All That is Left excerpt

“I can’t get over what
happened in high school. I can’t understand how you were
able to. That incident refuses to leave my thoughts.”
Shanaya narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking
about?” she asked incredulously. “Of course I think about it
every day, but I also know that it wasn’t my fault. I had
nothing to do with what happened to her.”
“It was our fault,” Aaron told her and dropped her
hands. “If Misha hadn’t seen us together, she wouldn’t
have walked away from the school. She would have waited
for her father to pick her up, but she was so brokenhearted
that she...she was kidnapped because of what we did to
her.”
Shanaya shook her head. “No, Aaron. You have to
stop blaming yourself and me for that. We couldn’t have
predicted that she would be taken.”
“She was your best friend. Don’t you feel any
remorse?” Aaron asked.
Shanaya crossed her arms. “I did. But I didn’t have
the foresight to see what was going to happen next. Neither
did you, Aaron. I refuse to live in guilt over something we
have no control over. What happened to Misha was terrible,
but it’s not like we had her kidnapped.” Then she stared at
him and blinked. “I don’t understand why you’re bringing
this up now. It happened years ago, Aaron. You never
brought it up before. Why now?”
Aaron squeezed his eyes shut and took out his cell
phone. He brought up the browser and typed Misha’s name.
“Because of this,” he said, holding up the phone so that she
could read the news article.
Shanaya read the headlines and her mouth dropped
again. “Oh.”
Aaron turned the screen back to him. “She’s been
declared dead. The officials say that since she hasn’t been
found in all these years, then there’s little chance that she
survived her kidnapping. The statistics of kidnapped
victims surviving is disheartening. This article came out a
few weeks ago. Ever since I read it, I just can’t get Misha
out of my mind.”
“Oh my god.” Shanaya turned pale. “I can’t believe
this.”
Aaron put a hand on her shoulder and felt how cold
her skin was. “I didn’t know how to tell you this.”
“What of her parents?” Shanaya said. “They must
be devastated.”
“I’ve been running as far as possible from our home
town,” Aaron said. “And now all I feel is guilt. She was my
girlfriend and when she was kidnapped, I wasn’t even there
for her parents.”
“I was best friends with her,” Shanaya said
tearfully. “I knew her parents since I was a kid. And I never
bothered to call them and ask them if they were doing
okay.”
Aaron opened his briefcase and took out a bottle of
water. “Here.”
Shanaya shook her head and pushed the bottle
away. “Are we terrible people?”
“No,” Aaron said and let out a breath. “Just guilty.”

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