Lilac's Lies

11

I knew Khalil was drunk by the way he stumbled when he took a step towards me.

He seemed to instantly notice my apprehension, the way I tensed my body and leaned away. It's not that I was scared of him, I was just wary. He straightened himself, holding his hands out in front of him, as if to say I come in peace.

"Why are you here?" I repeated. I heard the way my voice sounded, and it didn't sound nice, or welcoming.

Khalil and I have never been close. He was one of Jesse's closest friends, Brett's too. After that night, their friendships seemed to fall apart. Slowly, but surely. It wasn't until last month that he distanced himself from them, and by association me, completely. He no longer met with us, he no longer checked in. I saw him occasionally at parties, but he didn't say hi anymore.

Instead of Brett, Jesse and Khalil being on the same team, Khalil was on a team all on his own now it seemed. I don't know why. I don't know if he was trying to separate himself from us, afraid of what was going to happen if people started to put the pieces together. I don't know if they had an argument, or a disagreement. It didn't really matter to me, so I never asked. I didn't care if Khalil was in my life or not.

"I... didn't think you'd be here." Khalil said finally, and from the surprised look on his face, I believed him. That didn't answer any question, however, it just made this scenario even more curious.

"What?" I asked him, demanding for a further explanation. I ran my eyes over him again as if I was trying to search for clues to his mysterious behaviour. He looked different than the last time we spoke. His jet black hair had been longer, it was now a buzz cut. He looked skinnier, too. He's lost definition in the muscles he had. His tan skin looked paler, and he wasn't as well put together as usual.

When he didn't answer, I continued. "Why are you here? How do you know where I live?"

Khalil still wore the same expression, the same surprised mixed with confusion. It felt like he was debating whether to flee the scene or not.

"Jesse told me where you lived last year," he said simply, answering only the least important of my questions.

"Okay." I looked past him, trying to see if anyone was else was here. There wasn't, not that I expected there to be. I was just so lost, I was searching for any clue I could find.

"I, uh, I was going to leave this with your mom." Khalil stuttered the words out, reaching forward with one of his hands. There was a white envelope in it that I hadn't noticed before.

I felt my face crease in confusion as I took it from him. I looked down and examined it in my hands. It was sealed, with no clues of its contents. The only thing on the envelope was my name, written in messy, small printing.

I heard Khalil's footsteps, causing me to look back up. He had turned his back to me, and was quickly walking down my driveway. I thought about calling after him, trying to get his attention and demanding he explain what this was, but I had a feeling he wouldn't stop.

I shut the door instead, still not understanding what was happening. Once the door was closed, I leaned back against it. I was completely mystified. I cautiously began to open the envelope, my fingers moving slowly like they weren't sure they really wanted to be obeying my brain's commands to move.

Once the seal was broken, I peaked into the pocket of paper. There was another piece of paper inside, folded up tightly into a rectangle. I pulled it out, letting the envelope fall to the ground. Opening it carefully, I could quickly see it was a printed out news article. There was a picture of a smashed up boat on it, and multiple paragraphs of tiny black print.