I didn’t tell him why I had skipped school today. I didn’t tell him a lot of things, especially now that I knew how I felt about him. I wanted him to know, but I had read so many stories about the girl getting her heart broken in the end. I missed him too much to want to ruin our friendship like this.
"I missed you too Vy." He grinned; his gray eyes boring into mine as he shut them. His long brown lashes hidden as dark brows came into view. Aaron sat beside me and kissed my forehead. We talked for what felt like seconds until my eyes shot to the analog clock on my wall. It was half an hour past five. Time had flown way too quickly, and I yawned, my eyes shutting of their own accord as I snuggled into Aaron’s chest.
I woke up to my alarm. My heart was racing as I reached for it, shutting it off. I turned to Aaron who was sound asleep. He could sleep through an earthquake if he set his mind to it. I turned to him and smiled as he opened his eyes very slightly and glanced at me. A sleepy smile filled his face as he shut his eyes again and went back to sleep. It was a Saturday after all.
I moved closer to him, guarding myself from the cold room. My mom had probably shut off the heater sometime in the morning— probably to conserve energy, but the window was still open, and it was freezing.
"Stop staring at me, weirdo." He said as I rolled my eyes, giggling. But he suddenly disappeared, and I was left feeling empty.
The sun slashed through my eyes as they quickly opened. It took me a second to register that I had been dreaming. It wasn't even snowing. Nobody was here. Nobody had ever been here. The window was still shut, and I was all alone. It was just a dream, one that was too good to be true. A dream that needed me to confront my feelings, clearly.
An unwelcome sadness enveloped me. This was the first time in a while that this level of loneliness had filled me, I hadn't been this alone, I hadn't slept without another person in my room in so long. I pulled out my phone to check the time when a stack of messages appeared. Well, my dream had one thing right; I was planning on skipping school today.
Chapter 45:\ Levels of Protection
Aaron
"Do you recognize this girl?" She asked, sliding the photo toward me. It was the familiar blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair of Amy’s older sister, Bailey Bloom.
"Yeah, that's my friend's sister, her name is Bailey Bloom."
"How would you say you're affiliated with Bailey Bloom?"
"I don’t really know her, other than that she’s Amy’s sister. I wouldn't say we're friends, more like acquaintances, kind of. I’d only ever talked to her when I went to Amy's house, she was always a little odd." I said, looking to meet the detective's eyes.
"And Amy Bloom is her sister that you had a romantic relationship with?"
"I wouldn't say romantic, but yes, I did date Amy at some point." I responded honestly.
He doesn't look like someone who would stalk or even want to stalk anyone but looks can be deceiving. I heard someone think, I wondered if it was the detective in front of me or someone behind the one-way glass mirror. So, they brought me here because they think I've been stalking someone.
"You’re saying you had no actual affiliation with Bailey, then?"
"No, why would I? Anytime I was over at their house, Bailey mainly kept to herself. Amy would tell me that Bailey was in her room with her boyfriend. She was always in her room, at least, anytime I was over at Amy's, I never got to know her, and I mainly avoided her.”
That’s kind of suspicious. Someone thought. I wondered if I’d said something wrong.
"Okay." The detective said, she pulled the photo away and replaced it with another picture. "Do you know who this is?" She asked inquisitively.
"That's Jared Cowell’s dad. He dated my friend's mom." I said. "His name is Ethan, he was usually around at Violet’s house, he was a pretty cool dude. I can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt him."
He’s using past tense. The detective noted as I looked at her. "Amy was there when her sister got arrested, she came to visit me and Violet afterwards. She was in shock and she told us about what happened and how she thinks her sister might've killed Ethan and maybe her parents. You’d have to ask her yourself." I continued, unsure of if that was actually what she had said. She had said a lot of things, that was just the gist of what I could remember.
"And who is Violet and her mother?" I suddenly realized how I had misspoken and involved people that I shouldn’t have mentioned. I took a deep breath; it wasn’t like I could take back what I’d already said.
"Violet is…" I paused, I wanted to say my girlfriend, but obviously if Violet heard that I had called her that, she'd be upset, "a really, really good friend of mine. Her full name is Violet Veowsalot, her mother is Amelia Veowsalot. She was with me at the time of Bailey’s arrest."
Either this Violet girl is his alibi or his partner in crime— however, I don’t think they did it because Amy wouldn’t have reached out to them at the moment Ethan’s body was found. He doesn’t seem to have a reason for wanting to hurt Ethan, anyway. And it is odd that Bailey’s neighbors called because they’d heard screaming rather than Bailey calling to report a dead body in her house. I don’t even know why we’re wasting our time with this kid. The evidence is clear that Bailey Bloom is the murderer.
"Can you give us any more details about either of these women?" The detective asked, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat.
"Like what?" I crossed my arms, knowing not to answer unless she was specific.
"Any possible alibis or reasons for wanting to hurt someone?"
"If you're actually considering blaming either of these two for Ethan's death, you’re dead wrong. Amelia was in love with the guy, she'd never want to hurt him. He was her whole world. Violet was fond of him too. I do know that Amelia's ex-husband might not have liked him so maybe try checking there. I really don't know what else to tell you. As for alibis, Violet was with me at her house when we found out about it and we can confirm our attendance at school a little while before Amy called. Amelia was home that day too, so I know she couldn't have done it. As far as I know, only Bailey and Ethan had been there, and Amy arrived a few minutes later."
"Thank you for your cooperation Mr. Paul." The detective said, taking Ethan's image off the table and placing it back in a folder.
"I can leave?"
"Yes, but please don't tell anyone about this as this is an ongoing investigation. If it’s possible, please avoid speaking about this subject with your peers."
"With all due respect, detective, there was only one person with him at the time of death. I'd say you have a pretty solid lead." I stood up and followed her out the door.
"Perhaps, Mr. Paul. Before you leave, I do want to warn you that the next time I catch you beating up some guy, I certainly won't take it easy on you." Detective Reeves said as I nodded, and I smiled at her.
Serves him right. Hopefully that rapist turns himself in. It bothered me that they did nothing about it, they couldn’t exactly do anything without a formal report. But if they didn't eventually handle this, I would. Violet needed justice.
Joseph's phone was buzzing in my pocket as I picked it up and realized that he had several missed calls. That sucks. I smirked, walking over to the nearest trashcan and tossing his phone in it.
My mind wandered to Violet. I hoped she was okay. I had left too abruptly— I wondered if she would be angry. I decided against reaching out, at least for now. I wanted to give her the space that she had been wishing for, and hopefully the time she needed to process that I’d done the complete opposite of what she had asked me to do.
I had spent the following week bottled up in my home and avoiding school, friends, and other responsibilities. I had decided to just avoid people in general. My excuse was that I wanted to prevent myself from saying anything about Ethan to anyone. But really, I just didn’t want to see Violet’s disappointed expression.
My parents had walked into my room several times throughout the week, asking me if I was going to
be okay at various times. They’d thought Violet and I had broken up, I let them believe it because there really wasn’t another way that I could explain my reasons to them. At least, not one that my mother or father would have believed.
I lay on my bed, staring at the wall above me, then deciding to climb up the ladder to my desk. I brushed my fingers over a couple of books that I had read over the winter break that I’d spent with Violet. God, I missed her.
I decided to send her a couple messages before climbing down and sitting on my bed; it might’ve been a lot to ask, but I wanted her to take the day off and spend it with me. I felt so clingy for wanting to be around her all the time, but I knew this feeling wasn't going to go away anytime soon.
Vy I need ur help; I'm sorry for disappearing all week. I can pick u up 2morrow, just got my car back; is urgent
I really was all alone, contemplating just driving out to her house and barging in. But I wanted to be sensible. I wanted to practice what I preached about respecting other’s boundaries; I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. I shut my eyes, staring at my screen every few seconds. I was unable to sleep, so I climbed back upstairs and picked a random book off my bookshelf.
Chapter 46:\ Birds Eye View
Joseph
She wasn't at school today. I’d searched for her car in the parking lot, but neither her car nor Aaron’s car could be found anywhere. I had no way of accessing her location either. She was dumb enough to forget to turn off her location-sharing services with me, and it honestly had made my life a lot easier. At least it used to until Aaron stole my phone.
I felt blindsided. I had thought that Aaron and I were friends, I’d even defended him on multiple occasions when Jared and the other guys wanted to get him kicked off the team— all because I had foolishly believed that we were friends.
He wasn't here today either, but that wasn’t surprising considering he’d skipped school all week. I hoped he was in jail for assaulting me in my home. That detective couldn’t have entered at a better time. And if he was in jail, that meant Violet would finally be all alone. I glared at all the people that had asked me about what happened to my face; I had easily lied to each of them.
"I fell off my skateboard." I kept telling them, it wasn't necessarily convincing enough to those that knew me well, but it was a possibility as to why my eyes were both bruised, and the rest of my face had cuts and other bruises. They had mostly healed by now, but the bruises had become a dark shade of purple today, making me look like the grim reaper.
"How do you fall off a skateboard and get two black eyes?" My friend, Carlos, asked jokingly, sitting beside me in the cafeteria and eating his soggy cheeseburger. I glared at him momentarily. Everyone just loved sticking their noses in other people’s business.
"Shut up Carlos, I'll tell you about it later." I said, taking a bite out of my peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.
"Does that hurt?" He asked, watching me chew my sandwich. He was referring to the three cuts on my lips. I shook my head, not really in the mood to talk to him.
"So… did you get in a fight?"
"Why are you asking so many questions?” I snapped, shooting him a poisonous look. He shrugged, not really caring about what I had to say.
"Chill, are you an underground fighter or something cool like that?” Carlos’ eyes lit up as he spoke, “do you race cars illegally, did you crash or something?” He continued interrogating me, his curly red hair matched his bright red cheeks as he continued eating lunch beside me.
“Shut up, Carlos.” I sighed, releasing a deep breath as my anger levels began rising.
“I want to know what happened, there's nobody else here that could even be listening." Carlos said, persistently.
"Fine!" I groaned, glaring at him. He could be so annoying sometimes; Carlos smirked, realizing that he was about to get what he wanted. He reached for a carrot and began chewing, ready to listen. I froze for a couple seconds, composing my thoughts before I spoke.
"Aaron visited me last night, he was mad about something stupid and I had a cop take him away." I said, feeling better about telling Carlos this version of the story.
"Why was he mad at you?"
"I don't know." I said as Carlos raised his eyebrows curiously. He crossed his arms, leaning forward to grab the bag of chips from his tray. He began chewing noisily as he sat beside me.
"Do you think it has something to do with Amy?" Carlos asked inquisitively.
"Why would it have anything to do with Amy?" I glared at him now, wishing he would stop talking. I didn't talk to Amy, it bothered me that Carlos made assumptions based on someone I didn't even talk about. “I don’t even know Amy.”
"Well, Aaron doesn't seem like the type to even get angry easily; whatever you did must've pissed him off. Did you pee in his Gatorade bottle or something? That’d be pretty funny.” Carlos laughed as I paused for another moment in order to collect my thoughts.
"He's getting kicked off the team this week if he doesn't show up. I mean, we all pretty much assumed he had left a while ago, but coach is still keeping his hopes up that Aaron will come back. Season’s almost over anyway; and if Aaron doesn’t show up— coach said I’d get to be a starter for the last three games." I was excited, just thinking about it.
"So, he's mad that you're taking his position on the team?" Carlos raised a skeptical brow, "I mean, it just doesn't seem like Aaron really wants the position if he doesn't even show up to practice." I shut my mouth for a moment, unsure of what else to say to convince Carlos that I was visited by a demonic hooligan who was out for blood.
"What's your point, Carlos?" I hissed, annoyed and wanting to hit him. He was obnoxious.
"My point is that I don't know why you're keeping this lie going. And I don’t think Aaron cares about his position on the team."
"I'm not lying, he's just mad about the team, that's it. You don’t know Aaron like I do; he’s a psychopath!" I felt my body heat up, wishing that the bell would ring soon.
“I’m really good at reading people so I don’t understand why you’re lying to me. Anyway, I’ll see you later; I forgot that I told Ms. Randall I would visit her at lunch for some history help.” He sighed, taking a deep breath before standing up and throwing his tray away.
I took the chance to walk over to Tyler, who was happily laughing along with his friends. "Tyler, man, you got a minute?" I asked, adjusting my backpack. Tyler turned to face me and grinned, “It’s something private. Can we step away for a sec?”
"Are you here to tell me you have feelings for me?” Tyler laughed as several people at his table said hello to me. “Kidding, you look awful, bro. What happened to your face?”
“Do you have a minute or not?” I asked, deadpanned as Tyler’s smile disappeared.
“For sure, just give me a second." He looked confused, especially because I hardly spoke to him outside of practice. His cologne reeked, I wondered if he had put that much on so it would reach Amy from two tables away. I couldn’t comprehend why she still went to school when everyone knew about her psycho-killer sister and how her sister had killed her family. If not for the sake of her reputation, at least for her sanity. I was certain that the teachers would’ve understood if Amy needed a few days off.
I waited a few minutes until he got up and walked with me, "what's up?" He asked, glancing at his friend group every couple of seconds.
"Do you know where Violet or Aaron are today?"
"No idea man, they're not here." Tyler said blandly, stated the obvious.
"Can you ask them where they are? Are they together right now? I lost my phone last week so I can’t text anyone.”
"I don’t have either of their numbers,” Tyler said, but I knew he was lying. He, at least, had Aaron’s since our team had a group chat. Tyler had laughter in his eyes as he glanced again at his friends; I wondered what sort of inside-joke they were laughing about. He seemed to want to leave as soon as possible. I raised an eyebrow.
“We all have Aaron’s—�
�� I announced as he scratched the back of his head.
“I deleted it; he’s pretty much off the team now. I’m not a huge fan of the guy.” Tyler responded. He was giving me absolutely nothing.
"Do you know if they're together?" I asked
"Probably, they usually are." He said, stating the obvious once again. I glared at him, realizing I had just wasted my time on this useless jock. I was not going to get any information from him.
"Okay,” I said, just as the bell rang. I frantically searched the cafeteria for anyone who would have answers. I noticed Stacy sitting alone and about to throw away her tray. I rushed over to her, but she said we could talk later instead. I grimaced, annoyed that I had made no progress. Realization dawned on me that tomorrow would be another day, and, on that day, Violet will be here; then we can play.
Chapter 47:\ Morning Dates
Aaron
As soon as I laid eyes on her, my entire mood shifted. My heart skipped a couple beats as I stood there feeling like I’d gotten the air knocked out of me. She had walked out of her front door and I couldn't contain the smile on my face. I stood still, leaning on my car as she walked toward me in her jeans and sweater. It wasn't a cold day, but it was chilly enough to need a jacket at least.
"Hey," I said, taking a sharp breath in when her eyes met mine.
Violet you are stunning. I hoped that she could hear what I’d just thought of her, I didn’t know how to ‘send’ her messages. She walked over to me and crossed her arms as I stared at her dark-as-night eyes.
"What's the big emergency?" Violet asked, walking to the passenger side and tossing her backpack, her long ponytail swaying from side to side. Little did she know that she wouldn't be needing her backpack today. The sun was barely rising, and the morning dew made the air feel fresh and clean. The grass sparkled in the cool air.
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