Stolen Course (Wrecked and Ruined #2)

“YOU STILL watching that shit?” I ask Sarah as I walk through the front door.

“You still knocked up?” she responds with a huge smile as her eyes drift to Casey. It slowly fades as I turn to find Casey barely standing—her face suddenly pale.

“Hey, you okay?” I grab her arm and try to pull her down into the chair next to the couch. She bats my hand away, insisting to stand on her own two feet.

“I thought you were dead.” The tears work their way through her entire body before finally falling from her eyes. “You weren’t breathing, and you were so cold and still,” she whispers.

“Casey, what are you talking about?” Sarah says, walking forward, but Casey throws a hand up, blocking her progress, knocking over the lamp on the end table in the process.

“She loved you,” she chokes out, and we all know who the she is that she is referring to.

“She loved you, too,” Sarah says back, drying her own tears.

The room is silent and more than a little awkward for a few minutes while the two old friends stand uncomfortably.

“I killed her,” Casey blurts out, and for a minute, the world has been spun completely off its axis.

Sarah slings her eyes to me as I sling mine to Casey.

“You what?” I ask.

“I killed her,” she repeats. “The wreck was my fault. I was driving. Oh God, I’m so sorry.” And with that, Casey folds to the floor.

Sarah rushes toward her, and I immediately jump in the middle, more stunned than ever.

“No, you weren’t. Shut your mouth! Shut your fucking mouth!” Sarah explodes over my shoulder just before sobs catch in her throat.

“I did it. And I thought you were dead too. I left you both on the side of the highway, cold and alone.” Casey curls her legs into her chest and begins to rock.

“No, you didn’t. You weren’t even there that night,” Sarah tries to state matter-of-factly, but it comes out as more of a plea.

“I killed Manda!” Casey finally screams, and it forces Sarah to her knees.

“No, you didn’t. You weren’t there,” Sarah cries, crumbling in my arms.

Casey never once raises her tone as she begins to explain. “I was out with Jason McAdams searching for more pills. You called and said you had too much to drink. You thought you could drive home, but then you weren’t so sure. You pulled over at that gas station down the road from Westies. I was too was ashamed to tell you I was high. And above and beyond that, I was too high to think logically. I had Jason drop me off with you. Then I got behind the wheel and drove Manda to her grave.”

“No! No, no, no! You weren’t there!” Sarah once again screams at an eerily calm Casey, who is still crying but staring at the floor.

“I was. None of this was your fault.” The hopeless tone in her voice is alarming. It’s painful to listen to, and it’s even worse to know that she has been living this lie for all these years. My heart breaks for her and the whole damn group of innocent people this affected.

I can see the exact moment Sarah shifts from denial and rage and begins to rationalize her way out of this.

“Where’d you go? Where the fuck did you go, Casey? If you were there, someone would have seen you. It’s not like you could walk home. I’ve been to that tree a million fucking times. You couldn’t just walk away. Where did you go, God damn it?!”

“Eli was the first on the scene.”

Sarah and I both suck in a huge breath at the implications of that statement.

“Eli wasn’t there that night,” I say softly. I asked Caleb this very question a while back. Eli was on duty, but he was off at a domestic disturbance call. According to Caleb’s ‘box,’ Stephens was the first on the scene.

“No, he wasn’t as far as anyone else is concerned, because he was driving me home. Sarah, I swear, we both thought you were dead. When Eli pulled up, I was wandering around high and desperate. It was obvious Manda was gone. Even in my haze, I could recognize that. But you—I tried to bring you back. I tried to help but you just wouldn’t wake up.” Casey’s words are heart wrenching as she gets lost in her memories.

Tears openly fall from all of our faces as I distantly hear my phone ringing in the corner. Sarah and Casey might both be sitting on the floor, but I’m the only thing standing between them. I’m not about to move.





“WHERE THE fuck is she?” I begin to pace around the house Brett just bought without Jesse knowing.

“Chill out. She’s fine.”

“She’s fine? Remind me to tell you that when Jesse is eight months pregnant and disappears.”

“Jesus Christ, she didn’t disappear. She texted you, like, thirty minutes ago that something came up.”

“She also said she would call in a few minutes to update me, and now she isn’t answering her phone. What if—”

“She’s fine! If you’re so worried about it, get the fuck out of here and go check on her.”