50 Ways To Spend Your Christmas, Stuck With an Annoyingly Hot Emo Delinquent [28]

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Random thoughts here, I registered for twitter (link would open up to my twitter profile thingy) a long time ago but had no idea what's the point of that thing. Now I'm kind of using it again...I can see the point of using it now. But I could never know how everyone else could manage to update it every single minute o_o

"What really happened that night?" I snapped, unable to control my curiosity any longer. A part of me didn't want to believe the article, but then again I didn't really know what to believe anymore. We were at a quaint cafe near the mall, still in our formal wears.

Which by the way, earned us a few curious stares from the t-shirt-and-jeans patrons.

He looked distant as ever whenever I asked that question. It was as if he was fighting with himself internally, trying to figure out if he could really trust me or something. And it was frustrating. It was fucking frustrating!

I wanted to know, even if I had to force it out of him.

"It's not what you think," he said. "You don't know what I think," I remarked but he casually smirked as he said, "what? You don't know that I know you've been googling my name?"

I felt a jolt of suprise, then it was replaced with guilt...as if I had been caught something so bad I could go to jail for it. "It's hard to say, or rather..." he paused, stuffing a weird-looking pastry into his mouth. Munching slowly...and...slower.

"Tease," I muttered and he choked a bit on his food.

"I have no idea how to tell you," he said with a straight face. "I just wanna know if you did it or not," I asked, leaning back against the chair with my arms crossed. Rubbing his eyes, he took a deep breath and shook his head.

"You know the guy you hung out with?" he said, stirring his hot coffee. His eyes were concentrating on the swirl that followed the spoon and at that moment, I didn't know what to think anymore. I looked outside the big glass window next to us.

The street lights were switched on, illuminating the once dark, cold street. I was huddled in my thick coat. Compare this cafe with its' barely-existing-insulator and an igloo, I think I'd rather be in an igloo.

Or a penguin, but that was a different kind of dream I had when I was a kid.

"He and the rest of his friends went to this party back in Cali," he said. "It was supposed to be a harmless, Christmas Eve's party with a couple of friends. And friends of friends. You get the idea."

I nodded silently.

"Well, they spiked the drinks there," he continued. "At some point of the night, this girl in my bio class who we all called Ann back then, drank a few glasses of said spiked drink. She was tipsy, sure. But not drunk."

A shiver went down my spine. And suddenly a part of me wanted to kill my curiosity.

I didn't think I want to know this story...but at the same time I do. Er, yeah...that made sense in my head. "I went over to help her for a bit since she was staggering all over the place. Back then, I didn't know that Quinton spiked the drinks just for the fun of it. So when he came over to me, he offered to walk her home after she announced that she was getting tired."

"Ann, she trusted Quinton. I guess she had a little crush towards him. I trusted him too, unfortunately."

Trusted.

"I must admit that was very stupid of me," he said, letting out a nervous laughter as he fiddled with the small, silver spoon. "But I need to leave too since people were throwing each other across the room."

"Surely that's an exaggeratio--"

"I'm being serious. I think there was a trampoline...or at least a giant-size slingshot to hurl human bodies."

I picked up the cup of the steaming hot chocolate I ordered and drank it. Sure, on normal days it would probably taste fine. That day though, it wasn't even nearly hot. I think I may need a couple packets of extra hot and spicy sauce.

Or just bring me a plate of jalapeno or something.

"A couple of minutes after they left," he said, looking suddenly sick as he closed his eyes. "I was walking home, much like Quinton and the others since our houses are kind of close to the party. And then I saw them."

They did it. They fucking raped her.

Assholes.

He rubbed his temple silently. "Believe me, I did tried to stop them. In one way or another, we got into a fight," he sighed, showing me a wary smile. "I lost. Quite horribly too," he said, chuckling uncomfortably.

I grimaced. "God knew how, maybe the cops were nearby doing one of their routine check or shit like that, but I guess Quinton manage to convince them that I did it...most probably with money. I really don't know," he said, shrugging.

"But the next day when I forced myself to go to school just to see if Ann was there, the first step I took in that class I knew that there was something wrong. Something a little bit off. Her usual seat was empty, her best friends were no where in sight. People were huddled in groups, whispering about something."

"She's dead," he said through his clenched teeth, his hands rolled into fist. "The teachers didn't want to announce it to us, not yet. But she's dead. Hung herself. And of course, as soon as I walk in people were shooting me disgusted glares," he spat angrily, looking down to his lap.

I bit my tongue. No matter what I thought, my mind always came to a stop at the same place: I could help. Er, well, I could certainly try to help. He told me once that he just got chuck into the center without a fair trial.

God, people would do anything for big bucks huh?

Appeal to a court. Get a lawyer. Come on, it was a damn party and it was getting late. Surely there were witnesses other than him? Oh god, there were many possibilities. Though, we needed to find a list of people at the party.

And if that bastard bribe the police or anything, there must be some kind of a CCTV footage right?

Plus, the streets have eyes.

Woah, that was right. How could I forget that? Security cameras nearby could tell us more and...god, he could be released from the center. I got up determinedly, surely Jane must have lawyers right? Or her husband, with his political madness and everything.

Dammit. Why did no one thought of this before?

"Nathan, it's horrible," I choked out. "But even so, we have to reveal the truth right? It's fairly easy, I mean, all we need to do is find evidence and--"

I stopped myself.

In astonishment, he looked up towards me. Eyes red, lips parted. "You...you believe me?"

"Of course I do!" I exclaimed without hesitating. And then my heart skipped a beat.

I always believed in him.

Biting my bottom lip, I flung my arms around him comfortingly. My grip around him got tighter as he curled his arms around my back. I was going to break down. Heck, I shed a fucking tear. But I gathered myself.

There was nothing I could do or he could do to save the girl. Unless...we have that DeLorean from Back to The Future. "It's not your fault," I whispered, standing on tiptoes. "It's not," I repeated firmly. "We're going to get to the bottom of this."

The patrons were looking at us oddly once again.

Screw them.