No Exit by Taylor Adams 2

She nodded, and another tear hit the floor.
“Wow. It’s like tonight was meant to be.” He grinned
again. “I’ve always believed things happen for a reason, if
that’s any consolation.”
It wasn’t.
Death is supposed to transform you from a person into an
idea. But to Darby, her mother had always been an idea.
Somehow, after eighteen years of living in the same tiny twobedroom
house in Provo, eating the same food, watching the
same television, sitting on the same sofa, she’d never truly
known who Maya Thorne was. Not as a human being.
Certainly not as the person she would have been, had Darby
never existed. Had she really just been the flu.
Oh God, Mom, I’m sorry.
She almost broke. But she couldn’t — not in front of him.
So it stuck thickly in her chest like a wet, knotted towel, a dull
ache in her soul.
I’m so sorry for everything—
Ashley inspected her for another long moment. Another
thoughtful breath. The dense odor of his sweat. She heard his
tongue move behind his lips, like he was wrestling with words
he couldn’t quite say. When he finally did speak again, his
voice was different, overcome by some emotion she couldn’t
identify: “I wish you were my girlfriend, Darby.”
She said nothing.
“I wish, so badly, that you and I … that we’d met under
different circumstances. This, all this, isn’t me. Okay? I’m not
evil. I don’t have a criminal record. I’ve never hurt anyone
before tonight. I don’t even drink or smoke. I’m just a business
owner who got involved in a little thing that went south, and
now I have to clean up this mess in order to protect my
brother. Understand? And you’re getting in the way of that. So
I’m asking again, before it gets ugly — where are my keys?”
She stared back, rock-hard, giving nothing.