I struggled with the memory, trying to grasp at it, when another figure joined him at the edge of the bridge and flung its arm around Doug’s neck. When it leaned forward, I could see its face.

It was Serena Taylor.

Serena had been my best friend since childhood. The girl I’d met during endless hours of home-schooled soccer, forced on us by our parents in an attempt to make us socialize. The girl who’d taught me how to apply lipstick, sneak sips from the bottles in my dad’s liquor cabinet, and charm my dad into letting me go to public high school shortly after she’d entered it. The girl who was as blond and as beautiful as Doug and who, once I’d introduced her to him, had tried various schemes to seduce him, including forcing him to help her organize a party.

The one they’d thrown together for my eighteenth birthday.

The day on which I’d died.

My head jerked up to Doug and Serena again. They were both bent over the railing of the bridge, their faces more visible now. Even from this far away and through the rain, I could tell something was wrong with them. Their nearly identical blue eyes looked too dark, too unfocused.

Inexplicably, I started to shake. Staring up at their familiar faces—faces that shouldn’t still look eighteen, should they?—I felt dizzy.

At that moment Serena cried out to me. Her shrill voice pierced the night air, sounding slurry and drunk and completely out of control.

“Amelia! Amelia. Happy, happy birthday, baby!”

She reached an arm out to me and, with an absurdly wide smile, gave me a frantic wave.

Before I could answer her, or scream at her to help me, for God’s sake, I had a sudden, uncontrollable flash.

It happened much like the other flashes I’d been experiencing since I’d met Joshua—the sights and sounds of the past, the memories I’d forgotten since my death, came rushing back into my mind.

Without warning, I was standing in front of my locker in the brightly lit hallway of Wilburton High School. Taped to the front of my locker was a small card decorated with cartoon balloons. I didn’t need to open it to know who had taped it there. Nor did I feel any real surprise when the card giver squealed out a greeting behind me.

“Happy birthday, birthday girl!”

Grinning widely, I spun around. “Serena, you’ve had about ninety tardies this semester. Don’t you think you should be in homeroom by now?”

She grinned back and then blew one blond strand out of her eye with a puff of breath. “Not on my bestie’s b-day.” She flopped against the bank of lockers, banging their doors with the paper bag in her hand.

“What’s with the bag?” I asked. “And the trench coat?”

With her free hand, Serena tugged at the belt of her khaki overcoat, and it fell open. Underneath, she wore a pink dress that narrowly towed the line between sexy and sleazy. Its tight bodice plunged just a little too low for my taste, and its hemline crept just a little too high.

“Hello, hot stuff,” I crowed.

“Glad you approve.” She tossed the bag at me, and I caught it in midair. “Here’s yours for tonight. Hope you like strapless.”

“Serena, I can’t—”

“Yes, you can,” she growled with mock ferocity.

“Okay, okay.” I laughed. “But what do you mean, ‘tonight’?”

“You didn’t think you’d get out of one of my famous parties, did you? Especially for your eighteenth birthday. It’s, like, mandatory.”

I groaned, more out of concession than protest. “Fine. When and where?”

She flashed me a wicked grin—one that, for some strange reason, made me uncomfortable.

“Not telling you, Amelia baby. I’m just picking you up at eight and escorting you to the best party of the year. After I talk your mom into a very irresponsible curfew, of course.”

“You’re going to start another one of our epic fights if you do.”

Serena, however, just shrugged, unconcerned about my family drama.

I laughed again, but more shakily this time. “Really, Serena. I need to know where the party’s going to be.”

She shook her head and winked. “Nope. Now, shut up so I can go find Doug and see if he approves of the dress too.”

Suddenly, the flash skipped me forward several hours. Images blurred all around me until my vision cleared and I found myself standing in a large crowd.

A huge crowd, actually. Tons of people surrounded me, smiling and laughing and converging around what looked like a small keg of beer. Some of them were my friends, from home-schooled extracurriculars as well as from Wilburton High. Most of the partygoers, however, were total strangers.

“Serena,” I said through clenched teeth. “Who are all these people?”

Serena bounced next to me, hyperactive and probably a little tipsy. She handed me her cup, and I took a nervous swig from it.

“Friends,” Serena giggled. “Or, like, all of Wilburton High. So . . . potential friends?”

“Is this Doug’s doing?” I asked, handing her back the cup and then smoothing imaginary wrinkles from my white dress.

Serena’s choice for my birthday outfit hadn’t really surprised me. The dress was absolutely gorgeous—strapless and tight on top, with layers of delicate tulle below—but also totally inappropriate. I flushed with embarrassment as I stared down at it. It probably made me look like I was on my way to prom.

A thick arm slung across my shoulder, making me shriek in surprise.

“Of course it is,” Doug said, pulling me closer to him. He took a sideways peek at me. “Nice dress, by the way.”

I shrugged out from under his arm. “You know you like Serena’s better.”

“Possibly,” he mused, and then pushed past me toward Serena. Within seconds the two of them had linked arms and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me alone, in a beautiful but embarrassing dress, at my own birthday party. I peered into the crowd, searching for my friends without success.

A loud boom distracted me from my search, and I looked up. Above me, the night sky appeared dark and blank, but I knew better; thick gray clouds had covered the sky all day, threatening storms. Now lightning sliced across the black, glinting harshly off the metal girders of High Bridge.

I hated this place, I really did. It was too rickety and too old, and it had seen far too many car accidents and suicides for my taste. But I had a good idea why Serena had chosen this bridge for my party: its bad reputation had left it pretty abandoned as a roadway, making it the perfect spot for wild parties. In fact, I may have been the only person in Wilburton who wasn’t inclined to booze it up on High Bridge. Tonight was no exception.

Thinking like this, however, hardly improved my mood. So I glanced at the faces around me, trying to find someone to talk to.

Everyone, however, ignored me completely. Well, all but one person ignored me. A boy, far into the crowd and only partly visible, caught my eye. He looked startled for a second, as if something about me surprised him, but then he smiled and gave me a slight nod. The gesture should have made me happy, but it actually unnerved me. I’m not really sure why since the boy was so attractive: oddly luminous skin beneath his long blond hair; bright blue eyes; and a black shirt, open provocatively over his bare chest to reveal a cluster of necklaces. But something about his smile seemed more like a smirk.

I leaned over to a girl who looked vaguely familiar and shouted above the noise. “Hey, you see Mr. Rock Star over there? What’s his story?”

“Who?” she yelled.

When I turned back to point him out, I could no longer see him in the sea of faces. Maybe he’d moved?

I frowned and began to shove through the crowd, suddenly and inexplicably intent on finding him. The crowd swayed and surged around me, sometimes blocking my way and sometimes pushing me forward. I studied each partyer but had about as much luck finding Mr. Rock Star as I’d had with Doug and Serena. As I elbowed my way across the bridge, raindrops began to fall, slowly at first and then gaining in speed.