at school.
Aurora pushed back the blankets and stood up quickly. Wrapped her arms around her cold body and hurried to close the window. She had left it open the night before to air out the small room, which still smelled of fresh paint from the walls she had painted herself over the weekend. She scratched her nose, the bitter smell still lingering.
She tiptoed across the room to pick up the things that were still on the floor and put on a clean green blouse and high-waisted jeans. Around her neck was the blue necklace with the butterfly pendant that her mother had given her when she was a little girl.
The girl went into the kitchen, made her oatmeal, and bit an apple. The house was still quiet, so she began to think they were all going to be late. Crossed the narrow hallway to use the bathroom they shared with everyone in the house.
While brushing her teeth, Billy was there, combing his curls and pouring perfume all over his body, including his pants at the crotch.
"Ugh, Billy, that's disgusting!" She rolled her eyes as she mumbled, her mouth still full of toothpaste. Billy looked at her sideways, the corner of his mouth twitching in a mischievous smile.
