Neighbor

Guilt?

Everyone stared. The entire school turned their heads when Simi walked into school the following Monday. They whispered to each other and questioned one another but no one knew what had happened for the girl to show up to school in such a state.

Her hair was cut short and the ends stuck up messily, she had dark circles under her eyes and a blood-stained bandage was wrapped around her knee - she looked like she had just escaped prison.

"Simi, what happened?" A mortified little Hailey has popped up beside Simi.

"Can I be alone today, please?" Simi muttered, it was more of a demand than a request.

Simi's first lesson was Business studies but she wasn't in the mood too attend so she snuck out and headed to the bleachers on the field. The moody girl plopped herself on the top of the bleachers and pulled out one of her books to read.

The green-eyed girl read a lot of Mystery Novels. Specifically ones about missing people, she obsessed over it, she didn't even care about the age range for the novels, she would read kids' mystery novels as well.

Maybe she thought it would teach her ways to solve her own personal mystery.

-

Over the years, Simi had attempted to do a little bit of her own investigating herself, she gathered information about the night of her dad's disappearance, like:
-What he went out for that night (For work)
-What he was wearing (a navy blue suit with a black tie and sneakers)
-His method of transportation (his best friend Richard had driven them because they worked together)
-What else had he done that night (He went out for a few beers with a few of his friends after the meeting)

But all of this information left her with no leads. That night, his dad was the one who left them with all this information, he contacted Angelina via SMS to let her know everything he was doing that night...

Until he didn't.

(1) SMS from: Arjun

I'm just going to get a few beers with the guys, I'll be home by 12 x

That was the last time Simi's dad had ever contacted the family. He never kept his promise to return by 12.

-

"What did you do to your hair?" Basil's husky voice interrupted Simi's reading time.

"Now what am I going to have to tug on?" The sharp-eyed boy flashed the her an evil grin from the bottom of the bleachers.

"Tch-" Simi rolled her eyes at the boy, she wasn't going to say anything to him, she didn't need him to know that he was the reason for her new "Mental Breakdown Haircut."

Simi gathered her things from the bleacher and began to walk away.

"Oh and your hair is longer than mine now," she said, having her turn at pulling at his hair before attempting to walk past him.

"Simi listen if you-" Basil had gently grabbed the girl's wrist, she was caught by surprised by the tone of his voice, not because it was loud and angry but because his voice seemed to have been laced with guilt and worry instead.

Simi's eyes widened at the sudden gesture.

"Simi, did you-" She snapped out of it and quickly shoved his hand away from her before he could finish what he wanted to say.

"Don't touch me," she said monotonously, furrowing her eyebrows before stomping off.

"-did you cut your hair because of me?" Basil whispered to himself, he was too late to ask her, the girl was long gone. Basil ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Fuck, he furiously kicked at a rock that lay beneath his foot.