Murderer

Chapter 18: Brendon

I cleaned off the food from my face while my mind raced with thoughts of hatred. I had never felt so embarrassed before, and it made it worse that Leslie was there watching. I thought that I finally had somebody to release my crippling thoughts to, but she had sat there and witnessed to biggest loser in school get his face planted into his food. I don't think she would ever want to be seen with me again. That's okay, though. It'll just go back to the way it was before today, with me feeling like a totally different species from a different planet whose only concerns was making it through the day and finding his best friend.

She was right though, how easily would it have been to just burn up your house with a random dead corpse inside it. Well...it probably wasn't easy getting the corpse, but just the thought of being invisible because you are supposed to be dead. That's smart. The question is, where the hell would he go after that? And I suppose it would be right to ask who's bones it was that they found in the fire, if it really wasn't Christopher's.

My train of thought was interrupted by a muffled whisper by which I could easily hear due to the lack of other people in the bathroom. It became more clear the second time, somebody was whispering my name. I just sat there in confusion after that. I couldn't bring myself to answer the whispering.

"BRENDON!" Leslie's voice boomed after she grew impatient.

"Yeah, Leslie?" I called back, quickly trying to get the last of the food off my face. I was glad she came back, mentally I needed her more than ever. She was like a small miracle to me, somebody who even wanted to help me find Ryan.

"I'm so sorry about Mark, these kinds of things that he did was exactly why I broke up to him. Rest assured, I made sure he got kicked off the football team because of the stunt he pulled back there. I told the principal everything. Are you okay?" Her voice was so soothing and caring, and I wanted her to keep talking to me. I can't believe I tried to get rid of her back there.

"I'm okay, I'll survive. I have to, you know?" I tried to smile but it fell off my face quickly when I remembered how I almost killed myself, which would have left nobody for Ryan for when he returned. I felt like shit for doing it, I mean even if we find Ryan dead, I have to at least go to his funeral. But we aren't going to find him dead, not on my watch. 

There was a few seconds of silence before I heard her speak again.

"I was thinking...maybe we can skip the rest of our classes and hit up the library down the street to see if we can find out more about the pond's past and Christopher?" She whispered this, since we still had two hours left of school and if I were to say yes, we surely didn't want to get caught. I wanted to leave, it gave me a feeling kind of like before, breaking the rules with Ryan. I wish we could have gotten the chance to skip together. At least Leslie could slightly fill the void that Ryan's disappearance had left for me, but I would never let Leslie replace him completely. I just need her help with finding him, that's all.

"Let's do it." I got off the floor of the bathroom and opened the stall door. With my head in the sink, I let water flow onto my head for a second to get rid of any left over food in my hair before turning it off and standing tall again, letting the water drip all over me. I fixed my hair and walked out of the bathroom to be greeted by Leslie's pleasant smile and accepting eyes.

As kids were released from lunch, we began walking with the crowd to blend in. Mark passed me, shoving me into Leslie as he walked. Before he could turn around and grin at me being angry at him, Leslie took my hand in hers and held it tight to comfort me. When I saw him look back at us, I looked down at our hands and then back at his eyes, giving him a smile. He looked defeated. It was an unusual sight for me.

We stopped at some double doors that led to the outside. We checked for any security guards walking down the hall, and once we dismissed any threat to our plan to skip, she and I slipped out the doors and started running until we made it off school property. It was official. I was skipping school for the first time, but it was alright because I had something more important to do. Find Ryan.