"I believe you." Danny said loudly, and I flipped him off.
"Don't be corny and show it with your actions." I said, snuffing my cigarette out and taking another one.
"So her brother thinks it had been you because he found her diary." Omar shuffled beside me and leaned against the same tree.
Jordan crouched down as well, Danny following, sitting in the grass with us.
"Have you met the girl outside of school?" Jordan asked.
"Never. Not even once." I emphasized.
"Have you ever made a remark about suicide or anything?" He asked, following my thoughts.
"Never. She didn't commit suicide, she was murdered, and he made it clear that it was I who did it." Taking another drag, I started to calm down again, nice to have another head thinking it through with me.
"There are three possibilities then. One." Jordan help up a finger.
"The diary wasn't the reason Henry is hellbent on it being you, and there is something else."
Raising another finger he continued,
"Two, Henrietta had written crap about you inside the diary, untrue crap."
The third finger followed, and I was short on breaking his playful fingers,
"Third, Henrietta spoke of someone doing bad things to her, but it wasn't you."
"Like she wrote about Kenny being an asshole, and shortened a random bad guy with K., making Henry misunderstand?" Danny had one of his lightbulb moments, and we all looked at him in admiration.
"Correct." Jordan put two fingers down and showed Danny his middle finger.
Breaking into a short laugh at Danny's exasperated face, I closed my eyes again,
"We just have to wait for the diary to be further published."
"Let's go and watch a movie." Danny nodded at me and boxed Jordan.
"Let's go drinking." Omar leaned on my shoulder only to be pushed away.
"Imma going nowhere with you traitors." I said more childishly than intended.
"Oh come on. We haven't even done anything…." Danny whined.
"Kenny. As long as we believe in you, you must do the same." Jordan took out the glasses he didn't need, to show he earnest he was.
Behind my sunglasses and behind his glasses, our eyes met.
"Fine. But I won't forget how you called me a rapist, so it is you who is paying."
Jordan put his hands up in submission, and we walked back to class, Danny clinging on me the whole time annoyingly. Seeing no black figure when entering the classroom, I was somewhat relieved. But when I sat back in my seat, I saw Henry coming back as well.
He really is one fucking step behind me.
********************
I was still hangover, but it didn't hold me back from drinking, not at all. After an entire day of being watched by Henry, even when the guys tried to shield me from him, my nerves were tense.
"What if we beat him up?" Omar asked into the round, the nightclub we were in being dark and loud, but we were on the first floor in a private room.
Following Omar's look downstairs to the dancehall, I saw a dark figure with blue eyes drinking something at the bar, looking up.
"Fuck, even here?" I cursed and downed another drink. I finally tossed my sunglasses away, which I vehemently didn't want to take off the whole time we were here.
"Fuck, that's a nasty black eye!" Danny slurred and Jordan narrowed his eyes at me.
"Yeah, tell me." Moving my eye hurt, and it throbbed now and then, but luckily, it was just the surrounding area where his fist met me.
"Should we?" Jordan looked at Omar, flexing his hands.
"Are you nuts?" I got myself another drink.
"Go and beat someone who had to identify his twin sister in a morgue not long ago?"
"Were you always this nice?" Danny scoffed at me.
"Fuck, I felt what he felt. He was in so much pain… Damn it!" I wanted to get myself a cigarette, but Jordan pointed at the ashtray, where my burning one laid untouched. Taking it, I took a deep drag.
"Imagine someone really dear to you is murdered… you need a culprit, I get him."
"You felt what he felt?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah." I saw Danny moving his hands to his chest, looking as if had molested him.
I broke into laughter,
"You dumb shit! Yesterday was the first time!."
Omar and Jordan also laughed, having heard the story already from Danny himself, who went to them whining after I told him about his most private moments.
"So you're just going to let him follow you?" Omar pressed the button and got us another serving of drinks.
"What else?" I said, getting myself another a glass.
"Want to sleep over?" Jordan asked me with concern.
"No."
"Your flat isn't safe. Go home?" Danny asked, already over his worries.
"Yeah, I go home…and that drunk, good idea." I said, and the guys looked all collectively at the floor.
"It doesn't matter, yesterday he was impulsive, I bet it was because he saw me for the first time, and it hadn't been long since he was at the morgue. Now he doesn't want to kill me, he wants to destroy me."
"Like, turn your friends against you, letting everyone believe the so-called truth?" Jordan asked and I nodded.
"Hands off him, everyone. If I find it necessary, I get him myself, but I don't want to injure someone already down on the floor, that's fucked up."
Jordan still had his glasses on and pushed them up, looking like Conan,
"The police will probably soon show up as well."