Burnt Out Of Love

Chapter Five

Since my parents were going through a divorce at the time, we were cleaning up my childhood home to be ready to sell. I was very heartbroken by this and it hurt staying around to see my home start to feel less like home. I spent all my time besides working, at Zander's house. Even starting to spend the night some. At one point I stayed a few nights in a row. Almost thinking of moving in.

I was driving my dad's car to go hang out with my friend one day and Zander asked if he could borrow my car which had slowly been breaking down and overheating.

Since he knew a lot about cars and fixing them to a very limited amount of knowledge- at the time, however, he mentioned how he had done some mechanic classes in high school when he was homeschooled and even got a certificate in it, but lost the proof- I was thinking of giving him the car.

I would be getting a new one soon anyways since my dad just bought the property and little cottage on the land right next to the childhood home that belonged in my brother, Hogan, and I's name for five-thousand dollars each. A total of ten thousand.

When I told Zander I might be giving him the vehicle that resided as mine on the title, he was thrilled and automatically began calling the car his, I didn't correct him. I was in love and I always, since I was young, gave people things hoping they'd love me more.

The day before Zander asked me to let him borrow the car, he and I went to meet up with my dad, with whom I had quite a rocky relationship at the time, and we met up at a bank where the agreement written out said I was giving my father my part of the land in exchange for five-thousand dollars. My brother had already signed and received his money, so I was left to sign also. The person at the bank stamped it as approved and I was given the money. I put the money in the department under the dash of my car.

The next day when I was going to meet up with my childhood friend, Melanie Mills, and he asked to borrow the car, I specified he could only use it if he made sure to keep my money safe.

He promised he would.

I picked up Melanie and asked if she wanted to meet my boyfriend and she agreed we headed to his house where I was met with the horrifying sight of my car's passenger side window had been busted. Glass was shattered all over the place. And cruelly, there was a smiley face engraved under the window that I could promise wasn't there before.

I quickly checked the small department where I hid my money just to see the envelope where the five thousand was stashed was gone. The envelope remained. I could hear Melanie getting out of the car and the next events were all a blur but best of my recollection I can remember looking at Melanie and crying.

I went into the house and Zander was stressfully pacing his room.
"Zander! What happened?" I yelled.

"Kenzley, I promise that when I find out who has done this they will pay!"

"That still doesn't explain what happened! Why and how is the window shattered and my money is gone when it was your responsibility?" I was hyperventilating at this point. Melanie was outside talking to his sister, Gracie.

This is where he told me what happened; "Gracie borrowed the car and went out of town. She was driving in the backroads and the car overheated. She walked down the road with our little brother to get water for it, when she came back the window was shattered. But she didn't know the money was in the car though. When she got back and told me what happened, I looked and saw the money was gone."

I was crying my eyes out, five-thousand dollars was a large amount of money. He spoke again, tears flowing from his eyes, "I'm so sorry, I will find out who has done this. Don't call the law though because I will find out who did it."

I felt bad for him because he was so stressed and crying, I calmed down enough to say, "look, Zander, it wasn't your fault, you didn't bust out the window and steal it, so I'm sorry for yelling at you. Look, I'm going to bring Melanie home, I will be back later."

He looked up, relieved I wasn't mad at him or his sister and just mad at the people that did this. "I might not be here, I was going to go hang out with a friend."

I thought it was kinda odd but begged him to be there when I came back. He finally agreed, "I will be here then."

When I went outside Melanie and Gracie were still talking and I told Melanie we were leaving. We got in the car and while on the thirty-minute trip back to Melanie's house, she spoke up.

"Kenzley, I think you should call the cops."

"I might, well I most likely will, I just don't know where it was out of town where it was done," I replied, my eyes on the road and my mind racing.

I've always had a problem with my mind racing. Always overthinking every factor and anything that could go wrong or even right. Most of the time it was things that could go wrong. How would I explain this to the cops if I wasn't there?

"No, Kenzley, you're not understanding," she paused, "I think Zander did it."

I whipped my head to my friend that I've known since I was around seven years old, then looked back at the road, "he wouldn't. Zander isn't like that, there's no way."

Her tone quickly changed into one of someone talking to a child that was crying, gentle, "Honey, I know this isn't what you want to hear-"

"No!" I interrupted her, "there's no way. As I said, Zander isn't like that."

Melanie, still calm, continued, "I don't think it was just Zander. I think he and his sister did it. Think about it, the story doesn't sound right."

"Melanie," I fussed with gritted teeth, "I know Zander, you only just met him, so shut up. He and Gracie would never do something like that to me."

She sighed, "okay, whatever you say, I just think you should think about the story and call the cops anyways."

I thought about what she was saying, totally in disbelief that they would ever do something like that.

I mean Zander loved me and I loved Zander. Gracie, his sister, although shy and hardly ever spoke to me even when I talked to her about things we had in common, she was still a nice girl.

'They would never, right?' I questioned myself as we pulled up at her house.

She got out of the car, "just think about it, honey, and be safe."

I contemplated as I pulled out of the driveway and headed the way back to Zander's house. Little did I know, this was the night everything went downhill.