Three Rivers by Chloe T Barlow Page A

with it. Just thinking about Jack felt like a knife in his gut.
    "Mom, I don't know if I can do that. How about I go by and meet him on my own sometime before I leave?"
    "Oh no you don't, Nicholas Griffen Tate. You will not blow me off on this. Jack was your best friend since you were little. You meant the world to each other and his mother still asks about you, even though you checked out of his life after high school."
    "I didn't check out on Jack, I wanted to move on — from everyone."
    "Well, it's been years since he died and you didn't even go to his funeral." Griffen cringed and wondered to himself how such a great night could have morphed into a morning this terrible.
    "Christ, all right, I feel like shit now, are you happy?"
    "A little. But I will lay off if you go to this birthday party today with me. You need to meet his son."
    "Fine, I'll go."
    "Great, I'll come pick you up at noon and we can head over together."
    "I have a car here with me."
    "Oh, no you don't. You'll sneak out first chance you get. I'm trapping you there. I'll pick you up."
    "All right. Just call me when you're downstairs."
    After taking a shower Griffen wrapped a towel around his waist and walked over to his laptop. Pulling up his email, he opened the folder labeled "Jack."
    Griffen's mom hadn't been totally accurate in her scathing description of Griffen's desertion of Jack. They'd kept in touch over the years through phone calls and emails, but nothing like how inseparable they'd been growing up. They'd gone to different colleges and Griffen had been on his location assignment in Afghanistan when Jack married his wife.
    He sat on the bed, rubbing his face. He had tried to avoid remembering Jack. Done everything he could not to think of him, but being here in Pittsburgh, waking up in this hotel, all he could do was think about him.
    His mind suddenly wandered.
    Jack had understood that Griffen needed to get as far away from the painful first part of his life. Other events always came up to keep Griffen away and neither pushed to get around them. From the outside, the world saw that he and Griffen ruled the school; stars on the football team. No one knew how bad things had been with Griffen's dad, not even his mom. Only Jack knew, which is why he never pushed Griffen to come back to Pittsburgh and face down his demons.
    His eyes went to the last email from him. If it had been a letter, it would be frayed and torn at the edges from the thousands of times Griffen had taken it out and read it. It was a simple message from Jack to him:
    Nick - Are you back from Mexico yet? I could really use your help with something. Call me. Jack.
    Even though they were still friends, Jack's cryptic email had seemingly come out of nowhere. Jack and Griffen had both been consumed with work for months. Griffen had just returned from Mexico for follow up research on his second book centered on the violent La familia Mexican drug cartel and knew that Jack had been wrapped up in some high priority robotic projects. It had been a huge opportunity for Jack and the book was a breakthrough for Griffen, so they hadn't spoken or emailed in months.
    Griffen had gone to sleep that night intending to call Jack in the morning, but he'd gotten so wrapped up in his publisher's requests and final edits that a week had passed before he circled back to calling Jack.
    A call from his mother beat him to it.
    Jack was dead.
    Killed in a horrific car accident the night before.
    Griffen felt his mind go back to that terrible morning.
    His phone had slowly slid out of his hand. He had sensed himself walk across the room to his laptop. He'd seen words quivering in relief on the screen and thought fleetingly that they looked liked the ones from Jack's email.
    He'd known on some level it was his legs that were moving but he couldn't have controlled them if he wanted to. Instead, he merely watched hands grab his computer fiercely and heard a voice growl and scream like an animal. He watched as