Chapter 22

AN: The title song for this chapter has an amazing video on YouTube by idinakristinfan4ever

Gorgeous Idina Menzel

In a perfect world, in another time
In a far off place we wouldn't need to justify
Everything we are
And all that we believe
We could finally be
Whoever we both want to be
And when we can't be heard,
And when we can't be seen
I will call you close and
You will reach for me.
When all of the beauty turns to pain
When all of the madness falls like rain
As long as we crash and we collide
We will be gorgeous, you and I.

I leaped directly into Josh's strong, supportive baseball arms. We embraced for longer than I'd intended. "Why are you up so early?" I asked Josh.

"I could ask you the same thing. I know most people tend to enjoy sleeping until the last possible moment." Josh said.

"Normally, I'm one of those people, but after yesterday, sleep was nearly impossible." I admitted sheepishly.

"Reed, look at me, do you honestly think I am normally up at this time?"

"Yeah, I don't know, why else would you be up right now?"
"I'll show you why." Josh said as he picked up the painting he had obviously been working on. It was a portrait of my face, obviously from the same day as the last painting he did of me. I gasped. Josh had made me look fabulous. I never thought I could look that good, and in real life, I probably couldn't, but hey, around Josh, everything seemed possible.

"This is amazing Josh." I said, awestruck.

"You really don't see yourself clearly, do you?" Josh asked me.

"I think it's you that doesn't see me clearly." I replied.

Josh just shook his head at me like I was going crazy. We both burst out laughing at the stupidity of our argument.

Josh and I moved to the loveseat that was now back in the corner. We talked about anything and everything, we were both completely content. It was nearly time for class though, so Josh and I prepared to head back to our dorms to get ready for class, when all of a sudden, Josh's friend Trey ran in, huffing and puffing. "Josh! Reed! You'll never believe what's happened!" Trey puffed. "They found Thomas in the woods."

"That's not a shock Trey." Josh scoffed.

"They, well, he was… dead." Trey said, stumbling over his words.

Josh and I stood side by side in stunned silence. Waiting for Thomas to burst in and yell Gothcha! and for Trey to start having a good laugh at our expense. It never happened. Josh and I looked between each other and Trey multiple times, before the news finally sunk in. When we did finally realize what had happened, the two of us backed out of the Art Cemetery. Police officers had already taken over the entire campus. That was when it finally sank in that this was no scam. The entire forest had been roped off with yellow police tape. Through the trees I could see forensics specialists and police officers searching the ground. Looking for evidence, I presumed. I looked the other way and saw students crying and looking depressed, including Noelle, who had, on more than one occasion, voiced her hatred for Thomas. I didn't doubt that most of the students crying had only had one entire conversation with Thomas, if that.

All the officers that weren't searching the forest were interviewing different students and employees. They had probably been hoping to keep this quiet, at least for a little while, but that was impossible. Even after only a month at Easton I knew that news travels fast, especially bad news. It was strange, it happened so fast. I had only seen Thomas an hour ago, and he had been perfectly fine. He was his normal, arrogant, egotistical, flirty self. I had a feeling life at Easton was going to be much more stressful than my seemingly normal life in Croton, Pennsylvania. I thought that was as bad as it could get. Boy was I wrong. Not two months in and it was already ten times worse than Croton. I just hoped this was as bad as it would get.

I saw Josh standing off to the side, away from everyone else, his expression blank. I was worried about him, this must be hard, his best friend died at sixteen and he probably can't feel anything because of all of his pills. I walked over to Josh and put my arm around his shoulders without saying anything to him, there was no need for words right now. Josh was silent as he rested his head on my shoulder. We stood like that until one of the many police officers finally reached us, so that we could be questioned. Josh was in a daze, answering as few questions as possible, leaving me to provide details. I was worried about Josh. I knew this would be hard, I just hoped he would be able to make it through relatively unscathed. As I figured, I was the last person to see Thomas. Josh didn't know that, and I planned to keep it that way, at least for now. I already felt horrible that I might have been able to save him, but was too stupid enough to walk away. I could be held responsible for this, I realized. They might think I had killed him, but they didn't even know someone had killed him, but if they thought I did, well, I was screwed. That was why I couldn't tell anybody, but if I didn't, and they found out, they would think I did it. No matter what I did I would seem guilty.

AN: So, I was gone all weekend, so I decided to post sooner, I would cut this one short, so I'm ending here, but I should have another chapter up by the end of the week.