I just sort of sleepwalked through the rest of school.

Not really listening, not really caring, just letting myself blend in and fade out. I just retract into my shell, and shut myself off.

Not that it's all that hard to do that today. All anyone wants to talk about is the newest victim, the body the cops found over behind the gas station down the street. Most of the people who went over to the crime scene came back excited. Happy to have been there, happy to have seen the cops cart some poor dead girl into an ambulance with the sirens off.

Every class after lunch was too far derailed by discussion of it. Who the reporters interviewed, who got to be on camera, and who got to see the body before they took it away. The Slap is littered with a million updates about it, too, everyone so concerned with spectacle, rather than the fact that there's somebody out there right now who committed that awful crime, and is probably planning to kill again. Which is what I'm mostly worried about.

It's actually kind of morbid, now that I think about it. Even a little gross, you know? I'm actually glad I didn't go. I'm not sure if I really have the stomach for that sort of thing. I've never seen a dead body, never even been to a funeral.

It's all just a shock to the system, really. The girl who got killed went to Northridge, and she was my age, you know? These last two killings happened within miles of here, it's starting to mess with my head. It's just getting more and more real by the day.

I don't want to say I wasn't taking it seriously before, but it's just a matter of assuming that things like that just won't happen, and even when they do, it'll be on a TV screen. Somewhere else and somewhere far.

Definitely not a five-minute walk from where you go to school.

But, ah, this is a real downer, and I've got other things on my mind.

The silver lining to this whole thing is that it's given me an excuse to avoid Jade. Not that anyone would ever really need an excuse, mind you, but it is nice to have one. I haven't talked to her at all since our little confrontation at lunch, thankfully, and luckily enough, her dirty looks have no effect on me. So that's a bullet successfully dodged.

She also hasn't said much to Cat, which makes me think she might have seen out little moment earlier. Whatever, that doesn't really matter.

Because Cat hasn't said anything to me either, which is something that matters. It's something I feel bad about, and I suppose that's guilt. Guilt from earlier. When I kind of, sort of laughed at her.

Believe me, I feel bad enough about that enough already; I don't need any help with feeling worse.

After she told me what she… Well, after she told me that she thinks a serial killer is living across the street from her, I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, come on!

How else am I supposed to react to having that kind of bombshell dropped on me?

And, this has got to be just another of Cat's little ideas. She has a hard time keeping her imagination in check, okay? I'm sure you understand, you've seen the way she is.

Like, uh… You know those brown eggs, the kind you see in the grocery store? Yeah, Cat thinks goats lay those eggs. Seriously. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

Not that she's dumb, because she's not. I don't want you to think that at all. She's just… she's just Cat. A little gullible, maybe, a little naïve, too, and that's why we love her, you know? That's certainly why I love her.

Like!

Like. That's why I like her.

Ahem.

Anyways, I think she's just imagining things, the way she's liable to. There's no way she's a serial killer's neighbor. You don't have Hannibal Lecter or Charles Manson or whoever move into town without the whole neighborhood noticing, you know? It's just, nah. Like goats laying eggs. It's too crazy, it couldn't be.

Could it?

No.

Or, well…

No.

But…

She did seem way too scared for it to just be her imagination, though. Her eyes were too terrified, she was almost shaking, you know? I've never seen her look that way in my life. There must be something to this. No one deserves to be that frightened. It's just cruel, and when it's Cat? That's twice as cruel. She's never even done anything intentionally mean to anyone, and I don't think she ever would.

I mean, even I have my bad days. Like these past couple…

Cat only ever has good days. Except for today, because she's scared.

Okay, then.

I'm going to help her.

And, maybe…

Maybe there's a very small chance, very small, near impossible, that she's right. There might be a slim possibility that she has found this guy, where he lives, who he is, and all that. Anything is possible, right? I guess if it were going to be anyone, it would have to be Cat, wouldn't it?

Great. So maybe I believe her, maybe I do. Fantastic.

What now? Shit, I have no idea.

I probably need to tell someone else. Okay, who am I kidding? I definitely need to tell someone, but…

I need to find Cat first.

Which is why I'm standing by Cat's locker now, trying not to lose my eyesight in the glare of all these fluorescent colors. And, maybe I'm also standing here because… I do believe her. It might be that I believed the whole time, because part of me was prepared to from the start. That little part of me that maybe does believe that goats lay eggs.

I honestly don't know. Usually I'd have something like this figured out by now.

'A serial killer? Come on, Cat, that's stupid.' I'd say. Something like that would work, probably. It'd certainly be a lot easier if I did feel that way.

But it's not that way, is it? It's this way, it's… It's Beck and Cat versus Evil. Like the plot of a movie.

I just have to believe her, don't I? Even though I really, really don't want to. Why? I've always got to help, always have to right the wrongs. It's always other people's problems, never my own. And you know why? Because I can deal with my own problems! Apparently no one else can and that's really a problem, because I'd love to just have one week where I don't have to help someone out. One week where I don't need to wear a dress for Tori, where I don't have to fix Robbie's terrible little car.

Right? Don't I deserve a little relaxation? I certainly don't get any with Jade.

Why did Cat even have to tell me in the first place? Why not tell Tori? Her dad is the goddamn cop! I'm just Beck. I'm not a crime fighter!

Ugh, I don't know. Maybe I just have one of those faces, the kind that people want to tell things to. It's starting to become a real problem, lately.

Shit.

Who am I kidding?

Now I'm trying to convince myself that I don't enjoy helping people? I love being the safety net; I love being the helping hand.

That's my job; it's always been my job, and there's no arguing around that.

I'm committed, whether I want to be or not, and I do want to be.

Okay.

I think Jade walked by me just then, but I'm not paying attention. Of all the things I need to worry about right now, she isn't high on my list. At all. She's not even on my list, if I'm being honest with you, and I'm always going to try to be honest with you.

"Beck?" Says a voice from behind me.

I turn around to see Tori with a concerned tinge to her face. "Oh, hey." I murmur. Where's Cat? She should've been here by now.

"What are you doing over here?" Tori asks.

"Standing."

She rolls her eyes, "I mean, are you waiting for Cat or something? This is her locker." She shoots a worried glance over her shoulder, "are you and Jade like... Over?"

I smile. I still have no idea. "Maybe. You seen Cat anywhere?"

Tori shakes her head, and then I start to worry.

Where the hell is she? The final bell rang like ten minutes ago, she should've come by her locker by now, and there's no way I could've missed her. Cat isn't someone you don't see.

Hmm, okay. That's not good at all, at all. Actually it's really bad.

Shit.

"All right," I nod. "Right, let me know if you see her okay?" I tell her. This urge to run washes over me, a need. A compulsion to sprint through the hallway and to find Cat, but I don't. I walk, calmly.

"I will…" Tori says, her eyebrows rising. "See you tomorrow, Beck?"

I wave absently, turning a corner.

Suddenly I'm incredibly worried. Too worried. Way too worried.

I start to imagine all the places she could be… Out, and alone, and I think…

No. She's fine. She's just off somewhere, with Andre or Trina or someone. Perfectly fine.

I send her a text, "still at school?" It says.

Then I hear a beeping echo down the hallway behind me, just as I'm about to check the courtyard. I hadn't noticed how really deserted the place had gotten; there's no one around. If it were dark out I'd… Oh, never mind. I turn around, and head back inside.

The beeping is a ring tone, judging by the rhythm, a familiar ring tone, one that I've heard before. Coming from the stairwell, back over where I just was. This time I can't stop myself from running.

I make it over to there in record time. Seriously, I think I just burned a track in the floor.

You cannot believe the relief that washes over me when I see Cat walking down the stairs.

"Oh, hey Beck." She smiles. She has her pearphone in her hands, "hold on, I just gotta respond to the text you sent me, kay?"

I laugh, panting. I look up at the ceiling, my hands on my hips. Sheesh, I should probably run more. Then my phone starts to vibrate and I laugh some more.

Cat keeps smiling at me.

"Cat I…" How am I this tired?

"Were you looking for me?" She asks, "sorry, I was helping Sinjin chew gum for a sculpture. My jaw's really tired now."

"Cat,"

"My brother once got gum in his hair and he had to shave it all off." She says. "It was pretty bad, it took him like two months to grow it back. His hair, I mean, not the gum."

I shake my head, "Cat," I take her hands, "that's fantastic, but I need to tell that –"

"That you believe me?" She interrupts. "Yeah, I can tell."

How? I guess it doesn't matter, as long as she knows. "Good." I say. "So what did you need me to do?"

Cat looks at me for a second. I hadn't noticed that she seemed taller because she was standing a few steps higher than I was; it's odd having her stare into my eyes without her having to look up.

She really is just gorgeous… Wait; hold on, this is supposed to be a serious moment. You really need to stop letting me get distracted, shame on you.

"Hmm," Cat purrs.

"Anything I can do, anything at all." I say.

"Well," she begins.

"Yeah?"

She looks down at our hands, then back up at me. "Well, you could sleep over at my house tonight."

Oh, is that all? I can do…

WAIT, WHAT?