ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Sixteen

Suspicions

Steven hated it when he cut himself shaving. He grabbed the nearest washcloth and dabbed at the small red spot on the underside of his jaw. He still had half of his chin covered with white cream waiting for the razor to strike.

While he shaved, he observed his face and couldn't help but do a couple of cool expressions as he finished the job. When he was done, he had a chin strap beard covering the edges of his jaw. It made his chin look a bit bigger but it fit well enough. His hair was also starting to get notably longer. Soon he wouldn't be able to spike it up and he would have to start wearing his black beanie again.

These were the least of his worries.

He walked out of the bathroom feeling a little bit fresher that morning. It was still dark outside and he could tell just with one look that it would be an exceptionally cold day. So he wore his black, slightly torn sweatshirt.

It was a Wednesay. Halloween day. Steven decided that it would be safe to bring Zando along with him when they went out to trick or treat with his friends. Zando was excited. He didn't know what Halloween was and when Steven described that it was about a bunch of kids running around looking scarier than him, the Death God responded with a look of glee.

"And there's candy." Steven had added.

"Any bananas?"

"There's some banana flavored candy. I'll give you mine if I get some."

"Excellent."

Unfortunately for Zando, he would have to stay another day down inside the underground hatch in Steven's room. Steven did feel a little sorry for the Death God and decided that he would brain storm about where he could keep Zando during the days at school.

Zando had approached him the previous day and complained about why he couldn't just stay inside the house during the day.

"Because Andrew knows where I live. He's got a car. He can drive him and the Hunter here any time he wants to." Steven had said, a little tirelessly.

"Well they haven't yet…" Zando muttered spitefully.

"Andrew could be waiting for me to think that he wouldn't do something like that to strike." Steven said. "I'm not taking any chances. I can't keep an eye on Andrew all the time…"

And then, as Steven was standing at the bus stop, a sudden realization swooped over him and elated his insides. He couldn't keep an eye on Andrew…but he could have others do it for him. Jacob and Zito were both friends with Andrew. If he really needed to, he could set up a situation where they would follow Andrew. There were a lot of problems with that though. They would have to have a good reason to follow him on Steven's orders and he certainly wasn't going to explain the Death Note to his friends. But it was interesting to think that he'd be able to have eyes and ears in other places watching Andrew. On the bus ride to school he imagined situations where he'd catch Andrew in the act of betrayal using Zito or Jacob somehow but he knew the odds of doing this was slim to none.

He couldn't exactly ask them to be better friends with Andrew. And if he told them to just "follow" him wherever he went for no reason then they probably wouldn't be up for it. Steven shook his head. He couldn't rely on his friends for something like this. Zando would just have to suffer for a little while longer.

But it didn't look like Zando would be leaving anytime soon. Steven and Andrew were doing the same thing every day. Talking to each other about the 3rd Kira and what they may or may not be planning. Nothing was changing. Steven was waiting for Andrew to either make a big mistake, or to reveal his true plans using the 3rd Kira to his advantage. But Andrew wasn't doing anything. It was annoying.

He's probably doing the same thing I am, waiting for me to make a mistake… Steven thought. He couldn't think of any other good way Andrew would be able to betray him. Though Andrew was doing something underneath all of their Death Note talk. He was trying to become Steven's friend. That was Andrew's ability. To manipulate people into doing what he wanted. Too bad he was only good at manipulating girls.

Steven was going to allow Andrew to think that they were becoming good friends. Andrew was too closed minded. He wouldn't think that Steven was only pretending. He was getting used to acting a certain way in front of him now so he would be able to pull off the whole "New Friend" role perfectly. Then, maybe, he'd be able to get a clearer picture of what Andrew was really planning.

Steven sat down in second period, the familiar feeling of elation creeping up his spine as it always did whenever he entered this particular class was caused by the one person who seemed to make the Death Note come second.

Only, he and Jennie hadn't been talking very much recently. She had a few friends she talked to and sat next to on the opposite side of the room from where he sat usually. And unfortunately for him, he had an obligation now to sit right in-between his friends Garret and Worawat. Steven was always secretly annoyed with them. He'd tried a few times to sit away from them but they'd follow him like he was their leader of something. This meant whenever there was a class project; he had to be with them.

The only thing they were good for was talking to in order to get Jennie's attention on him. Sometimes he would act ecstatic around them and talk a little louder so that Jennie would be able to hear him and possibly join in on what they were talking about.

But she never did.

And then Steven had started to worry. Maybe she didn't want anything more to do with him. Maybe (And a lurching feeling went through him when he thought this) he'd become boring to her, or said something that might've offended her without realizing it.

So today, Steven had made a decision that he would try and talk to her again. Usually after class was the perfect time but whenever he went to do it, she would already be talking to her friend, Sarah Schmidt, who Steven was beginning to despise just for stealing Jennie's attention all the time.

Not today though. No. Steven would have to do something drastic to get her to talk to him again. And so when Mrs. Shaunesty told the class to pack up, Steven was already done doing so and was putting the backpack on over his shoulders. He was the first to stand up and feign a casual stretch while everyone else started packing.

Steven knew this was stupid. It was just talking. But he had to make sure…It wasn't a big deal. But he wanted to make sure he hadn't already stepped out of the "friend zone" with her.

He looked across the room and saw, to his abrupt surprise, her looking right back at him and he felt a painful skip of his heart. But she was quick to look back at her backpack which she zipped up and immediately started talking to Sarah who was sitting next to her.

Steven's heart sank almost as quickly as it had jumped and suddenly he didn't want to talk to her anymore. Why should he have to put in all the effort anyway? If he was anything to her then she should be able to talk to him too, right?

She did invite you to a picnic… Said the little voice in his head again, denying everything he thought.

Yeah, she also called it off…and that was a week and a half ago. We haven't even talked since then… And then Steven felt the sinking grow even deeper inside his chest. Maybe that was just an excuse to get him not to come. She really did want nothing more to do with him…

Steven stood by the door looking darkly out the window. He was listening to Garret and Kyle talk about something unimportant next to him but at the same time he was thinking of how dumb he was to think he stood a chance at getting a girl like Jennie's attention. Especially in a class like this.

"What're you doing for Halloween?"

Steven jumped when he heard the familiar voice behind him and wheeled around to find Jennie looking at him curiously by his side.

"Huh?" He responded stupidly.

"Halloween's tonight. Don't tell me you're the type of person who sits around at home acting like you're too 'mature' to go trick or treating." Jennie grinned.

And suddenly everything he'd thought in the past five minutes didn't matter.

"I'm going out with some buddies tonight, actually." He said as the bell rang and they went outside. "We're gonna scope the hood for some candy. How about you?"

"Same here!" Jennie said. "Me and Schmidt are dressing up and taking her little sister out to a bunch of different neighborhoods to get her nice and fat."

They laughed as Sarah joined Jennie's side and the two of them started talking about how last year they did the same thing. Steven felt a little out of place and they were talking to fast that he didn't want to interrupt them so when they reached the main building he said goodbye and he went into the lunchroom feeling much happier than he'd felt in weeks.

When he sat down at the table, the first thing he noticed was the odd stare Zito was giving him. It was kind of like a squinty-eyed suspicious glare and Steven knew Zito only did it whenever he was thinking deeply about something.

"What?" Steven asked, almost a bit rudely.

"You're acting differently lately." Zito said, rubbing his chin and acting wise.

Steven rolled his eyes but his insides squirmed a bit. It was true though. Zito probably noticed the fact that he'd been a lot darker these days. Steven had noticed that the undersides of his eyes were even beginning to grow a bit blacker. He wondered sometimes if this was some sort of insomniac symptom that came with using the Death Note.

"I've just had a lot on my mind." He said honestly. "I've been up late a lot doing homework and studying because I want to do my best to pass high school this year. I'm a few credits behind, after-all."

Zito nodded; as if understanding but Steven got the feeling he wasn't entirely convinced. The subject dropped, however, when Catheryne Baker and Jacob came and joined them at the table.

The rest of the day went normally and soon Steven found himself heading over to Andrew's house once again. He noticed, as he got inside Andrew's truck, that Zito was standing by the buses watching him with a curious expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing…" Steven muttered. He didn't want to let Andrew know that Zito was getting suspicious of them. The more that Andrew didn't know the better. Besides, Steven could handle Zito by himself.

There was a knock at the door and Luke sprung out of the kitchen and answered it.

"Zito!" Luke roared a greeting and backed into his house to return to his half-made Tortilla on the kitchen counter.

"Sup, Luke." Zito grunted.

"Where's Steve?" Luke asked, wrapping the Tortilla up and taking a huge bite out of it.

"Andrew's." Zito said and Luke stopped mid-bite for a second.

"Andrew?"

"Yeah."

"Does he usually do that now?"

"I don't know." Zito shrugged, sitting down on the couch. It was clear that he wanted to talk about this with someone and Luke could see that maybe there was more to this friendly visit than appeared. "He's been acting differently lately, though. I asked him why and he says because he hasn't been getting enough sleep. Too much studying or something."

Luke choked on his Tortilla. "Studying?" he scoffed.

"What?"

"He doesn't care about studying." Luke chuckled reassuringly. "He told me that he wants to drop out of school. He doesn't try in any of his classes because he knows he isn't going to graduate."

"What!?" Zito frowned. "So…wait—why would he lie?"

"I dunno." Luke shrugged. He didn't really care either. If Steve wanted to lie to Zito that was his business. Though the fact that Steven was visiting Andrew did seem a bit strange. Luke knew that he didn't like Andrew too much because of what he'd done before to Katlynn and Baker, among other things.

"Hmm." Zito frowned at the carpet. "Maybe he and Andrew…are planning something."

"Like what?" Luke asked, deciding to listen to whatever crazy scheme Zito had to say for this situation.

"I dunno." Zito shrugged. "But Steve is lying about something and I'm gonna figure out what it is."

Luke looked at him and saw that he was wearing a wild grin on his face.

"Go for it." Luke shrugged, still not really caring as he finished his Tortilla.

There was nothing new being shown on any of the news stations. Same old Kira killings throughout the nation. Kira's Fist was plotting to have a march in New York. That was about it. Steven yawned and packed up his backpack, checking the clock and seeing that it was nearing 5ish.

"Well, this was fun." Andrew said, almost a little sarcastically.

"Isn't Katlynn a little bit upset that you're spending more time with me than her now?" Steven asked, shoving his sheet of Death Note paper full of names in-between the notebooks of his backpack.

"Not really. She understands the whole deal. Well…" Andrew paused and Steven cast him a glance.

"Well, what?"

"I haven't told her about everything we've been doing." Andrew said and Steven immediately wondered if this was true. What would Andrew get out of lying to him about this?

"Why not?" Steven asked, looking back down at his things.

"I don't trust her completely." Andrew said. "She's immature and not very good at lying to people. I don't think we can afford to let anyone else know about what we're doing."

Steven nodded. "Agreed."

"You haven't been talking to this stuff with Zito and Luke, have you?" Andrew asked sharply.

Steven frowned. "No. I'm not that stupid."

"Oh, okay…Good."

Andrew turned around to go into the bathroom. Steven watched him go with a dark look in his eyes. Why did Andrew want to know if he was sharing information with Zito and Luke? Did he really think he was plotting something with all his friends? Or maybe… and Steven felt a rush of horror. Maybe Andrew was planning on revealing the truth to them without letting Steven know. To use his manipulation skills on Luke wouldn't work but… he was friends with Zito…

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