Prologue

Austin sat in his seat, glancing around the room. He felt uptight dressed in a suit that almost fit him a little bit too small. He focuses on the pastor again and tries to ignore the sound of the faint weeping. He has a hard time not glaring at the few familiar faces who press tissues to their faces, sobbing silently. He shakes his head, appalled, why cry over somebody you tormented every day? This seemed like pure bullshit to Austin.

His childhood best friend was murdered five days ago. By who? It's still being investigated. The investigations are supposed to travel further once school starts up again. His name was Dezmond Wade, one of the most charismatic, funny, odd people Austin had ever met in his entire life and it still shakes up Austin why he ever ditched his best friend. Ditched him for this: The girl who has her arm slung around his shoulder like she's comforting him but he can hear her smacking her gum between her teeth, she can care less. Ditched him for this: Two boys who are holding false sorrowed faces, hiding their phones in their laps as they text everyone about next Friday's part, they're bringing beer! Ditched him for everything he swore he'd never be. Dez was so much greater than this reputation, these frauds, this popularity.

Dez was found Sunday night by the janitor who called the cops as soon as he found Dez with that bullet pinched right between two of the wrinkles on his forehead, surged into his brain. He was tied to a chair in the Mess Hall of the school. Bruises and rope burns tainted his pale wrists. The blood ran from his forehead and down his face, drenched his shirt and dripped off of him like syrup, splattering the ground. There wasn't any evidence from any person but Austin was strung together by the thought of who would do this? Dez loved people. Even the ones who stole his clothes from the locker room.

Sorrow tugged at Austin's chest. He should've been there for Dez, he should've never left Dez for everything else. He shouldn't have chosen everything else over Dez. Dez had been his best friend since he was 5 and then one day in the ninth grade, Austin showed up to school and he can't even remember what he said to the red-headed guy, but Dez soon stopped following Austin around, talking to him, even looking at him. Their friendship was battered and smothered into the ground for Austin to walk all over without any remorse. Austin wonders how hurt Dez must've been.

It isn't until now, an entire year later, that Austin feels the guilt and regret for what he did. How could he let go of Pancake Breakfasts and Science Inventions or Freezie-Friday's? But he had and he feels even worse when Dez's family glances over at him and smiles warmly through their tears. He didn't deserve that but he still smiles back.

Austin found himself lost in a daydream of the last good day he had with Dez. It was the day before he quit on Dez. They were at Melody's Diner. Austin was demolishing pancakes and Dez was wolfing down a Chicken Pot Pie. They were laughing over Didi's new boyfriend, he was a total loser that Didi thought was just a magnificent superhero.

He pulls out of the daydream when the family starts to exit the church, following the casket outside of the backdoor. Austin stands up with everyone else, paying his respects to the family. He stares at his feet. He feels awful, he feels the grief, he remembers the innocent times.

Austin wanted to know who killed Dez and he didn't know how, but he was going to figure it out. He was going to give Dez his justice. He owed this to Dez and he felt that Dez deserved to be more than a cold case. At some point, Austin was going to find Dez's killer.

. . . . . .

Chapter One

"Justice," said the teacher, scribbling the word across the board, "J-U-S-T-I-C-E. Justice." Mrs. Donna turned around and looked at her students, "Who can tell me what justice is? What is it to you?" Of course everybody knew what justice meant but nobody rose their hand, everyone was hardly paying attention to her lesson.

Mrs. Donna stared at her students, waiting for the answer to be shouted out but she received nothing. The students were picked at their binders, or doodling in their books. Mrs. Donna's eyes land on Ally Dawson's slumped figure in her desk. Her eyes always seemed to look tired and she had an apathetic attitude. But Mrs. Donna still recalls Ally's great pieces of writing. Ally should know the answer to this, despite her troubles, Ally was an intelligent girl but often didn't want to show it.

"Ally," Mrs. Donna called, a smile pressing on her lips, "What is justice to you?"

Ally looked at Mrs. Donna. She shrugged and looked away from the teacher, focusing on the numbers she was scribbling down onto her desk with a dull pencil. Ally spoke up, "What my cousin deserved but never got." Mrs. Donna hadn't expected that answer. The students burst into a ramble at the mentioning of Dezmond Wade who's memory had drifted away from the school until now.

Austin had been scribbling non-sense into his notebook when his head snapped up and looked at Ally. He didn't exactly know Ally, but he'd heard of her. She was Dez's cousin. She moved to Miami right after he passed away because Dez's mother needed the comfort from her parents. Ally's mother was Dez's mother's sister. Austin recalled Ally's name being mentioned a few times by Dez. Though, Austin has only ever known Ally to be the girl who sat in the middle row of his English class.

"Quiet!" exclaimed Mrs. Donna to the babbling students. She looked at Ally. "Thank you for that comment, Ally." Mrs. Donna sighed, trying to continue on with her lesson as she corrected the class to what justice was: A fair treatment when an unfair circumstance has happened. She tried to ignore the other students: She's right, kinda like her cousin. He's just a cold case now. That's stupid that they never solved it. Oh well, he's in the past. Wasn't that like two years ago?

"You're welcome. But it's not like he was really a big part of this school, right?" Ally said again, her voice always sounded tired and apathetic. Ally blamed it on the weight of the world.

"That is enough, Ally." Mrs. Donna snapped above the snickering students who seemed to find Ally's comments entertaining. Ally smirked lightly at Mrs. Donna and mock-saluted her. The class laughed again.

Austin didn't take his eyes off of Ally's figure. She knew Dez just as much as Austin did obviously, maybe a little less considering they didn't live in the same city, but it was obvious to him that Ally was just as curious and adamant to give Dez what he deserved as Austin was. He kept his gaze locked on her back for a moment before he focused on flipping through his textbook as instructed by the teacher who had obviously had enough of Ally's comments.

. . . . . . . . .

Austin was flipping through the old school yearbook when he heard somebody sit down at his lunch table. He quickly shoved the book onto his lap and looked up seeing his two buddies. Elliott tore off his bag from his shoulder and grunted as he held his head.

"Need some Advil or something?" Austin cackled, watching his friend with amusement.

"Fuck off, Moon." Elliott growled into his palms. Austin rose her hands up in defense earning a laugh from Jace who sat next to Elliott.

Jace patted Elliott's shoulder, "He's just frustrated his girl doesn't like him." Jace smirked.

"She's not my girl," Elliott moaned sadly. Jace gave Austin a look, the two of them laughing in sync.

"Little Sophomore Sophie! Isn't that right, Elliott?" Jace cooed, pinching Elliott's cheek.

"Fucking stop, Jace!" Elliott slapped his wrists away, a frown on his features.

Austin's eyes grew in size, "Dude, the geek?"

Jace pointed at Austin, "The hot geek."

"Don't talk about her like that," huffed Elliott.

"I'm sorry, man, but no girl I've seen can pull off converse and a mini skirt like that." Jace replied, followed by a whistle. Austin laughed and focused on his lunch that he had forgotten was there.

"Whatever." grumbled Elliott. "She hates me." he moped, "She totally me I was a jackass-player who has no future ahead of me." Austin and Jace snorted, holding in their laughter. Elliott sighed loudly, "But why do chicks have to be so complicated? Like, she can't expect me just to give up everything? Like, I'm just going to magically stop living my life and start reading books with her! It's fucked up!"

Austin glanced up at the girl who was standing there. Her eyes held a fire in them after listening to what he just said. Elliott noticed Austin holding his lips, trying not to laugh so he quickly turned around. Elliott's face paled, "Sophie, Hey...I was...I was just talking about you!" Elliott stumbled over his words.

Sophie's face began red with anger, "Jerk." she spat, her palm flying across Elliott's face causing Jace and Austin to burst into laughter. She marched off, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. Jace's face had become red from laughing so hardly, tears came to his eyes. He wiped them off and watched as Elliott muttered incoherent things under his breath.

"You deserved that," Austin said, a smirk in place.

"Oh, like you don't!" Elliott tossed a banana at Austin which he caught. Austin shrugged and started peeling the banana. "I'm not even half as bad as you are and I still get treated like shit! Like, fuck, you banged thousands of chick's in that janitor's closet and then you move on like they're victims. You're the biggest asshole I know but you've never even got slapped once!"

"That's because I know how to treat a lady." Austin replied, his mouth full.

"Because using multiple women for pleasure is how we treat a lady with respect!" shrieked Elliott. Austin shrugged. So maybe his example wasn't so great.

"What's with the red cheek?" snickered Kira as she sat down beside Austin, slinging her arm around his waist. Austin exchanged glances with Jace. Jace tried not to laugh. Kira's status was troubled: She was something like the Queen Bee of the school, yet nobody liked her, not the losers, not the jocks, not even her friends. Austin claims that nobody's a backstabber, it's just the simple fact that Kira is a know-it-all, clingy, and a complete bitch.

"He had a run-in with love," Jace said, bursting into a fit of giggles right after. Kira looked at Elliott and mouthed It's not that bad! Elliott slumped his shoulders and sighed to himself. Austin chuckled to himself. He inched away from Kira just to realize he was trapped in by another girl. He looked over and saw Brooke. Brooke was even worse than Kira. He smiled nervously at her.

"You didn't come by yesterday," Brooke said, pouting slightly.

"Of course, he didn't," Kira butt in, "The boy doesn't like you, Martins. Besides, he has me." Kira grinned at Austin, playing with the ends of her hair.

"Actually, I have neither of you. I don't like to be strung down by two whiney bitches." Austin said. Kira's eyes widened and Brooke gasped. Elliott and Jace burst into loud laughter, causing themselves to get glances from a few people at other tables. Austin gave them both a wry smirk.

Kira went to slap Austin across the face. He grabbed her wrist. "We're not gonna do that, baby." he said. She narrowed her eyes at him and stormed away. Brooke gathered her things and chased after Kira, also feeling offended.

"Aw, a beautiful friendship!" Jace gushed, snickering with Elliott. Austin laughed slightly. He was watching the two girls gossip and walk away when he noticed another familiar girl walking towards a table in the cafeteria, sitting herself down with three other girls. It was Ally, the girl from his English class. She had been on his mind since this morning. He could not get her comment out of his head. He stared at her for a moment. He knew he needed her help to solve the case of Dez's killer and he knew that she wanted to solve it as well, judging by her attitude in their English class.

"Dude," Jace said, snapping his fingers in Austin's face. Austin looked at him. "What's up with you all of a sudden?"

"Nothing." Austin said, "Just..." He forced a smirk, "Brooke's still got a nice ass."

The boys erupted into loud snickering.

. . . . . . .

"Hey!" Austin shouted, pulling himself away from the concrete wall he'd been leaning against. He picked up his pace, fixing his bag on his shoulder. "Hey," he said again when he finally got to his destination: Ally Dawson from English.

Ally looked over to see who was suddenly next to her, "Uh, hey?" she gave him an odd look.

"You're...Abby, right?" Austin said, cringing as he said the name because he knew it probably wasn't right but he tried.

Ally smirked, a slight laugh escaping her lips. "Ally." she corrected him.

"Ally," Austin repeated, nodding his head and looking upwards as if he was trying to print the name inside his brain so he wouldn't forget. "I, uh, I heard what you said in English class today."

Ally looked away from him and watched her feet on the sidewalk. "Oh." she said, "Yeah, I've been getting remarks all day from that. You want to add?"

"That depends on the kind of remark you're looking for." Austin said.

"Don't try to be that mysterious boy, just tell me what you want." Ally said. Austin almost laughed at her bluntness.

"Right," Austin said, "English class...What you said was really interesting. You think that Dez's case should've gotten solved?"

Ally pursed her lips, "Yeah. I do. It's kind of disappointing that it didn't, really. Dez was a good guy."

"I know." Austin said. A silence fell between the two of them as they walked down the street. Austin tightened his grip on his backpack strap. "And you...you were his cousin?" Austin said, looking over at her.

Ally frowned in confusion, "Yeah, I was." she replied before she snorted and added, "Probably the reason why I'm the only one who actually cares about his justice."

"No, you're not." Austin quickly said. Ally glanced at him. "Dez deserved justice. He should've gotten it. I agree; he was a really good guy." Austin nodded. "He deserved more than he ever got." Austin said, under his breath. Ally was still staring at him. Austin was unsure as to whether Ally heard what he said or not, but after she stared at him for longer than he wanted, he said, "Dez and I were really good friends until about freshman year."

"What happened?" she questioned, nosily.

Austin shrugged, "People change."

Suddenly, Ally's eyes sparked with recognition and she snapped her fingers. "Oh! You're that...that friend of Dez's who ditched him for your little buddies! Oh, yeah, I've heard about you."

Austin rolled his eyes, "Look, I made a mistake and I regret it, okay? I've obsessed over finding his killer since the day he died and I swore that I would find out who and that's what I'm going to do. That's why I'm here, That's why I'm talking to you; you seemed curious about his case and you obviously have this determination to give him his justice." Austin smirked and looked at her, "You've already started investigating."

Ally looked at him, her eyes wider. "How did you know that?"

"I have a tell." Austin replied wryly. Ally rolled her eyes and looked away from him. This time it was Austin's eyes that sparked with recognition. He stopped walking, grabbing her shoulder to make her stop as well. "Wait a second...You're..." Austin stared at her for a moment before his lips curled upwards tauntingly, "I know who you are. Dez used to mention you a couple times. I've seen pictures of you in his house a few times as a kid. You're that cousin, that one that went to that hospital because you went crazy." Austin twirled his finger by his temple, gesturing how wonky her mental health had gotten.

Ally looked at him for a moment before she looked away and started walking again. She sucked on her cheek for a moment before replying, "I guess you could say that." She then gave him a wry look and said, "But I wouldn't say crazy, just...over-imaginative."

"Wow. Diagnosed with schizophrenia at thirteen. Does anybody know?" Austin questioned.

"No, not really. It doesn't really come up in day-to-day conversation." Ally replied nonchalantly.

"I want to investigate with you. I need your help on this and you can't deny that you don't want to bring Dez justice because I've already figured you out." Austin said, "If you don't, I'll tell the school about your imagination." Austin threatened.

Ally laughed slightly, "Okay? I don't care." she said. Austin's smirk faded slightly. "You think I'm just gonna surrender because you tell the school I'm a little bit wonky up here." She tapped her head twice. "You're gonna have to try harder than that."

"Look," Austin sighed, "I have a good idea who did it. Multiple ideas actually. You'll help me, won't you? For Dez?" Austin asked her. Ally stared at him for a moment.

"Yeah, I'll help you." she said. Austin's eyes widened slightly, looking at her with surprise. He knew at one point he was going to get her to say yes because Austin always gets what he wants, but he hadn't expected her to agree so easily.

"Well, great...Yeah, great." Austin said, nodding his head. He wasn't used to getting his way without a little bit of a scandalous scuffle. He couldn't deny that it felt good to have his way so easily. Ally also wasn't what Austin thought. He expected a geeky, book-nerd, crazy, loner girl. He remembered according to Dez that Ally had been a superbly smart, bookworm, energetic, loving girl. Up until her mind snapped. (Dez's words, not Austin's.)

"Sorry, Austin, I can't go. I'm going down to Tampa to see my cousin." Dez told Austin, his thumbs rapidly hitting different buttons on his game-controller.

"Your cousin? What's so special about your cousin?" Austin scoffed, glancing at the clock and feeling relieved that he didn't have to leave for thirty minutes yet. Since Austin had turned thirteen, his mother had extended curfew to ten-fifteen p.m.

"You know, Ally? My favourite cousin down in Tampa? The smart one-"

"-Oh, the loser one." Austin smirked. Dez gave Austin a look. Austin laughed slightly. "What's going on with her?"

"We're not really sure. Mom got a call from Aunt Penny. I guess her mind snapped or something. Who really knows. All I heard was that one day Aunt Penny and Uncle Lester get home and she's sitting in the corner of the room, holding her hands to her ears, and shouting at something that isn't there." Dez said.

Austin's eyes were slightly wide. "Dude." he said, not believing what he was hearing. He recalled the stories of Dez complaining how Ally could always ace everything and Dez never could, or the stories about how she was energetic and loved everybody she encountered. This story was definitely different.

"I know," Dez nodded, "Mom said that she's in the hospital now. She keeps saying that some man in a suit keeps visiting her but he's not even real. There isn't even a guy named Richard Riddle anywhere in Florida. She thinks she's hearing stuff, too. Like, people talking, but nobody is ever in the room. It's weird, dude. I'm kinda worried about her."

"That is really weird." Austin agreed.

"So, what now?" Ally questioned.

"We'll meet up tomorrow after school." Austin decided, pulling himself out of his memory. Ally clicked her tongue as if to say gotcha. She started crossing the street, a car slamming on their breaks and honking at her. Ally waved apologetically before scurrying off onto the other street. "What are you doing?" Austin called out to her.

"Going home!" Ally replied.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" Austin called out again. Ally gave a thumbs up before she turned the corner smoothly in her purple chuck taylor shoes. Austin took a deep breath. "We're gonna give you what you deserve." Austin muttered to the sky as if Dez could hear him.

Yeah, another new story. Sorry but my mind is just kinda like gafjkymnj. It's a giant mushy mess of situations, summary's, fluff, and weird stuff.