Shock gripped her body as the car came to a stop. Naomi couldn't believe she'd figured it out. She was glad she'd figured it out, but it broke her heart to know that Kurt Murphy-- a man who Lyla's mom swore up and down was a decent person, and who Lyla herself had dreamed of one day meeting for a long time-- was the one who killed his ex-wife and daughter. Even though Naomi knew the information was necessary to keep Lyla and her mother alive, she still couldn't help but wish she'd never pieced together that particular part of this deranged cosmic puzzle. No wonder DJ had seemed so perturbed when she'd given Naomi that hint about the murders.
'He's not a stranger,' the demon had said. 'Not really.'
'Not really' indeed. Kurt was basically a stranger to Lyla, given that he'd avoided her for most of her life. But then he wasn't, because he was her father. He was still a blood relative. Which only confused Naomi more. How could the police have botched that part up so badly? You'd think they would have seen from the public records that Kurt and Heather had once been married, hospital records would have shown that they'd had a child, and the Lyla's birth certificate would have proven that he was her father. Why wouldn't they have included anything like that for the motive in the official report? Sure, DJ had said that the police had leapt to the wrong conclusion, but it was still unsettling to learn that they had leapt so far in the wrong direction.
From the seat beside her Lyla let out a long sigh, breaking Naomi out of her reverie. She glanced over from the driver's side and Naomi thought she'd never seen her look more down. "I don't want to talk about it," Lyla told her. Her face grew more stern as she wagged a finger at her. "And I don't want any pity, either. Got it?"
Naomi put her hands up in a neutral sign of surrender. "Got it," she promised, feeling already that with the added information she knew she would have to work extra hard to keep the worry and concern off her face.
"Good," Lyla said, nodding slightly at her own statement. She flung off her seatbelt and threw open the car door to her left. "Let's go explore this park."
A sigh slipped past her lips as Naomi watched Lyla spring out of the car. Instinctively Naomi leaned back to grab her sketchbook from the backseat before following after Lyla up to the top of the hill. She stopped for a moment, her hand brushing against the dirty tire hanging out of the swing, before Lyla gave her a smug look and dropped down the hole again. Well, for the first time technically. 'Ugh, time travel is way too confusing,' Naomi inwardly groaned.
She hurried over to the top of the slide, giving it a long, cautious look. She knew from her last experience that it wasn't actually as dangerous as it appeared. Still, Naomi really wasn't a fan of small, dark spaces. Even just looking at the cramped enclosure in front of her was enough to send a shiver down her spine. She'd gone through this once already. Lucky for her, she remembered about the stairs Lyla had shown her. In fact, she was just about to turn tail and head down them when a voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Yo Baby Blue, what's the hold up?" Lyla called from the bottom of the slide. "You get lost on your way down?"
Naomi rolled her eyes at the nickname. She wasn't surprised Lyla knew she was chickening out. Baby Blue was a taunt the redhead reserved especially for calling out Naomi's cowardice. It didn't happen often. There was a lot that Naomi could put up with. She knew it for a fact because Lyla had put her through a lot. It was just that Naomi had very specific fears that she had a hard time dealing with. And of all her phobias, claustro was at the top of the list.
"I'll be down in a second!" Naomi yelled down the hole. Technically that wasn't a lie. She would be down shortly, though she certainly wasn't about to go down the slide. Why terrify herself with one of her worst fears when wide open-spaced stairs were an option? It was a solid plan B.
Except that when she reached the top of the stairs she nearly walked right into Lyla. She instinctively reached a hand to grab her friend by the wrist, keeping the girl from tumbling back down the steps. Once she'd steadied herself, Lyla managed a stern look at Naomi. "You'll be down in a second?" she questioned, quirking a brow at the girl.
"Yup," Naomi shrugged, a blush coloring her cheeks. "Another second and I would've been down those steps."
"Another second and you might go down them anyway," Lyla huffed as she twined their fingers together. "I just might push you."
"That's not very ladylike," Naomi chided the girl. She ducked as Lyla brought her free hand up to swat at her head. She frowned in the face of Naomi's smirk, opting to look upset that she'd missed.
"I know tight spaces aren't your strong suit," Lyla said, back to being serious as she leaned her head on Naomi's shoulder. "But please just give the slide a chance? It's so cool, I promise. What have you got to lose?"
'My sanity,' Naomi thought in response, though she decided not to voice it. She wanted to say that she knew she wouldn't enjoy it very much. But to prove that she'd have to admit that she'd already gone down the side once before, and that was a claim that would be much more difficult to explain.
As though sensing her hesitation, Lyla gave her hand a soft squeeze. "Tell you what: this time, I'll go down with you. Would that make it better?"
Naomi pondered it for a moment. "Yeah," she decided, nodding her head with the force of her agreement. "That might work."
Lyla beamed at her. "Let's go!"
Naomi silently groaned as she allowed the girl to lead her back over to the slide. This wasn't her first idea on how to spend this day. A part of her thought she should be tracking down Kurt Murphy and finding a way to have him arrested now. Unfortunately that wasn't a real option though. She had no physical evidence that he was going to murder the Murphys. Any judge was likely to toss out her testimony as heresy, especially if she included the parts about DJ when she explained how she knew what he was planning. At any rate, she was currently holding hands with Lyla and following her to a nightmarish slide instead of out looking for her father so it hardly mattered.
The hole gaped open before them, just as daunting as ever. Naomi wanted to call it quits and take the stairs but she doubted Lyla would let her. Instead the redhead lowered herself down and sat at the opening, tugging gently on Naomi's hand to let her know to do the same. Naomi reluctantly followed suit. A rock instantly lodged itself against her thigh as she slowly sat down in the dirt next to Lyla. Their hands still connected, Lyla gave her an encouraging grin before shuffling forward and dragging them both into the darkness.
Naomi swallowed back a scream while Lyla let out a "Whoop!" of ecstasy. As they neared the end, Lyla squeezed her hand tight and then let go as the two of them tumbled out into the grass waiting for them on the outside of the slide. A sigh of relief sounded from the blue haired girl while the redhead giggled in the grass beside her. A breeze swept in from the east that made the temperature feel colder. Naomi shivered and shuffled herself closer to Lyla.
Lyla sat up suddenly. "Look!" she whispered, pointing across the meadow.
Naomi hadn't noticed it the first time, but a little ways off stood a large, wooden gazebo. The inside was a perfect circle of planks surrounded by a white railing. A cone-shaped top covered the whole thing. Perched on the edge of the railing was a large bluejay preening its feathers. As if sensing its admirers, it paused in its efforts to stare directly at them.
Without realizing she was doing it Naomi tugged her sketchbook out of her bag and began to draw the songbird. It was going to be messy for the time being; she was sketching quickly before the bird decided to fly off and leave her without a reference. If it allowed her the time then she wanted to get down all its markings. Each bluejay tended to have different flecks of black and white surrounding its face. This one had almost a black mask starting at its beak that ended almost to the tip of the blue feathers sticking out at the back of its head. It was unique and Naomi really wanted to make sure that she got it down exactly right.
"Incredible," Lyla murmured from next to her.
Naomi hummed her agreement, glancing over at the girl. She'd fully expected Lyla to be watching the bluejay over at the gazebo. She was surprised to find the girl's gaze fixed firmly on her, a soft yet intense look in her eyes. It made an unexplainable blush crawl up Naomi's cheeks as her heart fluttered inside her chest.
She cleared her throat. "What is?" she asked, referring to Lyla's comment.
Lyla ducked her head. She suddenly had a very bashful expression on her face. It almost looked like she was embarrassed to explain herself. "I was thinking about the first time I saw you," she confessed.
"In Mr. Berkins' room?" Naomi questioned, confused.
But Lyla shook her head. "No," she corrected, "I saw you that morning. Before school even started that day."
That was right. Naomi had completely forgotten, but her dad had thought her new school started much earlier than it did. He'd dropped her off almost two hours before her first class, and he hadn't answered his phone when the principal had rang to let him know the correct time. As such, Naomi had sort of wandered the campus and tried to entertain herself until the start of her first class. She hadn't talked to anybody though. She hadn't even known Lyla had seen her then.
"What was I doing?" Naomi asked reluctantly, preparing herself for an embarrassing answer.
Lyla smiled at her and that soft look was back in her eyes. "This," she told her.
"Drawing?" Naomi clarified, looking at the graphite bird in her lap.
"Yup," Lyla laughed. "You were sitting on the grass looking up at a tree. I thought you were so weird. I didn't see the sketchbook at first. But then I saw your pencil move and you had this super concentrated look on your face and I realized you were drawing. It took me way longer than it should have to figure out you were drawing a bird and not the tree. Then all of a sudden the bluejay flew down from the branches and landed on the grass right in front of you. You made this stupid little squeak and got this adorably excited look on your face. That was when I knew I had to be friends with you."
"Is that also when you started your bluejay obsession?" Naomi joked, trying to stop the rising flow of emotions inside her. She'd never known that Lyla had seen that moment. She remembered the little bird that first day of school. She couldn't believe Lyla had seen it, and she couldn't believe it had convinced her to befriend the new girl in class.
Lyla nodded, responding to Naomi's question. "Yes," she said, taking one of Naomi's hands back in one of her own. "Ever since that moment, I've loved the heck out of bluejays. Especially after you dyed your hair, they've always reminded me of you. That's why I wanted to get one tattooed on my arm: so I can always have you with me."
The silence that followed her confession was laced with a heavy unknown. Naomi's heart pounded hard and fast in her chest as she stared mesmerized into Lyla's eyes. She wanted to voice her own admission. She wanted to tell Lyla that she loved her. She wanted to lean towards her and crash their lips together. She wanted so many things in that moment.
But it wasn't right. The timing was all off. There was still so much she had to do just to make sure Lyla survived past this day. She definitely could not be wasting time on entertaining her silly little crush. Lyla deserved better than that. So Naomi ended the silent staring contest between them. She let go of the girl's hand and she pushed herself to her feet.
"Is it okay if you take me home now?" she asked. "I kinda wanted to help my dad out with something today."
Lyla sighed, and that look of disappointment in her eyes sparked an odd bit of hope in Naomi's heart. "Yeah, I can take you home," Lyla said. She nodded her head at the stairs. "We'll take those this time."
Naomi snorted. "It's not like the slide is an option."
"Oh, it is," Lyla assured her, making her laugh outright.
"For going up?" Naomi questioned.
Lyla shook her head at her. "You're an idiot sometimes," she told her fondly.
As Naomi watched her start up the stairs she thought about how-- impending murder aside-- this actually would have been the perfect moment to tell Lyla how she felt about her, and se found that she agreed with the girl. She truly was an idiot.