𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝙰 𝚂𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖, 𝙱𝚊𝚋𝚢

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚎𝚗

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song of the chapter: 90s american superstar by wallice

"break my heart. shouldn't be that hard."

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       I was in extreme denial. I made the phone call to his mother, which was worse than seeing him dead. The scream on the other end of the line left me numb and speechless.

I was left at the police station without a boyfriend or a ride. I took out my phone and called the person that first came to mind.

Mickey pulled up to the station a few minutes later. I got into the car and tried not to break down. After a few minutes of silence, he decided to speak up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I've had three best friends my whole life. Three people that stuck with me from preschool to high school. And now they're all dead," I broke.

"I'm sorry, Bronny," he sighed.

"Maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame," I said numbly.

"Don't blame yourself," he comforted. "It's not your fault."

      We got to my dorms and he parked the car. He leaned over and hugged me.

"Thanks for this," I smiled weakly.

"It's no problem. Let me know if you need anything else," he smiled as I got out of the car.

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About an hour later, Gale called me. She'd sounded desperate, so I met her where she told me to.

"What do you love birds need?" I groaned as I approached them at the entrance of the school.

"We think the killer might be in this footage," she explained.

"You made me get out of bed and come here just to look at footage?" I clarified.

"Sorry, but we could use all the help we can get," Dewey said, looking at me pitifully as we entered the building.

We bolted down the halls looking for a place with a VCR.

"Video archive!" Gale pointed out. Dewey tried to open the door.

"It's locked," he groaned. I stepped forward.

"I can pick it," I said, pushing him aside.

"That would be breaking and entering," Dewey pointed out.

"No shit," I responded as he tried another door.

"There's got to be a VCR around here somewhere," Dewey sighed.

"Professor Keller's classroom! He leaves it unlocked at night," I remembered.

"How do you know that?" Dewey asked.

"Lucky guess?" I tried, remembering that he's a policeman.

"I don't want to know," he sighed as I led them towards his classroom.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Dewey said shining a light on the VCR.

"Perfect!" Gale exclaimed. We went down the stairs to the front of the classroom.

"Let's start with this one," Gale said. They both reached down and bonked heads on accident.

"Sorry," Dewey laughed. They were looking into the eyes of each other and it was terribly awkward.