Last Breath Read Free Page A

considerably taller than her. “We had an argument, that’s all.”
    “You mean a fight ,” Sophie said. “I heard you guys yelling at each other. Sounded like a fight to me.”
    “Leave Cassidy alone,” Talia ordered. “She’s been sick. Quit picking on her.”
    My sentiments exactly, Cassidy thought as they entered an uncrowded dining hall. Leave poor Cassidy alone. She’s not quite herself just yet.
    Sometime today, between the car wash and the movie Sawyer was taking her to later, she was going to have to rewrite that stupid psych paper. Dr. Bruin had made it very clear that asthma or not, Cassidy Kirk was expected to turn in the assignment.
    “You’re not eating anything,” Sawyer’s voice said over her shoulder ten minutes later. He sat down in the chair beside her. His broad bulk, in jeans and a blue windbreaker, filled the chair. His sun-streaked blond hair was windblown, and a grin creased his strong, ruddy face. “Aren’t you supposed to be rebuilding your strength? We’ve got a busy day ahead of us, kiddo.”
    Cassidy poked at watery scrambled eggs with her fork. “Nothing on this plate is going to rebuild anyone’s strength. Anyway, I’m fine. Let’s get started before the rain does.”
    The car wash was being held in the center of campus. Although Cassidy had worried that not enough people would show up, they had plenty of volunteers, anxious to be outside in the sunshine while it lasted. Cassidy decided, after some thought, to ask that only one person work on one car at a time. She suspected that working in groups would cause so much goofing-off with garden hoses and buckets of soapy water, they’d never get done. People who weren’t washing cars could keep the lines of cars in order and the car-wash supplies filled up.
    No one complained about working solo.
    “This place is a madhouse!” Sawyer, pail in hand, declared as he brushed past Cassidy an hour later. “More people than cars.”
    “We’ll just get done faster this way,” Cassidy answered. She was scrubbing the white sidewalls of a blue convertible, using a scouring pad. “And I’ll get out of here in time to work on my psych paper.”
    “The one you lost?”
    I didn’t lose it! Cassidy thought, irritated. But Sawyer was already on his way to the next waiting car.
    The line didn’t seem to get any shorter. As sparkling clean vehicles pulled away, dirty ones sprouted like mushrooms in their places. Seeing the apparently endless line circling the parking lot like a wagon train, Cassidy sighed. That psych paper might have to wait until tomorrow.
    In spite of her impatience, she couldn’t help admiring the black TransAm when it pulled up in front of her. Through a thick layer of dust and grime, she could see its clean, sporty lines, imagine it roaring up the highway between Salem University and the nearby town of Twin Falls. She had no trouble picturing herself behind the wheel.
    Impossible to see who really was behind the wheel. All the window glass was tinted a dark, smoky color that kept the driver hidden from view. Cassidy didn’t recognize the car. A cool car. Whoever owned it was probably a really cool person.
    Two red plastic hearts tied together and fastened firmly to the driver’s door handle bounced about as Cassidy sprayed the TransAm with one of several garden hoses. Thinking Sawyer would love this car, she glanced around, intending to signal him.
    She didn’t see him anywhere. And if she called his name, he’d never hear her over this din.
    Giving up, Cassidy returned to the task at hand.
    When the black TransAm was spotless, the driver rolled the window down a crack and thrust a crisp, ten-dollar bill through the opening. Cassidy caught only a glimpse of a cream-colored parka hood.
    She was fumbling in her leather fanny pack for change when the TransAm’s engine roared, gears shifted, and it veered out of line to peel across the parking lot, disappearing from sight.
    Weird. Ten bucks for a car wash? The