Bloody Skeleton Series #1 The Monster in the neighborhood

12-Marie

From a mile away, Marie would be able to point out her brother and his stupid friends. It might just have been the energy they radiated.

Outside Pete's, under one of those tables with the giant umbrellas attached because of the sun, Adi was ranting about how she'd thought Dylan was going to ask her out, but instead, he'd ended up with Ashley and now she didn't even what to do. It'd been two hours of sitting there and the only thing Marie had truly enjoyed so far was the shake.

After the first glass, Adi had offered to pay for another one. And the one after that.

Jenny was just cooing about how that wasn't fair when Marie saw Mikey and his friends start to ride down the street. They zoomed by, not even glancing at the shop, except Jake who might have been looking for somebody.

Spotting her brother and his friends was more of a habit now, Marie did even know she was trailing them with her eyes until Betty nudged her with an elbow.

'What are you looking at?'

When Marie turned back, everybody was looking at her. 'Oh nothing, just my brother.' Why would they ride past Pete's if there were shorter routes to take?

It wasn't her business though, it wasn't as if she cared, so she just leaned forward and fished for her straw without her hands.

'You look like a kid when you do that.' Jenny giggled.

'I am a kid,' Marie paused from sipping to say. They all were actually. Adi was probably the oldest because she'd be turning fifteen after school resumed.

'Anyways, did you guys hear about Old Man Jones?'

Adi rolled her eyes. 'Everybody's heard about Old Man Jones, Betty.'

'Yeah, but I mean, I heard that he's probably dead.'

Jenny laughed. 'Duh! They found like a pool of blood, who survives something like that anyways. It not being official is just police protocol or something like that.'

'Yeah but,' Betty didn't let up, 'something like this has never happened before. My mom was saying that it was probably all those city people coming for the "nature experience".'

'But our part of town is literally the back. Like there aren't even that many hotels around here. You'd need to drive to like Harrison Street to get a decent place. If a murderer was there, why not just kill somebody close by?' Adi asked.

Marie raised her head. It wasn't as if they always talked about boring things, sometimes hanging out with them was very fun, but most times it was just average. The things high school girls talked about weren't very interesting. Mostly about celebrities or boys, but sometimes it was about random things that she surprisingly enjoyed.

Like now, it was about the mystery of Old Man Jones' disappearance.

'Maybe they wanted to throw the police off?' Jenny said.

'Oh please. What we have are sheriffs, you'll find proper police like three towns away.'

'Still the same idea.'

Marie played with her straw, drawing it out of the glass to suck the shake wedged inside from under. 'But why? I don't think Old Man Jones would do anything to be targeted.'

Adi gave her a look. 'Are you talking about the grumpy old dude on Nord Street that heckled at literally everybody that passed by his house?'

Marie thought on it a bit and stuck her straw back into the glass. 'Yeah...I can see what you're saying, but just because some old fart heckled you one time doesn't mean you kill him.'