Chapter 35
Alex Hopely was a bitch.
Everybody knew it. It wasn’t exactly a state secret. They saw the way she acted at school and the way she treated her sisters. But she was pretty and popular, and apparently those things meant more than being nice.
For as long as I had known her, Alex Hopely had only one good thing going for her: She loved my brother. And my brother adored her back.
Except for the day of his graduation. The day Rosie told him what Alex had done.
From the moment he found out about Alex’s cheating, Will had looked cold.
Which was out of character for him. He was such a happy, good-natured guy.
Exactly what you would want in a big brother: funny, lighthearted, fiercely loyal.
And I was a weird kid. I never had a lot of friends.
Never dated—something Alex loved to bring up.
I was different from Will, but that never mattered.
He was so good to me, so generous in every way.
Watching him suffer made me sick. After the graduation, Will and Alex had gone to the beach to talk, and they were gone for a really long time.
I waited for him at home because I figured he’d want to debrief, but when he got back, he looked like he’d been run over by a truck.
There was no light left in his eyes. He told me they broke up, but he wouldn’t say any more.
He looked broken, laying down on his bed and just staring at the wall.
“How are you doing?” I asked, sitting down beside him.
Will was hugging his pillow, not looking at me. “I want to fucking die,” he said, his eyes closing.
His words made my stomach turn. I’d never heard him speak like that.
“Do you want to talk about it?’ I asked him.
“No,” he snapped. “I just want to be alone, Tommy.”
I left his room, giving him some privacy, unsure of what to do with myself.
Rosie was still at the Hopelys’, so I had no one to talk to.
I went to my room and stewed. The longer I thought about it, the angrier I got with Alex.
She was the person who had caused this mess.
Per usual, her thoughtless actions had hurt everyone else and she probably didn’t even give a shit.
I was sure she would have a new boyfriend by the time college started, while Will would go into his freshman year heartbroken. I was sick over it.
I was still up around midnight when I heard Davis howling in the living room, scratching at the back door, so I let him out.
The house was quiet. Everyone had gone to bed hours ago.
Mom and Dad had known something was up with Will—he’d avoided them all evening—but they’d given him his space, just like I had.
I was in my pajamas by then, a pair of flannel pants and that horse shirt from the McCullough Farm that Hazel liked.
I slipped on a pair of Will’s slides that were by the back door and went outside with the dog.
I stood in the warm summer night watching as Davis took his sweet time to pee. He started wandering toward the path between the Hopelys’ house and ours, and I was getting tired.
“Davis,” I called. “Can you hurry up? Please?”
And then I heard a voice say, “You know he doesn’t understand you, right?”
I looked around and spotted Alex. She was standing on the path in between the trees, her hands on her hips.
She was wearing a weird outfit for that time of night—tiny jean shorts and a tank top that pushed up her boobs.
It was dark but she seemed to be wearing makeup too.
Unfortunately, it didn’t cover up how ugly she was on the inside.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I’m going to see Will,” she said, in a tone that was haughty, like I should be thankful she deigned to speak to me.
It didn’t surprise me. This was how she always spoke to me when Will wasn’t around.
“He doesn’t want to see you,” I said, which was true.
Alex laughed, and it infuriated me.
“He always wants to see me,” she said. She crossed her arms and popped out one leg, her flip-flop kicking up the dirt.
I looked at her, smirking back. “He used to.”
She was pissed. Her eyes narrowed into slits. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she fired back.
“Yeah, I do,” I said. “I spoke to Rosie. She told me everything.”
Alex laughed again. “Right. Your little sister told you something, so you think it’s true?” She shook her head. “Come on, Tommy. She wants attention and you’re both giving it to her. She’s lying.”
I remembered Rosie’s face earlier at the restaurant. She was practically in tears. She would never. “My sister doesn’t lie.”
Alexandria kicked the dirt again. “Rosie is a little bitch.”
“Well at least she isn’t a whore like you,” I said, moving toward Alex and shoving her hard on the shoulder. I hated listening to her talk about my sister like that.
That was all it took for her to unravel. She came at me, pushing into my chest.
“My god, you’re just jealous, aren’t you?” she hissed.
“I don’t even like you, Alex,” I said, turning on my heels to walk back toward our house. I heard her behind me, her flip-flops smacking against the ground.
“Oh, please,” Alex snorted, her voice rising. “You’re just insecure because you aren’t as cool or good-looking as Will. You want to be him so bad, and you know you’ll never be. You’ll never get to fuck a girl like me because you’re just a fucking loser, Tommy.”
I turned around again to face her and she smacked me hard against the chest. She kept hitting me, her small hands slapping my face and arms, so I shoved her again. Hard.
She fell backward, tripping over her loose flip-flops, and hit the ground. I must have knocked the wind out of her because she was gasping. It took her a couple of seconds to sit up.
“Are you insane?” she shouted, trying to get to her feet. “You realize I’m going to tell Will you hit me, right? God, I can’t believe you two are even related. He’s going to be so upset when I tell him what a fucking psycho you are.”
I felt myself come undone, fueled entirely by rage.
I pushed her back down in the dirt, pinning her down with my knees.
I grabbed her by the throat, and I started squeezing.
I just wanted her to stop talking. To stop saying all those vile things about my family.
It took a few minutes for her to stop squirming, but finally she went still.
I took a deep breath, relieved to have some quiet.
But then Davis started barking. I looked down and realized Alex’s eyes were open. She hadn’t passed out. She wasn’t taking a break from the conversation. She was dead.
I scuttled backward. I couldn’t breathe. I was ninety percent sure I was having a panic attack. I started pacing.
Alex was dead. I had killed her.
I knew I had to get her off the trail. I grabbed her by the arms and dragged her. She was heavier than I thought she’d be, and her legs were getting scratched by the rough ground.
I could feel the tears sliding down my cheeks as I pulled her into the woods.
I realized quickly that I couldn’t carry her much farther.
I shoved her in between some trees and tried to catch my breath.
If I was going to leave her there, I needed to make it look like something really bad had happened.
Like someone had followed her and raped her and that was why they killed her.
I remembered she told Rosie that was what she would say happened at that party.
So why couldn’t that have happened here?
I bent down and unbuttoned her shorts, yanking them down by the waistband, the edge of her lacy underwear ripping as I did.
Then I yanked her shirt all the way up, tearing it slightly. It looked convincing enough.
She didn’t look beautiful anymore. Her hair was all messed up and tangled in twigs. She had purplish marks blooming around her neck. And that was when I spotted the necklace. The one Will had given her.
Will had been so proud of that gift. He’d spent so much money on it. And here she was still wearing it, even though she’d cheated on him and he broke up with her.
I picked it up, reading the custom engraving: To My Dearling, Alex.
It was sweet and clever. Romantic even. Exactly the kind of thing Will would do, and Alex didn’t deserve.
I ripped it from her neck.
I slipped the necklace into my pocket and went back to the house.