chapter 7

Austin squeezed his face, frowning at me. "Why were you following me?"

"You were headed the wrong direction...I just wondered...didn't you see me?" I said, smiling nervously.

"I saw you."

"Why didn't you stop and say hi?" I stupidly asked.

He frowned with grimace, hands folded on his chest. "I was busy."

Oh. Ok. "Anyway, I was surprised when you turned left towards the cemetery, instead of right to go home," I shrugged, rubbing the back of my neck.

He glared at me. "So, why did you follow me?"

What is this, an interrogation? "Who says I followed you? I like to come here sometimes. It's quiet and helps me think," I lied, looking at my sneakers.

He stared at me for a while and sighed, "You climb roofs and run after cars."

I glared at him. "I didn't run after you."

He chuckled.

"Who's Adrienne?”

"You're really nosy, you know that?" I kept quiet. "She's my sister."

I gasped but he ignored it and continued, "Was. She was my sister."

I clenched my hands on my chest, sadly sighing, "I...I'm so sorry."

He faced away from me, looking at the statue. "I was in New York when it happened. Adrienne had always been a quiet girl, growing up. She loved reading, and always had her nose in some book. She had one good friend, a classmate, Oma. I don't know why I didn't notice that she didn't really have other friends. Oma moved away to Texas in 2017, when her father was transferred there for his work. I know Adrienne was very upset about Oma moving away. I always thought that she would make new friends, though. After all, it was easy to make friends at school, right?" He sighed, "At least it was for me."

"I moved to Queens that same year to study criminal justice at a university there. I didn’t see much of my family that year or the next. The classes and course work kept me busy. I did call home on weekends thought just to say hi, and catch up on how my parents and Adrienne were doing. Adrienne always said that she was fine."

He rubbed his forehead and continued, "She committed suicide in April, 2019."

Tears were flowing from my eyes by now. "I'm so sorry."

He ignored me and continued, "Afterwards, we found out that she was being bullied by a group of girls at school. Cheerleaders."

I gasped, looking up at him.

"Popular girls, who picked on people who were less popular - people who were different. I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this. Girls like you would never understand," Austin said, like he was spitting out venom.

My eyes widened with shock. "Girls like me?"

He stared at me with his handsome face and emotionless eyes. "You're a cheerleader, aren't you? I've seen you walk home with your pompoms."

I suddenly understood Austin. Why he was sometimes so cold and hostile. I was the embodiment of the kind of girls he hated most. The kind who drove his sister to kill herself. "You don't know me.”

"Whatever," he signed.

I looked down, feeling ashamed. I couldn't blame him for being like this. I couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of hell his family had gone through.

Most probably still be going through. I looked at him. It hurt to see him so sad.

I placed my hands on my hips and rubbed my chin. I should change the subject. "Austin...you mentioned that you studied in Queens?"

He nodded, "Yeah. Criminal justice. And my Girlfriend at the time-"

Girlfriend? I thought and turned to face Austin.

"Never mind. I was a different person then," he sighed.

I was about to speak up when Austin's phone rang. He took his phone out of his pants and answered it, “Lewis speaking... I'll be right there.”

He turned to look at me and sighed, "Listen, I have to go - but I can’t let you walk home by yourself."

"It's alright. I can walk home, it's not that far."

"No, it's...not safe." He shook his head. "Come on, I'll send you home, but we'll have to make a detour first; I have to stop by the crime scene. My partner just called - she's already there waiting for me.”

I was shivering, he seemed to notice it. "Are you alright? You're shivering."

It's chilly here with the sun setting."Are you cold? Here, take my jacket." He took his jacket off, handing it to me.

Although I wanted his jacket, I didn't want to come off as desperate. "Thank you, but I'm okay."

"If you're sure." He put his jacket back on. "Shall we?"

I nodded and we walked into his car and he drove off to wherever the crime scene was, I couldn't help but think about the horror of Austin's story. I couldn't understand what would lead a person to hurt another person like that. Poor Adrienne.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't realize that we'd already arrived at our destination.

"We're here," Austin called out to me. "Listen, this might take a while. Stay in the car, please," he pleaded and walked out of the car.

Where were we? I took this time to look at my surroundings. We were parked on the edge of a forest. I looked over to where Austin was standing - he was with a lady and what looked like a police man. Was...was that... screw this! I got out of the car and heard Austin's voice, "Estimated time of death?"

I walked up to where they were standing. "She's been dead for roughly twenty-four hours," I heard the officer say.

"Shortly after she went missing then. Foul play?" Austin asked again.

"Forensics will need to confirm, but from the marks around her neck, it looks like she was strangled to death," the officer replied.

"Oh!" I said rather loudly. They all turned to look at me.

Austin's jaw tightened, "I thought I told you to stay in the car?"

"Who are you?" The female detective asked.

I ignored her and faced the lifeless body lying on the floor. I gasped and let the water works spill from my eyes. "Faye...Faye...she's dead," I whimpered.

Austin came over to me and wrapped his hands around me, bringing me into a hug. "Come on, I'll take you home," he whispered in my ear.