As I got in my car, I immediately brought back the engine back to life. I pressed my foot against the pedal with extreme impact, driving away from school. My heart was thundering against my rib cage and my mind was flooded by plenty of thoughts like, how come they didn't tell me there would be a funeral?
I was constantly whipping the steering wheel as I took lefts and rights. My hands were trembling uncontrollably. Reaching Veronica's house, I didn't bother to park my car in a righteous way.
Getting out, I rushed to the porch with long strides. I brought up my closed fist to the wooden door and knocked. I waited for a while, but I didn't get any responses. After another two knocks and no responses, I started banging my fist loudly. I was growing concerned and impatient.
My heart started thundering against my chest, I thought it would explode, and my mind was running with thoughts of 'what if's'. I hurried towards one of the windows and peeked inside. It was a little bit hard to make out what was inside since there were curtains, but luckily, they were sheer. Everything inside was organized as usual, which didn't bring me any suspicions. Whirling around to take a look at their driveway, I noticed that their car wasn't in its usual spot.
They must have gone somewhere, but where could that place be? I felt my shoulders slump in disappointment.
I looked forward to having a talk with them and ditched school to come here. At last, they weren't in their house. As I strode back to my car and got in, I had a mental dilemma of whether to drive back to school and get tortured by ear-piercing monsters, or go home, drown myself in tears that I had been holding for way too long, and consume buckets of ice cream.
The first option was what a psycho would do. It was fine with me to get suspended for not attending my dreary classes. The second option sounded like a break-up, although I'd prefer to do it anyway.
Recalling of what happened the other day, I remembered the bandage on my temples. I brushed my hair out of the way to take a close look at it in mirror. As I brought up my fingers to it, I carefully took the bandage off, revealing a rounded wound that was still oozing blood. Grabbing an extra bandage that I kept in my bag, I lightly applied it on my temple, then did the same to the other.
A bing came from my phone as I picked it out of my bag.
I'll be at your house in 20. You have a lot of explaining to do, Brenda's message said.
She figured out about Veronica's murder, and instantly assumed that it had to do with me since Veronica disappeared at Friday midnight. And Brenda knew that Fridays were our girls' night out.
♡ ♡ ♡
"Wait, so you woke up in the middle of the woods with no memory of that day. You heard Veronica's scream and left her there?" Liam asked, trying to digest the information I gave him.
I confirmed his words with a nod. Eventually, Liam was shocked and sorrowful to hear about Veronica's sudden death. I couldn't keep in the incident. I needed to let it all out, so I did so. He was young but mature, strong and understanding enough to handle complex situations like this one. He was obviously hurt that I didn't tell him earlier. He said that he thought we tell each other secrets immediately.
From the corner of my eye, I could see him taking glances at me repeatedly with a suspicious look. "What is it, Liam?"
"Is there something else you're hiding from me?" He muttered, exasperated.
"Besides that I somehow ended up at Aaron's yard after I fainted, no there isn't anything," I shrugged. Liam had a questioning look on his face, but before he spoke up, I interrupted him, "I'll tell you more about it later." With these words, I got out of the car.
It had been raining for the past days, but this time, it was burning hot, the sunlight was blinding my eyes. The weather was terribly unpleasant.
I wanted to scream at nature for not mirroring our moods; we were anguished and gloomy. Rain at the funeral was what I had been expecting, like those you see in movies. It was supposed to be pouring ferociously for the loss of a heavenly, angelic soul.
I spotted the audience that was right in front of a gravestone with beautiful blossoms where the most beloved, Veronica Morrison, was buried. I stepped closer to her gravestone and right below her name says, "Daughter, and friend".
It reminded me of those times when she used to whine that she was the only child and I used to tell her that she could consider Liam and me as her siblings. When I told her this, it made a grin form on her lips. Ever since then, she started ruffling Liam's hair. I do that too. We had the same actions and everyone noticed it.
Scanning the audience, I realized a few of my teachers showed up, who were commiserating and supporting the family as best as they could. Then, my eyes laid on Olivia and Robert with a dreadful look on their fronts. They were showing their appreciation to their guests.
Facing Liam, I told him that I'll be back in a few minutes. With his droopy eyes, he gave me a nod in return. I strode towards Veronica's dreary mother.
I hated that I was about to intrude on their bubble. I made up my mind about it. But before I was going to retreat to my previous position, Olivia's eyes met mine as if she sensed me approaching. I was very desperate to have a conversation with her and Robert, although they were busy with their guests. So, it will probably only be her and I.
She examined my facial expression as hers twisted into a concerned one. She nervously excused herself from her guest and made her way towards me. Her dress was black and casual, and her auburn hair was delicately tied into a low bun. A few strands were loose, framing her heart-shaped face.
"I'm sorry, Olivia. You can go back to what you were doing." I started off, fiddling with my fingers.
She shook her head with a small smile. "No, it's fine. Speak up, sweetie. What's wrong?" Her hand gently laid on my tensed shoulder.
"I was just worried, I wanted to visit you yesterday but you weren't at your house," I said, my voice was laced with disappointment.
"I'm sorry to hear this, but we were with a cop, working on our suspect list." She accentuated, her eyes wandering around as if she was searching for someone.
"And who did you get on your suspect list so far? I'd like to help you guys with this." I responded, taking a step forward. Actually, I would be useless to them, but it wouldn't hurt to help.
My mind trailed off to the same night, where I had no clue of what was going on. I never expected how afraid I would being clueless, until I got to experience it. I was afraid that the murderer would turn out to be me.
I tried to think of any reasons why I would murder my best friend and nothing came to my mind. But who knows? Maybe the reasons why got wiped out of my memories too.
"Are you okay, Quartz?" I got brought back to reality by a female voice. A cold hand laid on my shoulder, causing me to flinch. I came back to my senses to realize that I was still at the funeral.
Looking at the cold hand, I averted my eyes up the arm, only to gaze back at the owner, who had their eyebrows scrunched in concern. Brenda, my current closest friend, was the owner of the hand. She didn't look okay herself; underneath her eyes, there were terrible dark eye bags with a puff. Her jet hair was no longer shiny and neat as usual.
By her side, Olivia was mirroring the same expression she had. Her worried, wide eyes were examining me as if she was trying to solve a problem.
Do people misunderstand me this often?
Brushing off the thought, I caught Liam kneeling down by Veronica's grave. He set a bouquet of flowers beside the others. He began mumbling something that was inaudible from where I was standing, although I could clearly see his facial expression. The inside corner of his eyebrows was slanted upward, his lips were drawn downward and his eyes were filled with moisture. The audience was a few feet away from him, watching him with an uneasy look.
After a while of trying to comfort Liam, I helped him get back up to his feet. I noticed that everybody had their eyes fixed on us as I scanned my surrounding.
It made me anxious and I suddenly felt my head spinning. The scorching, airless weather didn't help at all. My stomach twisted, an instant feeling of nausea washing over me. Noticing the bushes that were a few feet away, I immediately strode towards them, only to let out my stomach's content.
I heard multiple gags coming from behind me, which I ignored, then I felt my hair getting gathered away from my face as I continued barfing. Once I was done, I blew out a long sigh and looked over my shoulder to see Brenda.
"Let me drive you home." She insisted, her voice velvety. I bobbed my head, spotting Robert approaching me.
Brenda extended her arm towards me, her hand unclenched. I brought up my hand to hers and she helped me up just as Robert reached us.
"I'm glad both of you girls came." He forced a small smile that wasn't close to reaching his eyes, not even a little bit. His darted towards me, then he parted his lips and spoke up again, "Is there anything I could help with, Quartz?"
"I- I think I need to leave. I'm s-sorry," I stammered.
"Yes, we need to leave. It was nice seeing you, Mr. Morrison. Try to keep me updated and take care of your wife, yeah?" Her words were assertive. She lightly patted his shoulder.
Brenda grabbed my hand in hers and began walking towards my car. She looked over at Liam and gestured to him to follow us.
"Stay strong, girls," Robert called out from behind us. I just gave him a smile over my shoulder as Brenda shouted, "You too!"
As Brenda and I walked side by side, I told her that I wanted to drive. But she refused, saying that I'll get us in an accident since I seemed to be dizzy. I couldn't blame her for saying this. I was walking weirdly as if I was drunk. Later we got in the car, including Liam, Brenda started driving away from the funeral.
I felt relieved and sorry at once. I felt sorry because I didn't stay there longer, and relieved because I didn't have to deal with the dreadful sight.
On our way home, I at least had to make Brenda stop the car once, so I could barf. I accidentally did so right beside someone's yard, which seemed to be for a very familiar house.
I didn't get to take my time to think of who the owner would be since I heard a growl from behind me. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder to see a creature with black and brown fur, saliva was drooping out of its mouth. It was a German Shepherd. Letting out a short shriek, I quickly ran as it chased after me. Luckily, I managed to reach the car and get back in.
Later on, when we reached my house, I felt my shoulders slump in relief. I could finally relax. However, when I looked at Brenda, I knew that plenty of questions were about to be thrown at my direction.
Sitting down on my bed, I let all the words out of what happened to me that night from waking up in that cabin to meeting Aaron and his adorable little sister.
Brenda paused, trying to digest all the information. "Wait, don't you think Aaron Walker had to do with something that happened in the woods? Do you really believe that he found you at his yard?"
Getting up and pacing back and forth, I pondered her words. I couldn't tell if Aaron was innocent or not since I've only known him for two days. And because of that, I had to hang out with him more to reveal his secrets.