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“What’s wrong?” Brett asked, his brows furrowing as he gazed at me. “Did something happen?”
“Classes are canceled today,” I said, slow to lock my screen and put my phone down in the cupholder. “For everyone.” I couldn’t remember that happening, ever. The only time classes had ever been canceled for me when was the weather was shit and the individual professors sent out emails to the entire class canceling the day, or when the professors got sick.
But that was only ever a class or two. Never an entire day. Never every single class campus-wide. Something like that was unheard of. Granted, I was only on my second year here, so I didn’t have too much experience dealing with things like this, but I had to assume that something had to be very, very wrong for the president of the college to send out a campus-wide email canceling every class for the entire day.
“Why?” Brett asked.
“I don’t know. It just said due to an investigation—whatever that means.” I wondered if something happened. Whatever it was, it had to have been bad.
Well, I guess it was time to go back home.
I backed the car out of the spot and got us on the road. All the while, I tried to think about what could’ve been the reason behind that email, but I honestly couldn’t think of anything. It was a college campus. There was crime. Of course there was. You get so many college-age people in a small enough space with their own personal freedom, and people were bound to make mistakes.
But what could be big enough to shut down the entire campus?
Chapter Five – Brett
We got back to the house, but I could tell Charlie was restless. She didn’t know what was going on. She was as clueless as most of the recipients of that email, but she tried to make the most of her free day. She did some online quizzes and even studied for a test she had the following week, which left me to be bored.
Well, bored and impatient.
I had the feeling I knew exactly why classes were canceled today: Zak. Or, rather, Zak’s body. The only thing mentioned in the email, according to Charlie, had been an investigation, and when it came to murder, the cops were always about investigating, even if it got them nowhere.
I’d made sure no one was around. I had my glasses on and the hoodie’s hood. I was as inconspicuous on a college campus as a person could be. There was no way they’d know it was me, Brett Banks. What reason would Brett Banks have to kill a stupid kid like Zak, anyway? There was no link to connect us.
None that the world knew about, anyway.
It was, however, only a matter of time until the news broke that it was Zak. Charlie would find out, and hopefully she wouldn’t shed a tear over that asshole—but only time would tell.
I spent most of the day wondering if I should tell her myself. She’d probably get upset at me, but I’d had my reasons. Most of them might’ve been jealousy and a twisted sense of justice after he’d hurt her by making out with her ex-best friend, but I was also pretty sure he was her stalker. I mean, the motive and the means were right there, plain as day.
But I couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t fess up to her. I… I guess I was nervous that she’d want to take everything back, that she’d suddenly be forced to reckon with the fact that I was a serial killer and I killed people without blinking. Maybe she’d fooled herself into thinking I was this white knight in shining armor who’d promised to help her with her stalker and not someone who’d been basically forced into it because he had no other choice.
I know, I know. Me, being nervous about Charlie finding out I killed someone? It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like I felt guilty about the kill—I didn’t—it’s more that I didn’t want Charlie to look at me differently.
The only person who’d known who I was in and out was dead now. My cousin, my best friend, my co-captain, so to speak. But it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t comparable to Charlie and the way she looked at me.
She made me feel things, okay? She made me feel things I’d never felt before, and try as I did to ignore it, it all came bubbling to the surface in an undeniable wave when those big, brown eyes looked up at me with only sadness in their depths.
How could you not fall in love with Charlie? Serious question.
In the end, I decided to let her be. I lounged on the couch in the living room most of the day—though I did break for laundry. I dozed off somewhere around noon, right after eating lunch. I couldn’t say how long I was out, but when I came to, I heard Charlie’s voice, faint on the stairs.
“Mom. Slow down. What are you talking about?” Or maybe she was upstairs, pacing the hall. I couldn’t tell. The house wasn’t all that big, so voices tended to carry. “You…” Charlie got quiet, and she stayed quiet.
I sat up and swung my legs off the couch. I had the feeling I knew why her mom was calling her. I’d bet anything it had to do with the reason why classes were canceled. I was slow in getting to my feet and shuffling to the base of the stairs. Angling my head up, I couldn’t see Charlie, but I knew she was up there.
“Are you sure? How do you even know this?” A pause. “No, I haven’t heard the news, and I don’t constantly check it. I’m not old like you and Dad.” Another pause, this one longer. “Of course we’ll go. Okay, bye Mom. Love you.”
I was seconds from starting up the stairs when Charlie appeared at the top, clutching her phone to her side so hard her arm shook. The look she wore wasn’t a happy one, her mouth drawn into a thin line and her eyes semi-narrowed. The way she looked down at me told me she knew.
Best get it over with, then.
I went up the stairs, taking one at a time, and I only stopped when I stood three steps from the top, close enough to bear the full brunt of Charlie’s accusatory look. I didn’t say a word. I waited for her to do the honors of starting this particular conversation.
“There was a murder on campus yesterday, in Greek row. Authorities just released the name of the victim,” Charlie spoke, her jaw grinding. “It was Zak.”
Hearing her say her ex’s name made me itch, mostly because that asshole, even if he was dead, didn’t deserve to grace those lips ever again.
