Bad Timing

Ventisei

I gawked at Noah incredulously.

“You’re kidding right?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

Everyone who passed us in the hallway stared at our interlocked hands and close proximity in disbelief, but I could care less about what they thought. It’s been happening ever since we’ve made our relationship public. I learned to ignore their judgments.

He leaned against the lockers and sighed in exhaustion. “No, I’m not.”

My mouth opened and closed repetitively like a fish, finding it hard to digest what Noah was telling me. “You can’t just end things like that!”

“Well, I am.”

“Are you crazy? You’ve gone this far and you’re just going to drop it?” I have to remind myself to lower my voice so that the people around us wouldn’t hear.

Noah’s hand tightened around mine as a smile tugged at his lips. “Well, I am crazy. Just a little bit.”

“Noah, no. You can’t just drop it. You deserve answers. You deserve closure. Nick deserves this. Everyone who was there that night, your family – they deserve it! What made you change your mind?”

“We’re not getting anywhere with this. Nobody knows what happened that night. I’ve come to the bottom of my list, I’ve done all I could, but I’m nowhere near finding the answers. I’m stuck and I’m afraid I’ll be stuck here for the rest of my life,” Noah sighed, looking away from me.

“So you’re giving up?” I deadpanned.

“No. I’m moving on.”

“Bull crap.”

Noah groaned. “The police can’t even find answers. How do you expect me to find it?”

“Determination, love, anger, betrayal, vengeance, care, passion, fortitude – “ the bell interrupted my list of reasons as to why he should continue this case.

Noah cupped my face with his warm hand, pecking my lips. “I’ll talk to you later.”

As I watched him walk away, my head was buzzing with confusion. His sudden decision perplexed me. There was no way he suddenly let go of the situation at hand. It was almost impossible. I knew that deep down inside, he was angry with himself.

He shouldn’t have given up so easily.

Looking into my locker with a deep frown etched onto my face, a red notebook with a collage of different band names adorning the front cover caught my eye. My eyebrows drew together in mystification. I was absolutely clueless about more than half the bands on the cover so it definitely couldn’t have been mine.

I grabbed it cautiously, glancing to see if anyone was around. The hallways were empty. I suddenly wished I wasn’t alone at the moment. The name on the front cover was enough to make my heart race with fear and bile to rise in the back of my throat.