Chapter 18: Mia

Summer before junior year of college...

I throw on a bikini before pulling a cover-up over my head. For the last few days, the temperatures have been soaring in the nineties. It's sweltering out, and I'm tired of being cooped up in the air conditioning. If I don't get out of this house, I'll go batshit crazy.

Since the Hollingsworth family is away on a two-week European vacation, I'm going over to take a dip. Caroline is always telling me to feel free and stop by any time I want. Since I'm usually operating in avoidance mode, I never do. But Beck has been conspicuously absent this summer, so I assume he's on vacay with his parents. Or maybe at football camp. I have no idea.

I try not to think about him.

With Dad at a business dinner and Mom playing Bunco with a group of neighborhood friends, I'm a lone, lonely, loner for the night. The house is quiet as a tomb. Sometimes it feels like it's always been like this, but that's not the case. Before Brianna died, light, happiness,