Like the way we trusted before they came and blew the whole goddamned world apart. Suddenly my cold hand is blanketed by Evan’s warmer one, and his palm is as soft and smooth as the pillowcase beneath my cheek. I’m losing it, and it doesn’t matter to me much. It was about Sammy and what he believed, and if you could have seen him take that fake soldier’s hand and follow him onto that bus…” Still, every night I said his prayer with him, and it didn’t have anything to do with me. But he also thinks there’s a Santa Claus.

And then they came and…” I have to stop for a second to collect myself.

Or thought I did, when I thought about it at all. He kisses me hard on the mouth, and then the stairwell goes all Evanless.” “Yes.” He doesn’t sound too confident about it, though. But it’s the shortest path to the farthest spot.” “What’s due north?” I ask, pushing against his fingers. What am I going to do, put a gun to his head? He’s gotten this far, I tell myself. “You left me, remember?” He spreads his fingers over my heart, like he’s holding it, like it belongs to him, the hard-fought-for territory he’s won fair and square. “We’ll go over it later.” I grab Evan’s hand in both of mine and press it against my chest. “I was wrong when I said I was both and neither. His voice is too soft, too sad, too much like a good-bye voice. “Cassie.” I don’t like the way he says my name. You don’t know you’ll be able to find me.” “That’s right.” My hand flails for his in the dark. I know what this means and I slap his hand away. “Maybe we can chat about how everybody knows one another later” I elbow him in the ribs, and he gives me a look like What? “How do you know who I am?”Ĭassie told me about you,” Evan says. “I mean, I guess I kind of remember her…” Then Evan’s words sink in.

“Actually, Sam, Ben is Cassie’s friend from high school.” “He’s a friend from high school,” I mutter.Īnd Evan corrects me, since it’s clear I’ve lost my mind. It’s my first truly awkward moment in the alien lair, and I’d been through my share of moments. Ben looks totally lost, Evan completely amused, and Sammy just damned curious. I want to laugh and crawl under the counter at the same time. Who’s this guy falling from the ductwork, and what’s he doing with my sister? It’s Sammy, holding on to Ben, because he’s feeling the Ben thing a little more than he is the Cassie one at the moment.

Cassie and evan the 5th wave