The Cost of All Things Read online

  Until I walked into Waters Hardware for the last time, I’d thought that my parents’ death was safely stored away in the past. But the past isn’t past—it’s who we are every second of the day.

  Cal and I both forgot things and became different people than we would’ve been otherwise. So here’s the big question: What would I have been like if I’d kept the memory of my parents’ death? I used to think I’d be broken, damaged goods forever. But maybe I’d have been a better person. I didn’t mean “good” or “perfect.” Better. More whole.

  “What are you going to do now?” Diana whispered.

  I told her the truth. “I don’t know.”

  But not knowing didn’t make me feel trapped or out of control. It made me free.

  Jess found us a place on the Lower East Side. It’s tiny and practically windowless and funny smells drift up from the sinks. But the stairs outside our apartment door go up to the roof, where someone left a rusted lawn chair.

  I climb, legs wobbling, and settle in the chair. The East River’s right in front of me; across it, Brooklyn. To my left I can see the top of the Chrysler Building, to my right, more river. We’re surrounded by water again.

  Tomorrow I start senior year at a new school. A normal high school, no dance, where no one knows me and I know no one. It’s dark out and hot and humid and smells like exhaust and garbage. I’ve been reading a lot—it makes me forget my uncooperative body—and writing to Diana and Kay, but at night I come up here to think. I can’t change the choices I’ve made, or try to piece together the million alternate Aris that might have been. Instead I sit on the roof and try to answer Diana’s question for myself.

  What am I going to do?

  Who am I going to be?

  Would I be Markos, an asshole with a heart of gold—or at least silver?

  Would I be desperate but bold like Kay?

  Open and sincere like Diana?

  Would I give myself away to do one good thing?

  I only have the rest of my life to find out. It’s time to get started.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to my family, who hopefully will accept this book as my apology for the many years of leaping in front of the computer to block them from reading what I was writing; to my friends, who are smart, funny, and honestly let’s just say it: the best people in the world; to my agent, Tina Wexler, and my editor, Donna Bray, whose insights were smart and thoughtful and often simply right every step of the way; to everyone else at Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, including Alessandra Balzer, Kate Jackson, Jordan Brown, Viana Siniscalchi, Bethany Reis, and Maya Packard; to all my colleagues and mentors at Abrams Books, including Susan Van Metre, Howard Reeves, and Tamar Brazis; to my brilliant classmates at Vermont College of Fine Arts, the Keepers of the Dancing Stars, and the incredible VCFA faculty, including my advisors A. M. Jenkins, Rita Williams-Garcia, Franny Billingsley, and Tim Wynne-Jones; to Jen Jude, who didn’t flinch when I asked her about arson and obstructing justice and statutes of limitations (and, I must add, all legal mistakes in the story are mine and mine alone); to Skila Brown, Amy Rose Capetta, Lindsay Eyre, Erin Hagar, Stefanie Lyons, Kristin Sandoval, and Amy Zinn, who read early drafts and gave invaluable advice and encouragement; and finally, to my husband, Kyle Gilman, who, in addition to the daily love and support that helped me to write this book, also solved many plot problems before he even read a word. Who needs a hekamist when you have a Kyle?

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  MAGGIE LEHRMAN is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, New York. During her decade of editing books for children, she earned an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. The Cost of All Things is her first novel. You can visit her at www.maggielehrman.com.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  COPYRIGHT

  Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

  THE COST OF ALL THINGS. Copyright © 2015 by Maggie Lehrman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.epicreads.com

  * * *

  ISBN 978-0-06-232074-2

  EPub Edition November 2014 ISBN 9780062384522

  * * *

  15 16 17 18 19 XXXXXX 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FIRST EDITION

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.

  Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

  Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

  www.harpercollins.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada

  www.harpercollins.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

  Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive

  Rosedale 0632

  Auckland, New Zealand

  www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London W6 8JB, UK

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  195 Broadway

  New York, NY 10007

  www.harpercollins.com