Melissa Marr - Made For You

First published in hardback in the USA by HarperCollins Publishers Inc in 2014

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

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London, SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © Melissa Marr 2014

Design and typography © www.blacksheep-uk.com

Flower and girl © Getty Images

Melissa Marr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007584208

Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780008118174

Version: 2015-01-14

For the nurses, techs, and doctors in NICU, CCN, and Pediatrics at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. There aren’t words enough to tell you how much I appreciate your care, support, and love this past year.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Day 0: “The Party”: Eva

Day 1: “The Act”: Judge

Day 3: “The Vision”: Eva

Day 5: “The Visit”: Judge

Day 5: “The Detective”: Eva

Day 6: “The Piper-Ettes”: Grace

Day 6: “The Surprise”: Eva

Day 6: “The Girl”: Judge

Day 7: “The Best Friend”: Eva

Day 8: “The Crush”: Eva

Day 8: “The Message”: Judge

Day 9: “The News”: Eva

Day 9: “The Sleepover”: Eva

Day 10: “The Parents”: Eva

Day 10: “The Stalker”: Judge

Day 11: “The Ex-Boyfriend”: Eva

Day 11: “The Lies”: Grace

Day 11: “The Job”: Eva

Day 12: “The Sacrifice”: Judge

Day 13: “The Veil”: Eva

Day 13: “The Admission”: Grace

Day 13: “The Funeral”: Eva

Day 13: “The Substitute”: Judge

Day 13: “The Pictures”: Eva

Day 14: “The Flowers”: Eva

Day 14: “The Plan”: Grace

Day 14: “The Adulterer”: Judge

Day 14: “The Testing”: Eva

Day 14: “The Proof”: Eva

Day 14: “The Task”: Judge

Day 14: “The Kiss”: Eva

Day 14: “The Challenge”: Judge

Day 15: “The Talk”: Eva

Day 15: “The Epiphany”: Judge

Day 15: “The Cabin”: Grace

Day 15: “The Gun”: Eva

Day 15: “The Fight”: Judge

Day 15: “The Confession”: Eva

Day 15: “The Pipe”: Grace

Day 15: “The Killer”: Eva

Day 136: “The Aftermath”: Eva

Acknowledgments

Also by Melissa Marr

About the Publisher

“DID YOU SEE HER?” Piper whispers, lifting the same plastic cup of wine she’s been holding the past two hours as if it hides her. It’s a prop. She’s sober. She always is. She’s also hopelessly prone to melodrama.

I nod, face carefully blank. Of course I saw her. I’ve seen every single girl that flirts with Nate at these parties.

I’d rather not be a witness to it, but that’s one of the downsides to being me: I’m expected to be at every party. Like Piper and the rest of our crowd, I am here because it’s who I am and what I do. Nate isn’t one of us, hasn’t been for a couple years, so he doesn’t always attend, but when he does, he inevitably goes upstairs or down a darkened hallway with some girl. I pretend not to care. My act works on everyone but Piper and Grace, who sit on either side of me.

“She’s not even that pretty,” Piper lies.

Grace says nothing.

The girl is no prettier than us, but she’s not less attractive either.

Nate is a lot more than good-looking. Tall and lean without being gangly, short dark hair that’s cut in an almost military style, and muscles that make it hard not to find an excuse to touch his arms. Even though he has no social standing, he has to use exactly zero effort to convince girls to wander off into the dark with him.

We used to be friends. He used to be my best friend. Then his parents got divorced, and he became someone I didn’t know. I still watch him, but I never speak to him. I haven’t since the start of sophomore year. Every time I see him glance my way as he walks past with a girl, I think of the last time I tried to talk to him.

It’s the first party of the year, and my parents are away again. I’m sitting with Grace, a new girl who moved from Philadelphia to tiny little Jessup, North Carolina.

“Who’s he?” Grace asks.

“Nathaniel Bouchet.” I look at him, standing in the doorway surveying the room like a hunter. He doesn’t look like my Nate anymore. He’s always been wiry, but now he looks like he works at his physique. I swallow, realizing that I’m staring and that he can tell.

“Excuse me a minute,” I say.

Robert and Reid are sitting with us, but I excuse myself to walk over to Nate. It’s been forever since we spoke. He hasn’t called or come to see me in weeks. I never catch him at school either. I miss him. Even after he stopped being around the rest of our friends, he was still my friend. I thought that would never change, but now, I think I might be wrong.

I’ve had a couple drinks, and it gives me the courage to ignore his dismissive glance and walk up to him.

“Nate,” I start.

I only want to talk, to go back to the way we were, but he looks right at me, his gaze roaming from my sandals up my jeans and over my blouse and ending on my face. “Not interested.”

Then he steps around me like we’re strangers. He just walks past me like I’m not there, like he doesn’t know me, like we haven’t been in one another’s lives since we were in preschool. I feel like everyone there is staring at us, but if they are, no one mentions it—not to me, at least. My last name protects me from that , and for a change, I’m glad to be a Cooper-Tilling.

Nate, on the other hand, has just sealed his pariah reputation. It was bad enough that his parents divorced, and he suddenly seemed to forget that there were clothes in colors other than black. Now, he’s been rude to me in front of everyone. If he was trying to make the rest of my friends declare him invisible, he just succeeded.

On Monday, I find out that he slept with Piper’s cousin, Julie, who was visiting. She’s three years older than us, a freshman at Duke. After that, it became a thing to talk about which girl he chose for the night when he turned up at parties. After that, I didn’t talk to him—or let him see me watching him—ever again.

Piper is waiting for her cue, for me to tell her what to think. It’s how things are in Jessup. She’s one of the elite, but I’m the one she follows. My parents are the top of the food pyramid here. It’s not a situation I cherish, and I pretend not to notice.

I simply play my part, fulfill their expectations and smile. It’s the best plan I have.

I know that Piper is hoping for permission to tear Nate down, but I’m not going there. “She’s no different than the last three. He’ll leave in the morning with her phone number, but he won’t use it.”