Achieving Unbroken

-Chapter 21-

Achieving Unbroken
Chapter Twenty One

—

"Paint dries,
Like my tired eyes;
Rain cries,
I don't wanna go outside"
Outside | Bea Miller

—

Lilla
[Friday, April 29th, 2017 - Before School]

It only took a few days  for all of my questions from earlier this week to be answered.

Monday had been a strange day; everyone had been told that something happened at a party this past weekend, but many details weren't provided. I heard whispers of drugs, ambulances, teenagers involved. Someone took a lethal amount of drugs. Somehow, a person at Bringham was involved, but I have no idea if they were the person busted with drugs or the drug provider.

Until today.

"Lilla, I have news," Piper rushes up to me, Allison and Peyton in tow, fresh off of one of the arriving buses.

"We," Peyton corrects, making Piper and Ally's eyes roll.

"We have news." Pip fixes, turning back to me with slight annoyance. "There's details about the party last weekend." I blink, taken aback with the sudden news.

"What? Are you sure, or is it B.S. rumors?"

"We're sure," Peyton confirms, nodding. "I was there. I just haven't talked about it very much. It was... A lot," his eyes darken, like he's remembering. It makes me nervous.

A jolting thought pops in my head, and suddenly, my curiosity is put on pause and shifted onto a different topic.

"Wait, Peyton, you're a star athlete on the swim team. And you were at a party with drugs?" My voice drops to a whisper, scared of people hearing in case this is detrimental to Peyton. Not many people are at school yet, but some are trickling in, passing us in the large hallway. He shakes his head.

"I gave the school a statement that I genuinely didn't know that there were drugs at the party, and had like, twelve people testify that I wasn't involved in anything illegal. They also gave me a drug test, which I passed." Content with his answer, I nod.

"So what happened?"

The three of them give each other a sad look, like they are all hesitant to tell me.

"It was Joey Oakland, Lil. He died."

Everything in my mind freezes. There's no way it was Joey. He's too young. He couldn't have been at the party.

"Ja— Jason?" I force out, thinking she misspoke. Ally shakes her head, and steps closer to carefully hug me.

"No, Lilla. It was Joey," she whispers into my ear. Tears press against my eyes and I do everything in my power to not cry, but it's hard with all of the thoughts going through my mind, the heartbreak in my chest.

"Joey..." My voice trembles. "Overdosed?"

She nods against my shoulder, and gives me another tight squeeze. I can barely find it in me to hug her back.