Intertwined

Second Loss

As Asher was walking to school that morning, he took a different route to see if Rose had left yet. As he neared the street, he saw Rose crying. He quickly ran over to talk to her.

"Rose??? What happened??"

She wiped away some tears before mustering some words. "N-Nate. H-He's d-dead"

Asher's eyes widened is shock. "What?"

"M-my parents just t-told me. T-they heard from his parents"

Asher hugged the poor girl. "I'm so sorry"

"I-it's not your fault" Rose hugged him back.

"I'll be here for you through this, ok? I'll keep you safe"

"T-thank you so much"

"No problem." He smiled a little at her.

Matt's jaw dropped uncharacteristically after hearing the end of the story. "I can't believe Andrews is...I'm sorry..."

Rose just forced a small smile as a response.

Matt took a second to register everything calmly, then he looked at Rose again. "Sorry to ask you this Rose but...did your parents mention anything about a note this time near...you know...like with Rowe?..."

Rose nodded in response. She pulled out her phone and handed it to him, a picture of the note on the screen.

Matt's eyes widened in horror at what he saw. "There it is again..."

It was the same words as last time. Only this time, they were larger and messier...like the person who wrote them was full of hatred.

"Keep your friends closer..." Matt reiterated the words he saw, yet he was still unable to decipher the code.

Rose put her phone in her pocket, while Asher sighed a bit. "What could it mean?.."

"I have no clue, and I don't like it. Have you seen any of our friends?" Matt questioned.

Thank god we're both getting along well after everything. Asher doesn't look like he wants me dead...yet.

Asher shook his head a bit, looking around to make sure. "Not yet.."

"I see...Do you wanna go in yet?" Matt would usually wait for everyone to come, but lately he's been feeling like no one wanted him around.

Asher shrugged and glanced around once more. "Yeah. Let's go in"

Matt nodded and started heading inside, with the other two behind him.

Having had a bit of a rough night, Evelyn was among the few to arrive last, but she wasn't the only one.

Jordi came out from a different path than her usual one, running to make it on time.

Evelyn spotted her best friend and raised her eyebrow. The blonde speedwalked to catch up to Jordi. "Jordi?"

"Hm? Oh hey Eve" Jordi slowed down her running.

"What's the matter this morning? You don't usually run to get to school" Evelyn raised a brow.

Why was everyone acting differently in the last few days?

"Oh, I just slept in on accident. Had to take a shortcut so I wasn't late" Jordi explained with short breath due to taking said shortcut.

"Huh, I see. Did you see any of our friends on your way?"

"No, I didn't"

Evelyn looked back at the school. "Hmm, I haven't seen them either. They must've gotten in already"

"Guess so" Jordi shrugged.

Eve smiled a bit. "Well, let's get going then. I wouldn't want to make your running here fruitless"

Jordi smiled a bit as well. "Yeah, let's"

The two girls started to head inside, enjoying whatever time they spent on their own.