Chapter 4

As Jason was heading to his home, he heard a familiar voice from a narrow alley to his right. He overheard a conversation that intrigued him because it mentioned Jessica. He stopped and carefully tiptoed his way near the alley to hear the conversation better. He peeped through a small opening from the cracks of the wall and saw Carla. She’s smoking with people he has never met. This is the first time Jason even saw Carla smoke cigarettes. He never knew she’d be interested in that kind of thing because when they were together, Carla hated the smell of secondhand smoke.

“How could he do that to me?” Carla asked, visibly crying. Her makeup was running down her face. “I've known him since we were kids! We were childhood sweethearts. I really thought we’d end up together. We’re good for each other. He’s the next captain of the basketball team and I am the running cheerleading captain. We could even be prom king and queen in February. No one from our seniors looks as good as us. There wouldn’t be any competition.”

“But he’s not into you anymore.” said the shirtless black guy smoking cigarettes as well “He’s in love with Jess, remember?”

“Have you even met her?” she exclaimed “She’s not even pretty! She has ginger hair that was so messy. She wouldn’t even pass as prom queen. Besides, she was not even a junior. She was a freshman. You know what freshmen look like. They are all too messy with snot on their nose.”

“I saw her with Jason once,” a girl said, this one’s not smoking anything but she was holding a bottle of beer “They look happy together. She was beautiful. The freckles on her face suited her. It’s just sad that she’s dead now.”

“Why is it so sad?!” Carla said in anger “It should be for the better because I always wanted her dead. That was the happiest day of my life, when she fell off that cliff.”

Jason clenched his teeth. He’s angry. He doesn’t want people to talk about his dead girlfriend that way.

“Remember when you almost killed her?” the black guy asked. Jason’s eyes widened in shock from what he heard. “She almost drowned when you pushed her to the pool when you knew that she didn’t know how to swim.”

“But she didn’t die!” Carla yelled, then remembered to lower her voice down. “James came to save her. I don’t even know why he was there.”

Jason was stunned. His twin brother didn’t tell him that.

“I always knew that Jason liked her,” Carla continued “Ever since the day they met, I knew that there was something going on. He never looked at me the way he looked at her. And I always wanted to remove her from the picture. Luckily, God helped me and sent his angels to take her life back. But still, Jason doesn’t wanna be with me anymore.”

Jason heard enough. He didn't want to hear more from that conversation so he ran away from that alley. Carla and her friends were alerted of his presence so they ran out and looked for him but Jason managed to hide behind the wall on the corner of the street. He then immediately ran home to take a shower and drive to the restaurant where Geraldine and James were heading so he could talk to them about everything he heard.

At the restaurant, Geraldine and James were waiting for their order for thirty minutes now. They didn’t bother to make a follow up because they still weren’t that hungry so they were just making origami from the table napkins to kill time.

“Look babe,” James said, showing off his masterpiece “I made a swan”

“Mine’s better” Geraldine said while holding her rose origami.

“I’m glad you were able to keep up with the lessons. You missed four months of school.” James said

“Dad sent tutors when I was at the hospital.” she replied, while unfolding her origami “It wasn’t hard but I’m sure that I can’t afford to go back in the honor roll this year. I missed a lot of exams but luckily, dad was able to talk to the principal so that I wouldn’t repeat 10th grade.”

A waiter arrived with a tray of food in his hands. He placed three dishes on the table, two salad bowls, three empty glasses, and a pitcher of iced lemonade. The two ordered for Jason already. They ordered him a plate of burger and chips while they had two pasta dishes - one spaghetti bolognese and one truffle pasta with four mushrooms. They anticipated that the orders would come late so they didn’t wait for Jason to arrive before getting him some lunch.

Finally, Jason came when Geraldine and James just started eating. James scooted over to make a space for Jason to sit. He poured lemonade in his brother’s glass and handed him his burger and chips.

“You wouldn’t believe what I heard earlier.” Jason said before biting on to his burger.

“What is it?” Geraldine asked while twirling her fork on her spaghetti.

“Carla,” Jason mumbled while chewing his food. “I saw her in an alley, smoking with friends.”

“She smokes now?” James asked.

“I was surprised too.” Jason answered. “But you’ll never guess what they were talking about.”

Geraldine and James listened, their eyes focused on Jason.

“I didn’t know that Carla tried to drown Jess,” he continued.

Geraldine clenched her fist in anger “I knew she would do something like that. I told you she killed my sister but nobody believed me. I knew I was right all along.”

“Yes,” Jason replied “I am starting to believe you now. Carla always had the reason to kill Jessica. She wanted to have me back. But I never knew that she would actually do that.”

“And you really believed that?” James asked

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were the one who saved Jessica from drowning in that pool?” Jason asked his brother. He’s confused but he was obviously not angry.

“That was an accident.” James replied before gulping down some lemonade to clear his throat.

“Accident?!” Geraldine exclaimed. “You always say that everything that happened was an accident. You saw it with your own eyes that Carla pushed Jess down that cliff. How is it an accident?”

“You saw it?!” Jason asked, now more confused. He couldn’t even continue eating his food. “You saw it and then you chose not to tell me??”

“Stop. It was an accident” James insisted. “Geraldine, you know it wasn’t real. You were just making things up in your head because you were trying to cope with the trauma.”

“And now you’re really insinuating that I was crazy and that I was really supposed to be in that mental hospital.” she retorted, her eyes are now blazing in anger.

“When can we eat in peace?” James asked, obviously frustrated. He closed his eyes and bowed his head and buried his face in his palms.

“No, James” Jason said “Don’t change the subject. Tell me, why didn’t you say anything about that pool incident? Why were you there?”

James couldn’t answer his brother’s questions. He just wanted to end this conversation so badly because he knows where this is going. He hated talking about Jessica after Geraldine was released from that hospital because he knew that it would trigger his girlfriend back to being angry and insisting that Carla killed Jess and she saw it.

“James, answer me” Jason pushed harder. “Why didn’t you tell me that Carla tried to kill my girlfriend?”

“She didn’t try to kill her,” James answered, his hands now at the back of his head for support. “They were having fun. Carla pushed Jess to get into the pool where everyone else was. She didn’t mean to drown her. She didn’t know Jess couldn’t swim.”

“That was not what I heard,” James replied immediately. “Carla knew that Jess didn't know how to swim and she really wanted her dead. Why do you keep on denying it? You didn’t even answer my question. What were you doing there?”