BLEED WITH ME [ETHAN LANDRY]

• PROLOGUE •

PROLOGUE

"You need any help with the last of your stuff?"

"No I think I got it." Mindy nodded, shuffling her suitcase onto her bed in the girls new dorm room. A new year, a new city, a new start. "Unpacked already huh?"

"There wasn't much that didn't get destroyed after Amber attacked me last year. So yeah, this is it."

"All of it huh?"

Lydia's side of the room was almost empty; her laptop rested on her desk, her clothes packed in the closet, her comforter on her bed and only a picture frame for decoration.

"Oh L..."

Mindy let out a gentle sigh, one that almost caught in her throat, not out of anger or surprise, but out of pity. Lyds knew the sound all too well. She studied the way Mindy's eyes fell upon the picture frame of her and Wes, staring at it as if she wished it would burst into flames at any second.

The brown wooden frame was cracked and splintered, already on the edge of destruction, and the picture inside had a slight tear in it from where the glass was once shattered. She should've known she would've brought it with her.

That picture was taken at the Greystone girl's truly happiest point, when things had been so simple. When she could endlessly crush on Wes and never say anything, when there were no repercussions. When he was her best friend, and she loved him. And he wasn't dead.

"I couldn't leave it at home... It's Wes, Mindy."

"And Wes would want you to move on with your life and be happy." She lay the frame face down, out of sight, out of mind. "You're never going to be able to do that with his eyes looking at you all the time."

"We were never even together but-"

"Exactly! So why are you letting some dead guy hold you back huh?"

"He's not just some dead guy. He was more than that-"

"And you were in love with him, we all know Lyds..." The older girl leaned back upon her friend's desk, seeing the corner of a box peeking out from beneath her bed. "How much of his stuff did you bring with you?"

"Just the picture."

"I can see the box under your bed."

The Greystone girl let out a soft "Fuck" and pulled the box out for Mindy to see.

There was no family left to claim Wes's stuff when he and his mom were killed and so his best friend had ended up with most of it. It was mostly just trinkets, pictures and the odd piece of clothing left in there, but one thing mattered more than most. Lyds knew that all too well.