Bitter

forty-seven - cal

   I'd seen West Haley's house before. Not only that, I'd been inside it too. Dad and Mr. Haley had worked together when I was younger, so I had tagged along sometimes and followed Dad around. That didn't make it any less weird seeing that house again, at night this time. I'm pretty sure the Haleys had a gardener or their own personal chef and I knew for sure they had a maid. At least, they had one when I'd visited that one time, but that was a while ago. "A while" being around ten years ago actually.

   The house really hadn't changed much. Three stories of windows, that was what it was. It looked like some kind of modern art sculpture sitting at the end of a long, paved driveway. Tiny lights lined the pathway leading up to the porch and a small garden sat on the right side of the freshly cut lawn. Everything was bathed in darkness, but the moon provided enough light to see if any figures moved in the shadows. So far, I hadn't seen anyone leave the house and all of the curtains were closed, allowing faint, warm light to filter outside.

   I checked my phone, brightness turned down low. The time was 8:47. How was it that early? Maybe I should've come at like, 10 or something because I'd been parked two houses down from Haley's for about an hour now, just sitting in my car. This realization made me wonder if Haley was even going to be at the dance tonight. He had to be. Almost everyone at school was going to homecoming and he wouldn't miss this perfect opportunity to get away with something undetected. If not at the homecoming game (which I skipped out on because of what happened to Jason last week), then the dance was the next best thing.

Looking back up at Haley's house through a few trees, I watched and waited. Mom and Dad had no idea that this was what I was doing. No, I wasn't picking up a girl named Belle that was supposedly my date. Instead, I was waiting outside West Haley's house, wearing the same suit I'd worn to the funeral yesterday (minus the jacket). Maybe I was going overboard with this. No, wait, who was I kidding? You couldn't go overboard with something involving Haley. I'd follow him to school and make sure he didn't do anything dumb at the dance. No one would be getting poisoned or strangled or whatever else Haley was capable of doing tonight because I wouldn't lose sight of him.

I'd texted Lydia last night about this plan and understandably, she hadn't been too sure about carrying it out. I'd told her I'd be careful and that Haley wouldn't even know I was behind him. I'd given Lydia something small to do too (hopefully she'd actually follow the plan), but we had to reach step one first which was get to the school. Even getting that far wasn't looking promising.

I tapped out a quick text to Lydia while I glanced at Haley's house. You at the dance yet? I'd sent. No reply. She didn't respond for another ten minutes and when she did, the message contained one word.

Yes, it read. Then I got a second text almost immediately after. Where are you?

I let out a huff of breath in the cold car. He hasn't left yet, I wrote back, I don't know what he's doing. With my fingers hovering over my phone screen, I looked back up at Haley's house. That was when I had to sit up a little, leaning forward and squinting to see if I was imagining things. Nope. There was definitely a figure walking down the steps of Haley's porch and I didn't even see the second figure at first. Both were getting in the car sitting in the driveway and I heard two doors slam before the car roared to life, headlights flicking on. Without even looking back down at my phone, I texted Lydia. Hold on, I think he's leaving now.

The black car circled around in the driveway, then headed down to the gate where the street I was parked on met the Haley property. The car turned left, away from me, and I waited just a little longer before putting my key in the ignition. I didn't start driving until I saw Haley's car take another turn and disappear from view, passing underneath the swaying shadows of the trees lining the road. When had it gotten so windy?