She told me

Chapter 9

When I let myself into the house, the first thing I see is my father asleep on the couch. He jerks awake as I close the door a little louder than usual and I almost instantly regret it.

"How was your day?" he says, blinking at me.

"Fine" I say, "is it your turn to babysit tonight?"

He chuckles but it sounds forced, "it's more parenting than babysitting".

"I think co-parenting would be a better word since both of you are rarely here together".

My father looks like he has no idea what to say and I don't wait for him to find an answer.

"I have a friend coming over to study" I say, "she'll be here in half an hour or so".

"There's a cake in the fridge that your mom baked before she left maybe you can treat your friend to some of that".

"Will do"

"I'm just going to go for a walk in the park, I'll be back in time for dinner".

I nod as he leaves. To be fair, I don't blame him. I too, wouldn't want to be around myself right now. I feel like a different person, a person constantly oscillating between fear and anger.

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. I get off the couch and trudge to the door. Mia squints at me, "you look terrible".

"Yeah, I'm not into you either".

She chuckles as she follows me in, "Are there parents I need to introduce myself to?"

"One's at the park and one's out of state so that might be hard".

"Got it"

I push open my bedroom door and Mia gasps behind me, "This is.... nice"

"Thanks, my mom has a knack for decorating".

She flops on the bed gesturing to the large screen TV connected to my video game controller, "it's weird you know, everything here indicates that you most definitely are a spoilt brat".

I raise an eyebrow, "but?"

"But you don't seem like one".

I smile without humour, "I get a lot of things, but I don't always get what I want".

She looks at me with such understanding in her eyes that I kind of want to throw a pillow at her but instead I decide to just change the topic, "you play video games?"

"Not for a long time but you should ask Maya, she's really been into that stuff ever since her sister introduced her to it".

"How do you know that?" I ask, "I've literally never seen you have a single conversation with Maya".

She looked uncomfortable, "I guess we just don't have much in common anymore".

"But you did before?" I ask, not quite willing to let it go.

"Yeah, maybe in middle school, I didn't have much of a personality then and neither did she".

"You still don't"

"Ha ha" she got off the bed, "Don't ask me to put in a good word for you though Hill, I'd rather she dates the idiot she is with now than you".

I open the book on my desk that had all my notes and messy drawings about the murders, "I don't think they're together anymore".

"What?" I'm hyperaware of the fact that Mia is now standing way too close to me, leaving absolutely no room for Jesus "When did that happen?"

"Yesterday" I try to concentrate on the notes in front of me, "they had a fight and now they're on a break".