Forget Me Read Free

not like a jacked-up plastic lion that wants to eat your face?”
    â€œExactly.” Even though my back was to her, I smiled. It was nice to know someone listened to me when I babbled about my photography.
    â€œAre you going to submit it now?” she asked through a mouthful of chips.
    I’d been building my portfolio to apply for a summer course at the local college. It was a small class and highly selective. “Nah. It’s not ready.”
    â€œYou won’t ever think it’s ready,” Toni huffed. “Then you won’t have to apply and risk being rejected.”
    Toni’s favorite hobby was psychoanalyzing me. I cast a look at her over my shoulder. “I’ll apply. Just not yet.”
    She pointed a chip at me. “No offense, Morgan, but you’ve always been the kind of girl who sits back and lets things happen to her.”
    I resisted an eye roll. “And who should I be?”
    â€œThe kind of girl who goes out and
makes
things happen.”
    I saved the photos and shut my laptop. “Believe me. I want to be in this program. That’s why I’m taking my time. My portfolio has to be perfect.” I was a little aggravated, but knew her nagging came from a good place. I playfully stuck my tongue out. “So stop pressuring me.”
    She made a face right back. “I’m your best friend, that’s my job.” She paused, and her casual tone turned serious. “So did you go . . .
into
the park?”
    I shook my head. “Not today.”
    â€œHow are you doing . . .
today
?” She emphasized the last word.
    I should’ve known she’d remember the date. Three months ago today Flynn was killed in a hit-and-run accident. I hadn’t gotten any messages or calls from my other friends. My parents never mentioned Flynn much after his death. They were raised in the school of “the problem doesn’t exist if you don’t talk about it.”
    But Toni remembered. She knew today would be hard on me. That’s what I loved about her. Her world was chaos back home, but she still worried about me.
    I opened my laptop again and pretended to be doing something important. “I’m all right.”
    â€œLook at me,” she demanded.
    I twisted around to face her.
    â€œHe’s been gone now longer than you were together,” she said, meeting my eyes.
    Technically, she was right. We’d only dated for about two months, and he’d been dead for three, but that didn’t make it okay. It wasn’t like there was some grief formula. If you knew someone for X amount of time and he’d been dead for Y amount of time, you will be over the whole thing in X plus Y divided by Z.
    I wish it were that simple.
    â€œI just hate to see you so sad,” she said.
    â€œLots of people in the world are sad,” I countered.
    â€œBut they’re not my best friend. Who cares about those losers?” She cracked a smile, and I mirrored it.
    â€œI get what you’re saying,” I said and gave a little shrug. “But I can’t just magically shut the feelings off, you know?”
    She sat up straighter on the bed and folded her legs underneath her. “What if we nudged it along?”
    I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?”
    â€œIt’s the three-month anniversary of Flynn’s death. Maybe you should do something closure-y.”
    â€œI love the way you make up words by putting a
y
at the end of them.”
    â€œI love the way you avoid a conversation you don’t want to have by making an astute observation about me.”
    â€œDon’t you mean astute-y?”
    â€œMorgan.”
    â€œOkay, okay. What would you like me to do?”
    â€œJust some kind of closure.”
    I leaned back in the chair and racked my brain. “Like . . . toss a wreath into the river to symbolize how he’s drifted away from me?”
    Toni rolled her eyes.