Withering You

Noah

Roy had come to pick me up on the said time. He tried to make conversations but I shrugged him off. He shut up realising I'm not going to talk. We were all going good till Mrs Everyl opened the door with a smile.

"Is Jason expecting you both? He didn't inform me," Mrs Everyl asks with raised eyebrows.

"Uh- I. We," I stutter on my words thinking of something.

"We wanted to surprise him. Hope you don't mind, Mrs Everyl," Roy lies with a sweet smile.

"Oh, how sweet of you both!" Mrs Everyl gives out a laugh, "please. Come in. He is upstairs. Hope you guys know his room."

"Yes." I pitch in quickly. If we are friends of Jason then we are surely bound to know his room. I give Roy a look to follow me. We can open all the doors and look in till we find him.

"What are we going to do?" Roy asks as we climb up the stairs. I look around and catch sight of a do-not-disturb sign hanging on a door. It's obviously his room. I nudge Roy's shoulder and point at the sign. Roy and I exchange a nod before walking towards the room. I open it and step in. A flustered looking Jason looks up from his bed.

"What the fuck?" He quickly sits up straight. Roy closes the door hastily. We don't want his mother on the scene. Did I just say the word 'scene'? Obviously we don't plan to harm him, Ava.

"Who the fuck are you two?" Jason asks, scrambling out of the bed to stand up.

"Don't act like you don't know us, Jason. And if you really have forgotten then let me do a recap. I'm Roy and that's Noah. Nice to meet you too, Jason. Pleasures all ours," Roy says sarcastically.

"Maybe Roy," I say, turning both heads at me. I try not to wobble on my words as I continue, "maybe we should enhance his memory by taking him down the memory lane."

My words didn't wobble but my legs were. Roy nods at me though I'm sure he doesn't understand what I'm going to do. I drag a chair and sit quickly. I might have looked posh and stylish but inside I was a trembling mess. Roy stands straight, guarding the door.

"Ava. Remember her? The girl who was found dead by the river," I don't use the word 'hanged'. I don't want to, "Remember the letters you had sent her?" Jason's eyes widened in shock. In my peripheral vision I can see Roy squint at me. Damn, I forgot he doesn't know about the letters. Hope he keeps his act together. "We have all the letters, don't we Roy?"

Jason turns to look at Roy. I take the opportunity to wipe my sweaty hands on my trousers. Roy gives a sturdy nod. Boy, Roy acts really well.

"We will send them to the police if you don't answer our questions Jason," Roy says, which makes me raise my eyebrows at him. Who was talking about the police here? But I think it works well because I see Jason fall back into his bed, defeated.

"Tell me now, Jason, why did you send those letters to Ava?" I ask. I really hope Jason is dumb enough to answer the question because if I had those letters then I would surely know why they were sent. I couldn't get my hands on the letters hence all this trouble.

Jason looks from Roy to me then back at Roy.

"Answer up, Jason," Roy says in a threatening voice.

Jason gives out a shaky breath, "Will you return the letters back to me if I answer."

"If your answer satisfies us then we would." Roy says. When Jason looks away to compose himself Roy gives me a subtle nod. I nonchalantly start the voice record on my phone. Roy had asked me to do it so we can use it as evidence later. This would be a great piece of evidence if Jason is the murderer. This all would be of no use if he is not.

"Ava. She stole my work," Jason says. Roy turns to look at me.

I don't understand. You stole Jason's work? I frown at Jason.

"What work?" I ask.

"Othello."

Now, I feel like someone took a hammer to my head. He is lying. Tell me he is lying. You couldn't have stolen his work in Othello. Doesn't make sense.

"You started sending her letters after she had stolen your work in Othello?" I ask in thought.

"Yes," Jason says, looking at Roy in confusion. My breath hitches.

In your book, Ava, it was different. I can remember well. You had gotten Jason's letters while you were looking for someone to write the summary of Othello. You didn't mention anything about stealing Jason's work. If you already had stolen it, then surely, you wouldn't be looking for someone else to write for it. Maybe the book was burnt before I could read about that. Oh my god, Ava. Did you steal his work? Is he lying about all of this? My head hurts. This is confusing me. I looked at Jason, he seemed agitated. I take a deep breath. I need to word out my questions properly. I can't sound like I don't have those letters.

"Why did you send her those letters then?" I ask.

"It was my hard work. What the fuck would you have done? Send her flowers?" Jason screams at me.

"No. What he meant was why you sent her letters when you could have gone to the principal." Roy says. Did I mean it like that?

Jason shrugs his shoulders. "Who is going to believe me? She is a class topper. I don't think even you guys believe me," he says, sounding low.

I really don't see why you would have lied in your own book, Ava. Which leaves me no option but to think of Jason as a liar.

"I sent her those letters to scare her, thinking she would come out clean herself. But I- I didn't think she would kill herself like that. Please don't tell the police-"

"You told us that you had slept with her. Was that a lie?" Roy asks, interrupting him.

Jason looks like he might cry. I feel sorry for him. I would be a mess by now if I was him.

"Yeah," Jason says quietly.

"What the fuck?" Roy sounded pissed. I give him a don't-do-anything-stupid look. Jason's answer doesn't shock me. I knew it from the beginning that you wouldn't have slept with a scum like him.

"Why did you lie, Jason?" I ask in a monotone.

"I-I wanted to get back at her but didn't know how, so I used Colin. I lied to him. Thought he would hurt her. I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. Please don't tell the cops. It's her fault. She stole my work. Please. I'll be leaving the country again. I won't even be in your sight. Please don't tell anyone."

"Are you sure you didn't send her any letters before Othello?" I ask again. It's a tiny fringe of hope, Ava. Maybe he had mistaken the timings.

"Yes. I-I didn't send her anything before. I only sent her two letters. I'm sorry. I regret doing it. Please-" Jason stops his ramblings when Roy holds his hand up.

Roy turns to face me, "Is that all you want to ask him?"

I give out a deep breath. I wanted to ask him the same question that if he had sent letters before Othello, again and again till he answered yes but felt that it wouldn't be a great thing to do. I give Roy a nod as I off the recording. I look at Jason one last time before standing up.

He was quickly wiping the tears before we could see. I saw his fingers trembling. My heart warms up. He wouldn't have done it.

"Jason," I say. He looks up at me. I give him a smile, "don't be scared. We don't have the letters that you had sent, Ava."

Roy gives me a are-you-mad look. I shrug my shoulders at him, "Let's go."

I push Roy aside and leave. I feel my throat tighten up. I felt Jason's pain. Looking at him, I saw me. It would kill him to walk around thinking about the letters. No one deserves that. I feel like I had set him free.