16DarkJayce and I lay in our beds and stare at the ceiling. Our room is blanketed by the inky shadows of night. Every now and then, lightning spears the dark and brightens our tightly drawn curtains.
Rain thumps the walls. Thunder stampedes through the sky. The wind screams across the beach and rattles the shingles overhead, but the space between us is thick with silence.
Jayce shoves her blankets aside. Her mattress creaks beneath her as she tiptoes to my bed. I push up and slide over, patting the empty space, and she crumples in beside me.
“My mom thinks I’m dead,” she whimpers. “I think about her all the time. How much pain she must be in.” She curls into a ball, spine arcing against my stomach. I strap my arm around her.
She pauses to gather herself.
“I’d just come home from the h
