Our Little Secret

The Day After

Hazel spent the night staring up at her bedroom ceiling. Even if she wanted to sleep, she couldn't. Her thoughts ran wild with images of Ella lying in the woods all alone...cold and alone. But she also couldn't help but wonder why Hayes hadn't come asking her any questions. Why was Jo the one to tell her that a body had been found? 

The next day at school the halls were silent. It wasn't surprising that the news of Ella's body being found had spread almost instantly. Jo had her new gang protecting her from any unwanted stares or whispers and she was actually relieved to have them on her side. Hazel, however, was not so lucky. She walked the halls alone and while she tried to ignore the whispers and side eyes, there was only so much she could ignore. After homeroom Hazel went to the basement bathroom to hide out. To her surprise, she wasn't the only one who had that idea.

"What are you doing in here?"

Hazel took a second to collect herself and responded, "What do you think I'm doing here?"

Jo had her hands on either side of the sink and was just staring into the mirror. 

"I guess I should have figured you'd come here with all that's going on right now."

Hazel sighed and walked to the sink next to her and looked into the mirror. She noticed Jo's eyes were red.

"This used to be the place the three of us would go when we wanted to get away." Hazel looked straight ahead and her eyes started to sting with tears.

The two of them stood in silence for what seemed like forever. 

"What do you think is going to happen now?"

That was the question that continued to run through both of their minds. There would surely be more questions and interviews and just the thought of going through all of this again was enough to make Hazel feel sick to her stomach. She had the feeling that Jo felt the same, but she seemed to be more worried than she had been when they did not know what had happened to Ella. When she was still missing. 

Jo rubbed her eyes and turned to Hazel. Hazel just now noticed the dark circles under her eyes, it looked like she hadn't been sleeping much.

"Are we still in this together?" 

Without hesitation Hazel replied, "Of course we are."

***

The next few days were filled with detectives and searches. Hazel was just waiting for the knock on her door for the search of her house, her room, or whatever else the police wanted to see. She was a little confused on why she hadn't been interviewed yet. After all, she was one of Ella's best friends and when she first went missing she had been asked millions of questions. 

Jo was already asked to come to the police station twice to answer some questions, but she wouldn't talk about it with Hazel which had her even more confused. 

Hazel checked her phone just to see if there were any missed calls or messages but there was nothing. She sighed and tossed her phone onto the desk. After a minute or so of pacing around the room, she picked it back up and dialed Hayes's number.

"Hello?"

She was sort of shocked he answered on the first try.

"Hayes?" She knew it was him, but she asked anyways.

"Speaking," he sounded formal, "who is this?"

"It's Hazel. Hazel Walker."

There was silence on the other end for a few moments until there was a sigh and what sounded like papers rustling. "Is there something you need?"

"I was just calling to see if you needed anything from me."

"Needed anything?"

Hazel sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Yeah, like, do you need me to come in for an interview or do you want to take a look at anything in my house?"

Hayes let out a small laugh and said, "Are you trying to tell me that there is something we need to look for in your room?"

Hazel stood up sharply. "No! I-I just thought I would see if there was anything I could do to help out since no one has reached out to me yet."

"Listen, we found some evidence near where the body was found that is pointing us in the direction of only a couple of suspects."

This conversation was making Hazel even more confused than she was before.

"Hazel?"

"Y-yes sorry I'm here."

"If we need anything from you I will personally reach out, but for now please just stay out of it. I can't say much more."

Hazel sighed and sat back down, this time on the floor in front of the bed.

"Oh, and Hazel?"

"Yeah?"

"I think it would be best if you stayed away from Jo Garcia."

When the call ended, there were more questions left than answers. Why did he want her to stay away from Jo? What did they find by old Settles Bridge with Ella? How much of that night did Hazel still not know about?