Kairi's house was enormous which, of course, was to be expected. It had a light brown trim and had a cottage feel to it, despite the various stories, that reminded me of some bogus fairytale. She ran out to my car and got in before I could do anything.
She was wearing a tight, pink dress that was sleeveless, and fell to the top of her knees. Her hair was curled, and her makeup was dark, and a bunch of other things I don't care about.
"Where have you been?" she screeched. "I thought you weren't going to show."
"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I got held up."
"Whatever." She buckled in angrily. "Just go."
She decided to skip dinner, which made me a rich, if not starving, man. The second we were in sight of the gym, I was more than prepared to turn right back around. Balloons, flashing lights, plenty of teenagers way too dressed up.
People who, I might add, wouldn't even glance at me if I hadn't had Kairi hanging off my arm. Apparently she's BFFs with everyone and is very into mingling and being "sociable", which she politely pointed out to me that I am not very good at, and that I need to stop sulking and talk to Stacy—Kevin—Amanda—whoever else and to act all shocked when she dishes out gossip and to act like I am "so in love I would kill anyone" if she just asked.
Dramatic much.
"Roxas, I need to go talk to Tiff, go get me some punch," she told me, looping arms with some girl as she disappeared outside.
I headed towards the refreshment table, thinking about how stifling hot it was in here. I got her a cup of this watery red liquid and then stood around munching pretzels and ignoring everything. I waited.
Waited.
Waited some more...
Where is she?
I set her drink down, pushing past some freshman who was trying to talk to me, and headed outside—if I'm lucky, she'll be ready to leave. The cool air pressed against my skin, making me breathe a sigh of relief. I was dying in there.
"Hey Roxas."
I turned to see Riku, who was leaning against the building and playing with a lighter. He would open it, light it, close it, repeat. I went over there, watching as the thin flame cut through the darkening night. "Do you smoke?" I asked.
"Nope."
Close. Open.
"So who'd you come with?"
"No one."
"...are you ok?"
He looked up for the first time, forcing a smile. "Never better."
He played with the fire, letting it lick his fingers. He left it there, his face blank, for a longer and longer amount of time. I started to sweat, and ended up grabbing the lighter from him and closing it. "What are you doing?"
He blinked, then suddenly yelped, blowing on his fingers. "Thanks, man, God..."
I gave it back to him, and he tucked it into his pocket. "Can I ask you something? I mean, this is kinda weird, but I don't know who else I could talk to."
"Go ahead."
It took him a little while and, as he shuffled around nervously, chewing on his lip, I looked up at the stars and daydreamed. I could hear someone talking in the distance. Hopefully Kairi.
"Well," he finally said, "what would you do if you really liked someone, but that person just wants to be friends?"
Riku having girl problems? There was someone out there who wasn't completely gaga for him? The world must be coming to an end.
"I guess I would accept that, and hope they'd change their mind."
There was a blur, and I flinched; Riku punched the wall frighteningly close to where my face had been a second before, breathing hard and glaring at me.
"That doesn't work," he growled.
"I-I'm sorry!"
And his anger vanished. "It's ok." His eyes met mine, and my spine prickled with nerves. His fist was still on the wall and his body was completely blocking me, almost touching me. I began to scoot away, my shoes shuffling through the dry grass, when he grabbed my shoulders.
"Hey," he said softly. "You should ditch that guy."
His arms looped around me and I struggled to get away. "R-Riku, what are you doing?"
He was lowering his face to mine, but he stopped and abruptly stepped away from me. "I'm so sorry, Roxas," he said, obviously ashamed. "I get so...I just thought if..."
"It's ok." I was more than ready to bolt—I didn't care if I use to have a crush on him, he was creeping me out—but then he hunched against the wall, looking like he was holding back tears.
"Sora's a good guy," he said suddenly. "He tries to act like a punk at school, but he's actually pretty innocent."
Abrupt subject changer, I thought. "Yeah."
"I mean, he still believes in Santa and things like that...speak of the devil."
Sora appeared, grinning and strutting around like always, and he immediately exclaimed, "Roxas, you got dragged here by Kairi, huh?"
I nodded.
"Too bad. Hey, I have something to show you."
"What is it?"
"Just follow me."
I did so; when I looked back, Riku had the lighter out again, playing with it and staring at his feet.
We had barely reached the parking lot when someone screamed. It was shrill and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. We both froze. Sora glanced at me, then took off running. We raced blindly through the rows of cars until Sora halted abruptly and I crashed into his back.
It was Kairi. Both her and Sora were staring at the ground, horrified. Sora made a strangled noise, leaning over and throwing up.
I took a step forward, confused, and strained my eyes to see through the dark.
My reaction wasn't much better to be honest. I stood shock-still, hot bile rising in my throat while my muscles clenched so hard they prickled and ached.
I had almost stepped on him. And, however much I wanted to, I couldn't tear my eyes away nor could I back up.
Mr. P was sprawled on the pavement, his eyes open and blank, his arms throw out at awkward angles. A knife was buried in his chest, and blood covered the area in such a way that it looked like someone had taken a bucket of the stuff and thrown it everywhere. A mess was pouring out of his opened stomach, his intestines obviously yanked on until it was piled there like spaghetti. The world spun as I gagged, everything in my vision red.
Sora grabbed my arm to steady me while I swayed and fought the urge to pass out. He was shaking just as bad as me.
Kairi had her hands to her mouth, tears trickling down her face. She collapsed dangerously close to the corpse, and Sora rushed over to her, leaving me to fight gravity on my own. He seemed to gather his wits first; a gruesome scene, a boy about to faint, a girl who's lost it, sobbing so hard she can't breathe, and what does he do?
Calls 9-1-1.
What did you think he was going to do?
"It's ok," he murmured, rubbing Kairi's back after he explained everything, his phone still pressed to his ear. "The police are coming."
How can he act so calm?
I was still standing there, trying to breathe, when Riku and our principal, Mr. Xemnas, showed up. After they reacted much the same, Riku told us that he had heard the screaming, and had ran to get help.
Upon seeing Riku, Sora wasn't so calm.
He ran into Riku's arms, buried his head and began to cry. Riku held onto him tightly, rubbing his back as he murmured something I couldn't quite hear.
The rest of the night mashed together in my head. The police came; I was questioned; I was sent home.
By the time my nightmares blurred into blinding sunlight, I was late. Shit, I thought upon seeing my clock, which obnoxiously pointed out that first hour had already begun and I was still curled up in bed.
I had spent the weekend at home, trying to occupy my thoughts with mindless things like TV, but it was already Monday.
My phone buzzed, and I read a text from Olette: You should stay home.
Her answer, once I asked why, was that somehow everyone had gotten the idea that Riku, Sora, and I had banded together to get rid of Mr. P.
We might have gotten into trouble with him, but seriously! Whoever did that was sick in the head!
I was still laying there-trying to steer my thoughts away from any unpleasant subjects-when my phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Oh, babe, are you ok?"
"Um, who is this?"
"Don't be silly, it's me!" The voice, which was distinctly girly and familiar, rose in pitch, upset but obviously trying to sound calm. "Where are you?"
"At home," I said, confused. "Wait...Kairi?"
"Who else!" she screeched. "It's horrible here."
"I bet."
"Listen to me," she hissed, probably picking up on my disinterest, "you had better get your ass over here-" She cut off, then began to giggle. "Oh, Rox, you're killing me!"
I winced. "What?"
"No, I love you more," she cooed. "Get better soon, k?" She paused. "God, she's such a whore."
"Kairi?" I asked, now completely lost.
I was contemplating my future health if I hung up when she sighed. "Beth was snooping. Please, Roxas? Everyone's been staring at me all day."
"They'll eat me alive. What are they," I added, "doing with h-his classes?"
I could practically hear her freeze. "There's a sub. The police are walking through the hallways, pulling people from classes...everyone's on edge, whispering and jumping at any little thing...I don't like it."
I swallowed; Kairi suddenly seemed like a small child. Not bossy, or flirty, not herself at all. Just scared.
"Who do you think did it?"
"Jesus, Roxas, I don't know! Some whack job!"
"Yeah...sorry..."
"I have to go, but you're coming to school tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, bye."
"See ya."
I spent most of the morning zoning out on the television. I couldn't help thinking that Riku was the one who did it. He was acting so weird! And he was outside...but would he really kill Mr. P just because he got in trouble?
I shuddered, turning the volume up on the TV. Tomorrow was going to suck.
