An Old Friend

Chapter 3

Taylor's POV

I can't believe this town is actually having something happen to it. Morgan, Hayden, and Ethan think Josh was killed, but who would do that? This town is full of old conservative people that most likely would never hurt a fly. It's so weird. I believe them but why would anyone want to hurt Josh? Half the time he didn't speak unless spoken to or when he was around Morgan. Hell, I'm surprised any of the three showed up today.

"Hey!" I accidentally bump into some girl on my way out of school.

"Sorry," I mutter as I keep walking. I've always wanted my life to be more eventful. I guess I got what I wished for. I start walking towards Morgan's house on my own.

I haven't been there in years. I wonder how much it's changed. What if her mom hates me now? None of us really had good relationships after we stopped hanging out so, what if she told her mom I suck or something? Who am I kidding? I did suck, and then I had no friends. They made new friends and I pushed them away. At least we're all talking again. Last time we talked it was more like yelling at each other.

Whatever that was years ago and now we're all friends again. I hope.

"Taylor!" Hayden gets me out of my thoughts as she catches up to me. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to brush you off like that. We- I thought you wouldn't want to be a part of this. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I get it," I shrug. "I always hated drama and conflict and this has quite a lot of that. You didn't want me to be uncomfortable."

"Right," she nods. "I also didn't want you to give me that look."

"What look?" This time I give her a confused one.

"The look you gave me at lunch. The 'Oh my god you saw something traumatizing last night. I'm so sorry,' look."

"Right," I nod. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Thanks," we both nod. "So, what've you been up to since we all stopped being friends?"

"Nothing," I shrug. "Literally."

"Sounds boring."

"Yeah, it is. Just been drawing a lot."

"Oh, I used to love your art! Do you have any of it with you?"

"Uh, yeah, here," I take my sketchbook out. It's mostly shading practice and pictures of different animals around town.

"Dude, these are so cool," Hayden smiles as she goes through the pages. "Why are there only three animals this place doesn't have? All these look local except those." She looks curious.

"They're my favorite ones," I shrug. "I tried to draw them from memory but the wolf is proportioned wrong, it's supposed to look ready to fight. The badger is supposed to be angry, it just looks sad and the chipmunk is too big."

"Don't do that."

"What?"

"These drawings are amazing. The wolf," she holds the book out so I can see it. She's only a few inches taller than me, but she has to tilt the book a bit, "Looks ready to fight just in her own way. The badger could be sad or angry, or both. No one could know except her, and I'm not even sure if she knows." She turns to the page with the chipmunk on it. "And the chipmunk, you think, is small and jumpy, but this one seems to be more the size of their heart. They'd rather talk about an issue instead of fighting. I think the wolf envies that control and the badger is grateful for it."

"That's one way of seeing it," she hands me the sketchbook back.

"Well, how would you see it? If you were just seeing it somewhere, that is."

"I would say," I turn to the page with the animal I'm talking about. "The wolf is trying to protect someone or something, whether that's someone she really loves or herself, I can't say. The badger has mixed emotions, maybe she wishes she could change time and she's upset about it. Finally, the chipmunk. The chipmunk is just scared. They're small and don't want anyone to get hurt." Like me.

"See? They're amazing pieces. You just have to think of those small mistakes as their personality," Hayden smiles. "Every one of them has flaws but it's part of them either way."

"Thanks," I return the kind smile. "I always overthink my drawings."

"I know. You did the same thing as a kid too, but Morgan and I always told you how great your stuff is. Made sure you knew that you could take a break sometimes. I'm sorry we stopped doing that."

"Don't be," I shrug, putting my book back in my bag at my side. "People change. Friends change. It's part of life and we can't change that."

"Did you just say, we can't change people changing?" She chuckles, amused by me.

"Am I wrong?"

"No. Not wrong at all."

We walk down the street making small comments and laughing at little jokes along the way. As we reach Morgan's house her mom's car isn't in the driveway. She's probably at work. The house is the same as I remember. Still an off-white color with paint chips coming off spots of the one-floor house.

"You think they got here first?" I turn slightly towards Hayden as we get closer to the house.

"Maybe," she shrugs. "I didn't see them before catching up with you."

As we get up the small steps, the door swings open with Morgan and Ethan standing there. "What are you guys waiting for? Get in here." Morgan pulls us inside, dragging us to her room, which is the only thing that's changed in the house besides new pictures. Now she has emerald green blankets and pillows and new posters and decorations on the walls.

"Okay, I can't think of anyone that could want to hurt Josh so I logged into his social media accounts and went through them to see if he was hiding anything," she only speaks once the door is closed behind her as we all sit down.

"What'd you find?" Hayden asks as the two of us sit on Morgan's bed, she sits in the chair at her desk and Ethan stands next to the desk.

"Nothing. That's the problem. The dude never even accepted anyone's follow request unless he knew exactly who the person was. He didn't hide anything and he never got into any internet fights. We still don't know who or why anyone would want to kill him."

"It couldn't be someone from his past?" I suggest.

"No, he's always lived here and barely anyone knew who he was until now."

"Maybe-" Hayden gets cut off by her phone. Why is her ringtone someone yelling at her? "Hello?" Her face drops when the person who called her starts incoherently speaking. Of course, she knows what they're saying. She quickly leaves the room asking the caller who they are.

"Wonder what that's about," Morgan mutters as she looks at the door.

"Maybe someone went nuts?" Ethan suggests. "Didn't know who he was and just snapped at whoever was closest?"

"Then the police should be opening a murder investigation," Morgan shuts the laptop on her desk.

"Do you think they'd believe us if we went to them?" Ethan shrugs.

"We could get as much evidence as possible first," I add.

"No cops." Hayden quickly comes back in, putting her phone in her pocket.

"Why not?" We all look at her.

"Whoever killed Josh just called. If we go to the police more people die."