Sever

by Jesse Grey

  “I think so too. If nothing else, he needs to get laid.”

  “Abe.”

  Both Abram and Bridge laughed while Alex brushed them off with a couple of swats. There was a slight disturbance as a pair of easily recognizable faces were readily visible in the distance.

  “What’s going on with your sisters?”

  Bridge’s question prompted Abram and Alex to look over and see Willa and Faith in a very heated conversation as they headed to-ward the school parking lot.

  “Faith’s been pretty shaken lately,” Alex huffed. “I think she and Straton might have ended things.”

  “Yeah, I think they did.” Bridge agreed. “She mentioned it when we snuck out the night before the RV incident.”

  Alex’s eyebrows wagged in succession. “Faith snuck out?”

  “We were both at Core. I think Straton works there or some-thing.” Bridge shook his head positively.

  “Were you meeting Ben there?” Abram asked on impulse. When he saw Bridge’s dazzled expression, he pressed on. “Yesterday you said you were sleeping together.”

  “Were being the key word in that statement.” Bridge sighed. “We met at the Heartmyth start of the year party.”

  “Whoa, you went back to a Heartmyth party? After everything we went through at the last one?” Alex chastised.

  “I was already so drunk that night, it didn’t even register in my mind. But I met Ben at the party the night before school started. We flirted, we both got really drunk, and we hooked up. I had no idea he was seeing anyone, let alone that he was engaged to Westbrooke’s new guidance counselor.”

  “So you told him it was over?” Abram asked.

  “Well, there was a slight almost relapse that night at Core.”

  “Bridge.”

  “Shut up, Alex.” Bridge said sarcastically. “I told Ben yesterday that we were done. Even though he told me he’d leave Paige…”

  “Seriously?”

  Bridge shook his head. “I’m over it. Ben’s pretty sexy and all, but I’m no homewrecker. My own home is wrecked enough and I’m not gonna do that to someone else.”

  “Good,” Abram scoffed. “Ben’s already too involved in my life and with everything going on, we don’t need him invested in yours too.”

  “Well I have a paper to research so I’m gonna get my lunch to go.” Bridge finally said. “See you guys later?”

  They both said their goodbyes and watched as Bridge headed in-side to grab something quick to eat, leaving the pair alone, much to the wandering thoughts of Abram.

  “Alex, can I ask you something?”

  He smiled at the inquiring gaze that Abram held in his breathtak-ing blue eyes. “Of course.”

  Abram stirred uncomfortably in place. “It’s about your transi-tion.”

  Alex’s earlier interest increased rapidly. “Okay.”

  “I don’t really know the right way to ask this.”

  “Abe, it’s fine. Just ask.”

  Laughing to get rid of his swarming nerves, Abram decided to just oblige Alex’s suggestion.

  “The night that we first...you know,” Abram cleared his throat. “Your reaction afterwards, did it have to do with you transitioning?”

  Without even thinking about it, Alex reached over and grabbed Abram’s hand. The latter shifted a little but he didn’t recoil or resist when Alex squeezed his hand lightly.

  “Abe, I know how weird this has been for you, but I don’t regret anything that happened between us, including sharing our first time together.”

  “I just...I just wanna make sure your reaction wasn’t because of something I did.”

  “Not at all.” Alex smiled. “It was me. You should know that by now. I just felt like something was missing within myself, and that night when we were...together, just helped me to think about why I was feeling the way I was after. You did everything right, Abe.” Alex giggled a little. “More than right.”

  Abram snickered at that. “That good, huh?”

  They both laughed together, sharing a unique moment in under-standing. As they stared at each other and their laughter died down, they realized that they rarely had moments of clarity together since that night in the cemetery. Both of them felt they were too few and far between.

  “Hey,” Alex smiled, retracting his hand from Abram’s. “Let’s go grab lunch off campus today. What do you say?”

  “I say, lead the way.” Abram laughed.

  Back on the quad, Kirby and Mercer were enjoying their picnic date. Kirby almost choked on her garlic chicken as Mercer told her another story about him and his friends.

  “The garlic chicken can’t be that bad.”

  Coughing a couple more times, Kirby shook her head. “No, the food is amazing. I just can’t believe that Abram used to be a cheer-leader.”

  Mercer laughed. “He was actually pretty good, even if he and Sumner did join the team to meet girls.”

  “Did they? Meet girls, I mean.”

  “No one serious. Except Lissa.” He winced at his words. “Alex.” Mercer stopped to shovel in another bite of mushroom risotto. “Af-ter that, guys were vying for a spot on the squad, as if Sumner some-how made it the new it thing for the guys of Westbrooke to do.”

  Kirby sipped her sparkling grape juice. “Sumner seemed to have that effect, from what I’ve heard.”

  “He did, definitely. He even convinced Bridge and I to make out at a party once.”

  “You and Bridge!?”

  “Don’t sound so shocked,” he cackled. “Bridge was totally into me once upon a time.”

  Rolling her eyes and grinning, Kirby ate more of the seemingly gourmet food Mercer had brought for them. “You’ll have to thank your dads for lunch. I could probably eat yours if you’d let me.” she laughed again.

  “I’m hurt.” Mercer grabbed at his heart, simulating hurt.

  “Why?”

  “Because I made all of this. By myself.”

  She regarded him with wide mesmerized eyes. “You did?”

  “Absolutely. My dads taught me it’s important to know how to cook.” He gave her a small smile. “You never know who you’ll be trying to impress.” Kirby smiled at him through her juice as she felt Mercer’s hand graze hers. “So, how am I doing?”

  “I gotta say, I’m pretty blown away. I didn’t expect five-star cui-sine from you, Mercer.”

  He laughed and scoffed at the same time. “I must be doing some-thing right because you haven’t called me Meadows once today.”

  “Yeah, I may have to put that one on hold for a while.”

  They stared into each other’s eyes, smiling as Mercer closed the space between them for a possibly quick kiss when Alex came run-ning up to them, almost mowing both of them over. Mercer had to throw himself backwards to avoid Alex’s skidding, just missing all of their food.

  “Alex, what the hell?”

  “I’m really sorry.” he said to them. “But Merce, you have to come quick, before someone sees.”

  “Is everything okay?” Kirby questioned quickly.

  “Mercer.” The urgency in Alex’s voice was alarming them both further.

  “Stay here?” Mercer asked Kirby, whom just nodded, looking confused. “I’ll be back.”

  Alex began running toward the school parking lot and Mercer had to push himself to keep up with him. As they approached the parking lot, Mercer saw Abram leading Bridge in the same direction.

  “What’s going on?” Bridge yelled over to Mercer.

  “Wondering the same thing.” he screeched back.

  Alex and Abram led them over to where Mercer had parked his Jeep and where Alex had parked the car he shared with his sister. Mercer and Bridge saw why their friends had been so adamant that they see what was before them so soon.

  On Alex’s windshield was a red inked message scrawled in huge letters that said STOP LOOKING. They realized the rest of the message was scribbled on Mercer’s windshield, where the scratchy letters spelled START CONFESSING.


  A cackle of laughs erupted nearby, causing all of them to turn at the clueless freshmen, glad that they weren’t looking in their direc-tion and hoping that no one had already seen the ominous message from someone who obviously knew something that had happened that night.

  Faith hurled herself out of Willa’s car before it had even rolled to a stop at Heartmyth. Willa had to hurriedly throw her car into park so she could run after her emotionally charged friend as Faith stormed into a prestigious university to wreak havoc.

  “Faith!” she called after her as they stomped around one of the Heartmyth dorms.

  Willa finally caught up to her, grabbing Faith’s hand and pulling her back. Luckily, for a moment at least, Faith humored her and al-lowed Willa to eliminate her momentum.

  “Can we just take a minute to think about this?” Willa begged.

  “There’s nothing to talk about, Willa. This is happening.”

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have shown you that picture, but I wanted to show you before I showed the police.”

  “And I appreciate it, I really do. But I have this under control.”

  Faith pulled out her phone for a second, seemingly typing away, before quickly sliding it back in her jeans as she treaded through the dorms once again, Willa sighing and cursing herself as she galloped to keep up with Faith and her wrath of a runway walk.

  They were just nearing Straton’s dorm room when they turned a corner and ran right into Straton’s roommate.

  “Oh, Jesus. Faith, you scared the shit out of me.” The chiseled jawed ginger laughed it off.

  “Hugo, where’s Straton?” Faith seethed.

  “Cafe, I think.” Hugo answered. “Everything okay?”

  Faith didn’t answer him, instead choosing to turn around and head toward the Heartmyth cafeteria, Willa hot on her stilettos.

  Willa tried to grab her attention, but Faith wretched her hand away as she found her way through Heartmyth until she pushed through the double doors of the cafeteria.

  A few heads flew in their direction, but otherwise things didn’t seem amiss until Faith spotted Straton over the cafe looking for a place to sit. All Willa could do was spectate in solemn as Faith stomped over to him and flipped the tray out of his hands as more attention fell in their direction, Willa running over to them as food lined the floor.

  “Faith, what the fuck!?” Straton bellowed.

  “You lied to me!” Tears came to Faith’s eyes quickly, gathering like pools of grief that bubbled against her irises. “You made me think I was crazy about you knowing Sumner when you actually did!”

  “I didn’t—”

  “Stop lying!” Faith reached into the purse that was slung on her shoulder and pulled out the photo of him with Willa and Sumner, holding it up for him to see, where memories flashed in his eyes. “I want the truth. Now.”

  Willa looked around and every single eye was on them, which Straton must have noticed too because he was steering Faith outside of the cafeteria. She followed them to just outside the doors of the cafeteria, away from all the college eavesdroppers.

  “Tell her the truth, Straton.” Willa spoke up.

  Straton nodded, looking from Willa and back to Faith, who quickly wiped away new tears with the back of her hand.

  “Yes, I knew Sumner.” Straton blurted out, beginning his tale. “But it’s not what you think.”

  “You were friends with Sumner.” Faith said it as a statement ra-ther than proposing it as a question.

  “Yes. No.” he sighed. “We met at last year’s Heartmyth start of school party. He was hitting on some freshman girls I knew and we started talking and we hung out a couple times before he brought your brother and his friends to the party the night he went crazy. And…” Straton sighed again, looking completely forlorn. “And the reason I was so afraid to tell you was because…he came to see me.”

  Both Willa and Faith looked taken aback in the worst way.

  “You’ve seen Sumner since he’s been spotted back in town?” Willa gawked.

  “Sort of,” Straton looked worried, acknowledging Faith again by locking his eyes with hers. “Look, I can explain everything just...don’t take that picture to your mom and the police.”

  Faith’s earlier sorrow was quickly replaced with anger and re-sentment. She gave him a smirk before she pulled out her phone, which had apparently been on since she had taken it out of her pock-et earlier in the hall when they had been searching for Straton.

  “Did you catch all of that, Mom?”

  Both Willa and Straton’s eyes expanded in surprise when sud-denly Adelaide Llewellyn rounded a corner and came up to them, another officer tagging along beside her.

  “Thanks for the tip, sweetheart.” her mom said, asking the officer with her to grab the picture and take it as evidence as she stared into Straton’s eyes. “Mr. Jacobs, would you mind coming down to the station to answer some questions?”

  Alex was the last one to arrive at Armor Falls Police Station. Fear throbbed against his head as he burst through the doors of the estab-lishment. The first person he saw was Faith, who pulled him into a quick embrace as the Llewellyn twins held onto each other tightly.

  “Alex, I’m so sorry.” his sister said as they pulled apart. “I had no idea that Straton was withholding any kind of information about Sumner.”

  He dismissed her with the flick of his wrist. “I know you had nothing to do with this. Hell, I don’t really know what Straton even said to you. Just that Dagger called me down here.”

  Nodding, Faith gestured over toward the hallway that led to the interrogation rooms. “Everyone else is waiting for you back there. They’ve already questioned Willa about finding the picture.”

  “I’ll catch up with you later?”

  Alex gave his sister a smile before he left her in the lobby and headed back toward the interrogation rooms, where he found his friends talking with Dagger in a room just in front of a two-way mirror looking into the interrogation room, where Straton sat alone, awaiting questioning.

  “Ah,” Dagger said as they all regarded Alex. “And the little unit is complete.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “This is unorthodox, but I want the four of you to listen in on Straton’s questioning.”

  “Why?”

  “He wants us to know Straton’s story and to tell him if what he says sounds like the Sumner we’ve been telling him about.” Abram explained. “Or if we know anything about what he’s about to say.”

  “I just need your insight to really crack this investigation.” Dagger concluded. “Hopefully what Straton has to say will bring us one step closer to finding Sumner.”

  Dagger left them alone in the room as he entered the interroga-tion room, where Straton snapped to attention immediately.

  “What did they ask Willa?” Alex asked Abram.

  He shrugged out of annoyance. “Basically just asked her why she didn’t mention the Straton-Sumner connection until now.”

  “She said she didn’t even remember him all that much until he showed up the first day of school to surprise Faith.” Bridge contin-ued.

  “First the message on our cars and now this.” Alex sighed.

  “There’s more,” Mercer sparked his concern. “The picture of Wil-la with Sumner and Straton was signed.”

  “Signed?”

  Abram scoffed. “It was signed with a single letter.”

  “Which was?” Alex inquired.

  “S.” The three of them said together.

  Alex’s shock was swallowed up by the fact that Dagger was be-ginning to question Straton, causing them all to turn to the two-way mirror and listen in on their conversation.

  “Alright, Straton. You’ve said that Sumner has visited you recent-ly. When?”

  Straton sighed deeply, a rocky cavern between his lungs. “I’ll tell you the whole story, but I had nothing to do with Sumner coming back into town. I’ve just gotten caught up in the wake of Sumner’s second coming.”

  “Enough
excuses, Jacobs.” Dagger said, getting agitated already. He stopped his usual pacing around the room, eyes tearing tunnels through Straton. “Tell me about the night Sumner Shadows paid you a visit.”

  His phone rang loudly for about the fifth time in an hour, eliciting a loud groan from Straton as he rolled over and grabbed his phone on the other side of his bed. As he quickly checked his screen and saw that it wasn’t his girlfriend Faith but rather a foreign and unfamiliar number, he silently thanked God that his roommate was out at a party. He was sure Hugo would have shattered his phone by now with its persistent wailing, especially as the night crept closer to midnight. Straton turned his phone off rapidly, rolling back over to get some sleep and hoped he wouldn’t be interrupted anymore.

  Until there was a loud, obnoxious rapping on Straton’s dorm door. He swore under his breath as he ripped his sheets off his bed, revealing his naked chest, naked save for his navy blue boxer briefs.

  “Hugo, you gotta remember your key, dude.”

  Fully expecting to see a totally wasted Hugo, Straton had to swallow a scream when he opened the door and saw Sumner standing on the other side, looking manic and ridden with homicidal desolation.

  His clothes were also stained with drying blood.

  “Sumner!?” Straton looked out into the hall, glad to see that no one was stirring in the hall currently. “Where the hell have you been? Why are you at my dorm? And is that blood?”

  Sumner had a crazy look in his eyes. He looked petrified and utterly afraid of something as he looked down at his blood splattered white t-shirt and the dried, cakey blood lathered on his hands before he looked at Straton again.

  “I’m in trouble, Straton. I need your help.” Sumner’s head turned franti-cally to scan the hallway for onlookers, but he didn’t meet any new faces.

  “I’m not doing anything but calling the police. You tried to kill your friends, Sumner!”

  Sumner’s eyes welled with fear. “You don’t understand. I’ve been away from New Hampshire. And something happened.” Tears fell down his usually perfectly controlled face, turning his features fiercely dark. “Straton, something’s wrong. I don’t know what happened, where this blood came from.” He leaned in closer toward Straton. “I think someone’s plotting against me. I think someone is trying to make me think that I’m crazy.”