Read Brutal Precious (Lovely Vicious #3) for Free Online

hurt her. Us, we hurt her a lot. I got between them. I – she probably felt like she had nothing left, with him moving on. So she…she...”
    The white dress on the green lawn flashes in my mind. Sophia’s blue eyes, empty, her hair like a banner of cornsilk and moonlight, caked with blood where her head met the ground. The tiny silver bracelet that said Tallie glinting back at me.
    She’d lost everything. And I took the last person in her life from her. I did it without even thinking, without even considering how it might hurt her. I just barreled ahead and did what I wanted to because I was selfish. Because I wanted to be happy.
    Because I wanted love when I knew I didn’t deserve it.
    And now, I’ll never deserve it.
    I am the evil thing.
    I am the darkest dragon who ate the saddest princess.
    My thoughts are rudely interrupted by Gran’s finger flicking my forehead.
    “I can hear the cogs in your brain turning. Don’t go down that road. That’s arrogant. You think too much of yourself, and your effect on people. If she went and killed herself she did it because her life was miserable, and she’d thought about it for ages, not because you did one little thing.”
    “But I contributed. I –”
    Gran leans back in her bed and huffs, pulling the cover over her. “I’m not gonna argue with you when you’re all wrapped up in self-pity, you hear? Come back when you’re thinking clearly. I wanna talk to my granddaughter, not a silly martyr who’s trying to take all the blame.”
    I go quiet. Gran must realize how rare an occasion this is, because she sighs.
    “I’m sorry, kiddo. I know it’s hard. But you’re making it harder on yourself.” She leans up and kisses me on the cheek. “Come back at nine. The nurse lights the fire then.”
    A small, grim smile tugs at my lips.
    The drive home is all dark roads and a pale, gold-white gibbous moon hammocking the horizon. The same color as Sophia’s hair. I hear her voice clearly in my head.
    ‘You tried to help. You tried to help, and for that I can never thank you enough.’
    I drive back to the nursing home at nine, and Gran and I park our butts in lawn chairs, with sunglasses and lemonade, and wait for nine o’ clock.
    And nine comes, and the chimney spews fireworks – oranges and blues and greens incinerating the clouds. Gran laughs and toasts the sky – toasts her dead friend. I lean back in the chair and smile.
    It’s good to be alive.

 
     
-4-
    3 Years
    44 Weeks
    6 Days
     
    Sometimes when life kicks you in the ass, you have to kick it back.
    In the nuts.
    With steel-toed boots.
    Essentially, if someone, anyone, kicks you, it is very mature to take the high-road and not kick them back. But it’s not fun. And I’m all about fun. One hundred percent fun. One fundred percent.
    I smirk at my own pun. One pundred percent. My father groaning across the breakfast table is the only indication that I’ve been thinking out loud for the past five minutes.
    “Isis, eat your food,” He pleads.
    “No, Dad, I gotta go,” I stand up quickly from my chair. The twins pelt each other with oatmeal.
    “You’ll sit down and eat your breakfast with the rest of us, Isis, or so help me –”
    “Where are you going?” Kelly interrupts him and smiles sweetly at me.
    “Home.”
    Kelly’s eyes light up at the prospect. Dad’s darken.
    “Isis, your ticket doesn’t have you going back until the 30th –”
    “Dad,” I whine. “My friend died and I gotta go kick life in the nuts.”
    “We’re all going to die,” One of the twins pauses in her oatmeal-throwing to say, her bright blonde braids contrasting her blue eyes as she blinks, once.
    “Exactly!” I motion at her. “See, Dad? She gets it!”
    Dad’s face turns red in his about-to-explode manner, when Kelly grabs his arm and coos.
    “Oh, darling, she must be so eager to start college. Remember when we were that age? I was so excited to leave the house and get on with my life! She’s just feeling