Unwritten Pages

Chapter Forty-Six: Stuck Between The Pages

     It doesn't even take her that long to finish the journal.

     The moment I had shown her the journal, she had ushered me inside quickly. I was dripping wet. Funny—since I hadn't even noticed that it had been raining. I dried off and Desiree took the journal from me. Apparently, seeing Winter's name on the front cover is a wake-up slap for her.

     I had only just realized that I was dead tired and collapsed on the couch after I had dried off. Minutes later, I had drifted off into oblivion.

     I had only just awoken when Desiree tried to shake me awake. Being surprise, I fall off the couch and onto the floor with a thud. I bury my face in my arms and let out a groan.

     “Why are you always like this in the morning?” Desiree asks, her tone between playful and serious. “My parents and cousins know you're here. Hopefully, they won't think we did anything inappropriate.”

     I get up and rub my eyes groggily. “I have all my clothes on,” I manage to say, “and I've been in the same spot the whole night.”

     “Say what you want, Pisces boy,” Desiree says, her mouth lifting up at the corners as she tests the new nickname on her lips. “But when it comes to their little Desiree, common sense won't matter. But I didn't come to talk about that.” She pauses, as if for dramatic effect. “It's the journal.”

     Dramatic or not, I jerk up immediately. Winter's journal isn't anything to joke about. In fact, there's nothing to joke about relating to Winter. Especially relating to her death.

     “I finished it,” she says, trying to seem nonchalant about it. But I know that a million thoughts are racing through her mind. We both want to find those papers describing the event on May, 26th. Winter may have killed herself, but she was driven to. We have to find out who her stalker is.

     “You finished it already?” I say, surprised. “It took me weeks to finish it!”

     “You're a slow reader,” Desiree dismisses. She doesn't mention that I had said weeks. She already knows that I had had this journal for a long time.

     “So...” I start, eyeing her, “What do you think we should do...?”

     “Find the notes. But that's an obvious.” She starts pacing the room. “Now we know that her death isn't just a 'normal' suicide, as normal as suicides go. She had a reason. Well...they all have reasons. But I'm sure this reason breaks the law in some way.

     “We should go now,” I say. I've been eager to look for the notes she mentions in her journal ever since I've finished it.

     But to my surprise Desiree hesitates. “Well... We need to show Ari first...”

     I let out a groan. “What next? Are we going to show the world before we invite them all to look for the notes for us?”

     Desiree hesitates again. “But I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to show Ari.”

     “And then she can tell Con who will tell Tomas and Peter. Then Tomas will spread it to his new girlfriend and they'll spread it on and Ari will insist on telling the police. Then the police will come and confiscate it before we get to it and they'll give us the vague version of the notes that Winter mentioned. We should just look for it now.”

     Desiree looks like she still wants to argue but she gives in. “Fine,” she says. “I'll just tell someone that I'm leaving right now.” Desiree lets out a yawn at the end of her words and I give her a worried look. She catches my look and says, “It's okay. I slept a few hours.”