A lot of you have been suggesting that I give Gwen her own run in with the killer, and I'm here to tell you that it's already in the works. I've been planning it for a while now and am about to start writing the chapter. I'll try my best to keep it from being cliche, but it's also going to be a big thing for Gwen and Noah.
Yeah, that has nothing to do with this chapter I just thought I'd tell you all about the future of this story.
Twenty minutes later we were at Audrey's back door. Noah looked where the extra key used to be, but the rock was empty this time. The disappointment was clear on his face, we were screwed.
"Damn, they used to hide their key there," he exclaimed.
"Yeah, we used to leave our back door unlocked," Emma replied, putting everything into perspective for both of us. "And then a serial killer happened."
"Okay, what's our plan B?" I asked, trying to keep our spirits high. "We've still got to get this SD card."
"Well, there's no alarm so…" Noah trailed off, picking up the fake rock and smashing one of the planes of glass on the back door.
"Subtle, Batman," I snorted, watching him unlock the door and push it open for the three of us.
I led the way up to Audrey's room, but that was where my leading stopped. I had no idea where she kept her SD cards, her room wasn't exactly organized. There was an entire chair made of chairs, more so than the chair I had in my room and that was saying something.
"Where does she keep her SD cards?" Emma asked, looking at Noah.
"What do I look like? Her personal assistant?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips indignantly.
I giggled despite the situation and saw Noah wink at me playfully. I appreciated his ability to keep things light and funny in such a stressful situation. Just add that to the list of reasons I adored him, it just seemed to be getting longer and longer.
"Well, you look like someone who might know where she would keep her SD cards," Emma replied snarkily.
"This would be so much easier if Audrey was more organized," I sighed, looking around on her desk before opening up the drawers. "Jackpot, I found them, you guys!"
I looked through them until I found the one from September 30th and pocketed it. We all froze when we heard a car door close outside. We were about to be caught breaking and entering in our best friend's house to remove evidence that might condemn her to prison!
When I looked out Audrey's window, I saw it faced the side of her house. We could slide down her roof and get to Emma's car without getting caught as long as we were careful and quiet. I got the other's attention and motioned toward the window before following through with my plan as they watched.
Okay, sliding down a roof is a lot easier said than done with the rough shingles. It looked so much higher than one story, but I had to do it. I couldn't get arrested, my family didn't like me enough to bail me out and I couldn't stay there. I was too tiny, I knew all prisons weren't like Litchfield and I didn't really find girls attractive sexually so…
I took a deep breath before crawling out the window and sliding down to the edge on my butt. I said a prayer to whoever was out there before I jumped and rolled on the impact. Maybe my past as a gymnast was helpful after all. It just took me five years to realize.
I somersaulted back onto my feet before turning to look at the other two. Both their jaws were slack and their eyes were impressed. I bowed dramatically before gesturing stupidly for them to follow my lead. Emma came down next, basically mimicking what I did, but Noah was a different story. He jumped and hit the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs painfully.
Emma and I basically packed him back to her car and pushed him into the backseat, driving until we were back at the video game store. Thankfully, Noah's breathing was normal again and the SD card was still in my jeans' pocket. I kept catching him staring at me, but I didn't ask while we were with Emma.
I sat the SD card on the table and handed the hammer to Emma. "She was your friend first, that means you've got to destroy the evidence."
"I can't do it!" she cried, holding the hammer over it for a couple minutes. "You do it!"
"No can do, I feel like Frodo with the ring at Mount Doom," Noah exclaimed, pushing the hammer away when Emma extended it to him.
"Look, whatever's on there has to be really bad or Audrey wouldn't want us to destroy it," I said, flopping back onto the couch behind the table. "And that makes me want to know what's on it even more."
"It has to make her look guilty," Emma agreed, sitting down beside me.
"Guilty of what?" Noah asked. "Murdering four people, including her girlfriend? Do you know how Japanese gameshow that sounds?"
Emma shrugged before she said, "There's one thing I can't seem to shake. That guy who's been calling me should be rubbing this in my face, but he's not. I actually haven't heard from him all day, Audrey's been with the police most of the day…"
Emma's phone rang a little while later and she found out the police wanted to question her. We all pinky swore we wouldn't say anything and she left the two of us alone with the SD card. We also swore we wouldn't watch it unless all of us decided it was a good idea.
"So, what do we do until Emma comes back?" I asked awkwardly.
"How about we talk about how badass you looked when you jumped off that roof and then Bruce Lee rolled onto your feet?" he suggested, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
My faced heated up and I looked down at my lap instead of at him. "Hush, it wasn't even that cool. I just took a couple gymnastic classes when I was younger."
"But you did it in heels. It was pretty hot," he remarked, stretching his feet out onto the table and crossing his arms behind his head.
"Shut up, you hacking into the homework server and then using that app to get Branson's finger prints was pretty hot!" I said, hitting his shoulder with mine.
"So your type is black hat turned white hat hackers?" he asked, the smirk evident in his voice. "Just think of me as your own personal Nick Hathaway."
I rolled my eyes and looked over at him, only to see he was already looking at me. He sat up slowly and reached out to cup my jaw, stroking his thumb over my cheekbone. I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and held his intense blue eyed stare. The tension between us was so thick -I don't think we were just best friends anymore, we'd crossed over into new territory.
"You're really pretty, Gwen," he breathed, leaning closer to me and holding my intense gaze. "Like, prettier than anyone I've ever seen."
His admission made something flutter from my stomach to my heart to the back of my throat. Noah thought I was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, ME. We were leaning into each other slowly when the bell above the door rang. I didn't even think anyone knew this place existed. In the hundreds of times I've been here, no one was ever here other than Noah, Audrey, Emma, or me.
"Are you serious? Everyone does their business here online," he groaned, leaning his forehead against mine in frustration. "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere."
I laughed at how flustered he looked, waiting until he was gone to pull out my phone. Emma was freaking out about being questioned, but she said she'd be back at the store as soon as the police were done. I was almost positive we would be watching whatever Audrey didn't want us to see on the SD card.
About ten more minutes passed and Noah rushed back into the room with me. I'd taken off my heels and tucked my feet under me with my laptop on my lap. I had a five page research paper due next week and figured this would be the perfect time to do it. I mean, when else would I have free time in the foreseeable future?
"Hi, I'm back. Where were we?" he asked, slipping back onto the couch and glancing at my laptop screen. "Or you could be researching venereal diseases instead. That's definitely an option, a weird one, but an option."
"I have a five page research paper due next week over chlamydia, dork. I figured I'd work on it while you did your job," I smiled, pushing his leg with my foot. "Emma said she'd be here after the police let her go, I'm pretty sure we're watching whatever's on the SD card…"
"Yeah, that was what I was thinking, too. I trust Audrey with my life, but there has to be something incriminating on that card she doesn't want us to see," he agreed, pushing my foot back down. "I'd rather know about it than not know, you know?"
"All I know is you just said the word 'know' way too many times," I told him, barely holding back my giggles.
He just rolled his eyes before taking my laptop off my lap and sitting it on the table. He didn't give me time to question why before he started tickling my ribs. I screeched with laughter and tried to get him off me to no avail. My sweater fell from my shoulders and my top rose to just below my bra, but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to right either of them.
"Am I interrupting something?" Emma asked, making Noah stop tickling me and the two of us look up to see her standing in the doorway.
I looked at us and saw that our position did look really compromising. One of Noah's thighs was between my legs and my shirt was pushed all the way up with my sweater on the floor. Our hair was all messed up and his shirt was crooked; it seriously seemed like she'd walked in on his making out. Wonderful.
"Yeah, we were just talking about the SD card," Noah said, sitting up quickly and righting his shirt and hair. "Isn't that right, Gwen?"
"Oh, how quickly you dismiss our love, Noah!" I exclaimed, putting myself back together and making Emma laugh. "Okay, we decided that, as long as you agree, we should watch whatever's on the SD card."
"I'd rather know than wonder, but I'm still having some moral ambivalence," Emma sighed, sitting in the empty space beside me. "But I need to watch it, let's do it."
I grabbed my laptop from the table and ignored Emma's questioning gaze about the websites feature chlamydia treatments. I minimized all those tabs and put the SD card inside, double clicking on the only video link on the entire card.
Audrey appeared on the screen and she looked beyond angry. "Stop filming me!"
A feminine giggle sounded in the background before another girl started talking. "No, you need to see yourself. You don't even know if Nina did this."
"Of course she did it! She has been torturing me my entire life, but not anymore!" Audrey hissed, her eyes still blazing intensely.
"If we do this, we are even worse than Nina."
"So what?! I'm supposed to keep taking this? Screw that! People like Nina dump on everybody and you what happens to them? Nothing! They marry billionaires and wear Prada in their climate-trashing yachts. Because karma just doesn't happen! Sometimes you have to take it into your own hands!" Audrey was raging at this point in the video.
"Audrey, please!"
"Tonight, I'm Shiva the Destroyer, and I'm coming for that sorry bitch!" she continued, ignoring Rachel completely. "When I'm done, she'll never bully anyone ever again. I SAID TURN THAT OFF!"
"Oh man, what did we just watch?" Noah asked after I closed the lid of my laptop and sat it back on the table.
"There's no way that was actually what we think. No way," I breathed, still trying to process what we just say.
"Why did you guys make me watch that?!" Emma shrieked.
"This can't be how it looks!" Noah argued desperately.
"You mean how it looks like severely premeditate murder?" I asked in a hollow voice. "Because that's exactly what it looked and sounded like to me!"
"I seriously need a Men in Black memory swipe right now."
"Guys, we know Audrey," Emma tried to reason even if it sounded kind of shaky.
"Yeah, we do," Noah agreed. "I always believed Audrey was capable of murder, but, like, in an 'isn't my best friend a badass, I'll never lose a bar fight' kind of way."
"Look, I have to go. I don't want to be anywhere near that thing," Emma murmured, standing up and rushing out of the store.
"I don't think I'll ever get that video out of my head," I whispered, still staring at the top of my computer. "Audrey didn't kill Nina, there's no way. Audrey wouldn't have killed anyone ever, I know it in my heart of hearts."
"I do, too," he said, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me close to his chest. "I do, too."
I couldn't wait to post this chapter, so here it is.
Thanks for reading! Leave a review and tell me how you feel about the story so far!