There had been no sign of Casey for nearly five hours. She checked his room for his phone, but it was nowhere to be seen, as was every other sign of his existence: loud noises, suspicious smells, and superfluous amounts of cologne. Dev had no doubt that he'd gone out, but where he was and when he'd come back were completely different issues. She hadn't been able to speak with him since he read the newspaper that morning, and despite her attempts to call him, no one answered.

She threw on her jacket and scarf in a hurry and slid her phone into her pocket, starting down the stairs. Her heart thumped in her chest each passing second Casey didn't walk through the front door. Wherever he was, she would have to find him.

Dev had nearly reached the bottom of the stairs when there was a knock on the front door. She half expected to see Casey, but when she opened it she found herself face to face with Lukas. It took everything in her not shut the door on him and his cheeky smirk.

"Hi . . . " he said, dragging out the word as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Your brother wanted me to come get you."

Her mouth fell open in shock, but she quickly recovered herself.

Of course it had to be him. Dev held back an insult and gave him a polite smile, though she could tell solely by feeling it on her lips that it looked bitter. He returned her look with just as much acidity. "Is he ok? Do you know where he is?" She asked him, disregarding her annoyance. 

"Yeah, he's at the diner. Says it's something really important," his eyes wandered around as he said this, landing finally on her winter coat. "Were you going somewhere when I got here or were you just laying around waiting for me to show up?"

She let out a fake laugh, rolling her eyes as she shut the door behind her. "In your dreams. I was leaving to find Casey. I guess you beat me to it."

"I guess I did. He called me."

Hurt stabbed at her lungs. It felt as if a dagger was tearing at her ribs and she could feel the pressure of tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Enough was enough. Dev was done with Casey's shenanigans. She took in a deep breath of air and sighed, turning her gaze to the snow covered rooftops. "Honestly, if I didn't feel bad for making him so upset I'd probably disconnect his Xbox and hide his controller."

"Harsh," he mumbled to himself as they descended the driveway. "So, what'd you do?"

She shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I told him to read the newspaper article about the murder and he freaked. I haven't seen him since this morning."

"Maybe he thinks we got caught. After all, we did call it in."

Dev stopped abruptly, eyebrows raised.

His eyes widened in mock innocence. "What?"

Her expression dropped into pure annoyance, eyelids drooping low and lips pursed, and she spun around, making her way back toward the house.

He smirked and bowed his head, clearly entertained. "I have to hand it to you, Asters — you're funny. But my dad's a cop. I'm grounded if I so much as write my name wrong. You think I haven't gotten the silent treatment before?"

"I'm not giving you the silent treatment."

"Then what are you doing?"

She smirked. "Walking away from this conversation."

He scoffed, rolling his eyes to the side with a shake of his head. "You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I read the newspaper, too. This is obviously about Gianna. If you weren't willing to walk away from her body, what makes you think Casey can?"

"Don't talk to me about morals," she sneered, taking a step toward him. "You wanted to leave. And if Casey needed to talk to me, he would have. He chose his friends over me a long time ago. The sooner you learn that, the better off we'll all be."

He raised an eyebrow, the distance between them growing smaller. He was now inches from her. "Listen, Asters. I don't know what kind of problems you and your brother have. But I do know that you're his twin and he needs you. So," he sighed in exasperation, staring at his feet. "You coming or not?"

•••••

The booth was full by the time they took their seats. Ryan, Gordy, and Lukas all sat together in a tightly linked chain, while her and Casey had enough space between them to fit two people. Dev shot Lukas an I-told-you-so stare, but he only shook his head.

Ryan murmured to Lukas, asking what took them so long, where had they been, but besides that the silence continued.

"Dude, what's going on?" Lukas finally asked, voiced raised with impatience. "You've been gone all day, and now you're just going to make us sit here and—"

"Gianna's death wasn't an accident."

The whole table collectively held its breath. Her shoulders tensed up to her ears, words caught in her throat.

"Woah, woah, woah . . . slow down. Who the heck is Gianna?" Ryan asked. His face contorted into a grimace of anger and confusion. "You need to back up."

"She's the girl that went missing a few days ago on that camping trip. She's the girl we found last night," his eyes dropped to his hands, which rested motionlessly on the table. "I think she was murdered and I need you to help me find out who's responsible."

"Why? We barely knew her," Ryan rebutted, shifting forward in his seat. Casey shot him a glare. "I'm just saying that's a lot of trouble for a stranger."

Her brother sighed. "She was almost my girlfriend. We talked a lot. She didn't drink, she wasn't reckless, she—"

"Wait— She's the girl you were talking to?" Lukas exclaimed.

"You knew Gianna?" Dev's voice was so soft it almost scared her. She toiled tirelessly to drown the anger rushing within her, but she had done that far too many times. It was finally beginning to find its way back to the surface. The advice Lukas had given her suddenly meant nothing anymore. "Why is it that I never knew any of this? That I knew nothing?"

"Dev—now's not the time."

"It's never the right time to talk with you about this. We're twins, Casey. When are you going to start telling me things?" She reached for her jacket, but he slid it out of her reach. "Give me my jacket," Each word she said was slow and dripping with rage. She felt her heart thumping speedily against her chest. "I'm done with you. I'm tired of doing things for you—things that you ask me to do—and getting treated like garbage in return. I'm smart enough to know that I deserve better than that," she yanked the jacket from his grip and put it on. "Have fun catching your murderer."

Dev started out the door, narrowing her eyes against the cold air as she entered the parking lot. She felt a tear stream down her cheek, leaving a frozen streak across her skin. Her stomach twisted and dropped, heart jumping into her throat, but she didn't stop. If he didn't want anything to do with her, she didn't want anything to do with him. She wasn't disposable, and—one way or another—he would learn that. It was partially her fault for letting him get away with treating her the way he did for so long, but it would end today.

"Dev!"

Keep walking.

"Dev!" His voice had become strained.

Ignore him.

"Devri Sigma Asters!"

She squeezed her eyes shut at her full name, halting unsurely. "What do you want?"

"I need your help. We can't do this without you."

"Why not? That's how you've done everything else."

He let out an exasperated breath and put his hands on his hips. The bags under his eyes were heavy. "I don't want to keep cutting you out of my life."

"Oh, shut up. Don't give me that," she began to walk away, but he only jogged to keep up with her.

"All I do is hang out with my friends, right? Never you. Is that why you're mad?"

Dev felt her mouth fall open, but could do nothing to stop it. Was he that oblivious? "I'm mad because you treat me like I don't exist. And then whenever you do talk to me, you treat me like a second-class citizen, like I'm inconveniencing you. So forget it. Forget everything. You can find someone else to do your bidding," she started away from him, but he grabbed her by the arm. She yanked it out of his grip. "You couldn't even come and get me yourself. You had to send Lukas. You're terrible," Dev spat. Her skin burned as red-hot rage crept its way up to her cheeks.

"Please just give me a second chance."

The words rung in her head like the sounding of a bell. Everyone deserves another try, her grandpa had told her. He passed away a week later, but he was the one person who never truly left her. "That's a low blow — even for you, Casey."

He completely ignored her. "What would you do if someone you loved was murdered and the killer was never caught? Could you live knowing that you did nothing about it?"

She mentally cursed herself. He knew her too well, and by appealing to her sense of justice she had no other choice but to say yes. It didn't make it any easier, though. "Fine. I'll help you. But this is for me, not for you."

The moment she saw Casey's triumphant smirk she had the sinking feeling that he'd wasted his second chance, but Dev had never been one to go back on her word and she didn't intend to start now.

•••••

She spent nearly three hours using the punching bag that night. Her shoulders burned, but she didn't stop. With each punch she released the anger, frustration, and sadness that had been pent up for years. It only continued to build. She couldn't believe that she had let herself get roped into Casey's shenanigans again, and up until now Dev was able to lie to herself about why she did it. She just couldn't seem to find the strength to cut herself off from her twin brother.

Only when her arms felt as though they would fall off did she stop. By that time, sweat pooled around her on the floor and she had easily soaked through all of her clothing. She lived for the nights when she did nothing but box, when the only thing she needed to do was think. After all, it wasn't as if she did enough of that already.