The Color of Us (College Bound Book 2) by Laura Ward, Christine Manzari

drinking. On the way home Declan was speeding and lost control of the car. He ended up wrapping my sister’s Volvo around a tree. He died too.” Talking about Declan wasn’t as hard for me. It was his fault Sam wasn’t with us anymore.
    Silence filled the space between us as Liam watched me, his jaw clenched while his gaze reflected my pain. “You must hate him. Declan.” His voice was rough.
    It took me a few minutes before I could say the words. “I was supposed to go with them to the party.” Liam’s eyebrows furrowed as he listened, but he didn’t say anything. “My sister begged me to go—to break out of my shell and bend a few rules. But like I said, I’m scared of everything. I didn’t want to get in trouble, so I stayed home.” Tears gathered at the edges of my eyes, and I wiped them away, pulling in a shaky breath. “I don’t drink. If I’d gone, I could have driven them home. They’d still be alive.”
    Liam shook his head, but I held up my hand to stop him. I knew the truth, and I didn’t need anyone sugarcoating my reality.
    I looked out the window. “I do hate Declan Murphy. I hate him with every bone in my body. I hate him for drinking and driving and speeding. I hate him for killing my sister.” I looked back at Liam. His face was contorted as he listened to my story. My loss. “But I hate myself just as much.”
    Liam chewed the corner of his mouth as I spoke, and I could almost see him pulling away. The intimacy we’d shared for the past few hours was gone. Blinds had closed over his face, and I couldn’t see inside anymore. I was prepared for this reaction. Spending time with someone who had lost a loved one was hard. Hearing about death and loss and pain wasn’t fun, and it sure as hell wasn’t something teenagers wanted to talk about or deal with. When I first met Liam, I thought he was trouble. I bet that he just realized I was more of a hassle than I was worth.
    “I heard about that story.” His voice was measured and cold as he turned to face forward and put the key into the ignition. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”
    I’m very sorry for your loss.
    The words rattled around in my brain. They sounded foreign. Wrong.
    I’m very sorry for your loss?
    That’s what the strangers had said to me. Right before they patted me on the arm and gave me a look of pity. That was a stock answer. A detached, bullshit, standard form response.
    Liam started the car and looked at the clock on the dashboard. “Time to take you home. I gotta look for a new job tonight.”
    And with that, he pulled out onto the road and drove me home.
    In complete silence.
    When Liam pulled into my driveway, he left the engine running, both hands clasped tightly on the wheel.
    “Thanks for the driving lessons.” My voice was shaky from being quiet so long, and I looked at his profile, willing him to face me and prove to me that he could handle my confession. That it wouldn’t change things between us. That I wasn’t wrong to trust him.
    He gave me a short, curt nod, and I blinked back my disappointment. I hopped down from the Jeep and ran to my front door without turning back. His tires screeched as he gunned the engine and took off speeding down my street.
    All the breakthroughs I had with Liam today disappeared along with his Jeep. My confidence, my friendship with him, my willingness to share Sam—it was all gone. Right now Liam was more of a stranger to me than the first day I met him. The difference was, I’d gotten a taste of trouble. And now, along with the heart-aching loss of Sam, I felt the loss of him.

Chapter Six
    I slid into my seat, the same one I’d sat in every day of driver’s education class, and waited for Liam to arrive. My stomach was in knots, and my throat was dry. Would he remain distant? Perhaps Saturday was a fluke. No one likes mortality dropped in their lap like that. And the crying. Holy crap the crying! I’d made things awkward as hell. But at the same time, Liam had