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life and changed the very core of her being. She was so far away from the popular, straight-A, carefree cheerleader she once was that she didn’t even recognize herself anymore.
    That Quinn drowned in the swirling flood, never to return. This new Quinn couldn’t go back to normal. For good or ill, she’d accepted a destiny that would never quite fit in with Reese’s future of frat parties and all-night cram sessions for finals. Quinn might not be able to live an ordinary life, but Reese could. If she brought her into this secret, that might change everything.
    “You wouldn’t understand.” Twisting the edge of her shirt in her fist, she looked sideways at Reese. If Reese couldn’t believe that Aaron was still alive, something that was plausible, how would she believe Quinn was the reincarnation of Eve sent to save the world? She barely believed it herself.
    “Yeah? I’m so sick of you telling me I wouldn’t understand. Try me.”
    “I have tried you. Aaron’s not dead.”
    “Stop it.” Reese’s voice hit Quinn hard and heavy as a concrete brick to the head, cutting her off. “Just stop! You need to understand that he is not coming back.” Her fists balled at her side. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she locked on Quinn. “I watched him die, not you, don’t you understand? You think I don’t feel the guilt, too? I know you think it’s your fault, but it’s not. It was an accident. You’re not the only one who lost someone that day. We all loved Aaron. Me, Marcus—the pain doesn’t belong to you alone.” Reese folded her arms across her chest. “It was an accident, a horrible accident, and now we all have to pick up the pieces and try to move on.”
    True, she wasn’t alone in missing Aaron, wasn’t alone in losing him either, but an accident? No. She had jumped into the raging river, not fallen. A part of her sought to die that night.
    “Of course it’s my fault!” Quinn snapped a twig in half with the heel of her boot. “I’m sick of everyone dancing around me as if I’m a fragile piece of porcelain. He jumped in to save me. He’s terrified of the water, Reese, and he jumped in anyway. There’s nobody to blame but me.”
    Pinching the bridge of her nose, Quinn swallowed the emotions that threatened to break her. Confession is good for the soul. Spit it out. Tell her you didn’t fall, that you jumped, that you put them all in jeopardy that night. You and you alone. She squeezed her lip between her teeth until she tasted blood. Voicing the blame that was eating her alive, sharing the secret, would be a relief. But what if Reese hated her for it? What little courage Quinn had mustered left her, and she swallowed the truth that settled on the tip of her tongue.
    “You want me to stop treating you like you’re fragile? You want the truth?” Reese took a step forward, knuckles white, face flushed. “You want to hear how Aaron insisted Marcus take you first? How I watched Aaron let go of the branch he was holding onto while Marcus struggled to drag your lifeless body back to shore?”
    Quinn turned away and covered her ears. Twin waterfalls of tears ran down her neck, soaking her T-shirt.
    “How helpless I felt watching the current drag Aaron’s body under? I thought I was going to lose all of you, everyone I loved, in the depths of this goddamn river.” Reese picked up a giant rock and hurled it to the riverbed.
    Marcus, Reese, Jenna—all had kept the gory details from her for weeks, feeding her bits and pieces but never the whole story, and part of her was glad to be spared. Now Reese granted her no reprieve.
    “You weren’t awake to hear Marcus screaming his name.” Another rock hit the water with a smack. “You didn’t hold your breath every time Marcus dived under the water, or comfort him while his heart broke into a million pieces because he had failed his best friend. I did.” Reese poked her own chest with a finger. “I witnessed it all while you lay half-dead on the