Costco Kisses

One slab of wood away

This had to be one of the most awkward situations I had ever been in. As much as I loved her, Charlotte's light banter was not helping cut the tension as Kyla, Charlotte, and I sat on the curb waiting for the uber that never seemed to come.

"Soooo, how about his decor... that was for sure weird, right?" Charlotte spoke meaninglessly into the asphalt as Kyla and I sat staring forward, neither willing to be the one who looked first.

"Yeah, yeah I guess it was weird," Kyla answered in a monotone, obviously lost in thought. I couldn't help but hope she was thinking about me as much as I was thinking about her. God, what have I become? Praying and hoping that the girl I fucking cheated on was thinking about me? Jesus, I am a joke.

"Now that I think about it, it didn't look very lived in, except for maybe the bedroom...but I think that was mostly Danielle," Charlotte speculated, "That's like more that weird right?"

"Hold on a minute, yea it is weird, like really weird?" Kyla alerted to the situation at hand, finally tearing her eyes away from the darkening road ahead of her to look over at Charlotte and inadvertently, me. "He must not really live there, or maybe he's hiding something there? I don't know...I hate not knowing."

Kyla talking at this length around me was a big change for sure, even Charlotte could feel the difference in the air as she glanced over to me.

"Hey, we both know that Tajon didn't do it," Charlotte offered reassuringly to Kyla. "We still have that control in the situation, the only real question now is who did?"

As if a lightbulb went off in both of their heads at the same time, Kyla and Charlottes eyes met suddenly as their backs straightened. Almost like two dogs perking up their ears to the same undefined sound, they had made a discovery I was lost to. I couldn't help thinking about how beautiful Kyla looked in the street light glow and dusky atmosphere. Cheesy, I know. I had to try and fix things with her.

"Kyla could we talk priv-"

"NOT NOW! I think I just figured something out," She cut me off abruptly, Charlotte shooting me a look as to say 'shut up dude, we're in the middle of something'.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If its the shadiest character we know, who had a connection to your dad, with a sketchy Danielle holding cell apartment? Then, yes," Charlotte implored, gearing Kyla to put together the pieces.

"Okay, so we know Sullivan was at the house the night of the murder, right?" Charlotte and I nodded in unison. "And we know that Miriam, Danielle, and Tajon were all intoxicated beyond belief but remember a man in the house with them washing something off his hands. Well what was that something? How do we account for the loss of time between Miriam and Tajon hooking up and Tajon arriving back at the house with Sullivan? How does it all connect?"

"Well Danielle has had a gross thing with Sullivan since high school-"

"Wait- for real? Is that why she was an office monitor all four years?" I asked finally realizing why Danielle had such a fucked up point of view on life.

"Yes, keep up dickwad."

"Back to solving the fucking murder please!" Kyla brought the focus back. "My dad, since taking out the life insurance policy on my mom before she died, had some extra money right? I sorta maybe remember him donating some to the school but I never really heard more about it."

"That connects Sullivan and your dad, but how does Tajon fit into all of this? I mean the cops still sort of think he did it and that its not a suicide," Charlotte wondered out loud. "I mean, we know that Danielle got picked up by him that night but when did him and Tajon meet up?"

As if on cue by some cruel god above, that sequence of words strung together helped me remember. Not all of it but enough to have an idea where I went that night.

"Holy shit, I remember where I was"

"No fucking way, why now?"

"I don't know, okay? I just do, I have the vaguest, and I mean vaguest, idea that I was at Kyla's house that night. I remember stumbling into a car, probably where this bruise on my hip came from," I lifted my shirt to show a fading bruise the size of a throw pillow. "Knowing me, I probably was there to apologize to you, or maybe your dad? I honestly can't remember, but I remember the car being sharp."

"Holy fucking shit."

Charlotte's head whipped around into the Toyota MR2 sitting in Sullivan's driveway, with its lights sticking up with sharp edges, about the size of a throw pillow.

"Oh my god, that was the car," With it in front of me the scene all the sudden became clearer, the red Toyota, stumbling up the steps, knocking on the door, and a criminal frown greeting me at the door. The background is red and fuzzy but I can't tell anything else. "What the fuck..."

I stood up in shock. Sitting on the curb was no longer fun as my stomach did flips and I held down the bile rising up my throat. Kyla and Charlotte also stood up as I rushed away and then back, trying to come to terms with what I just discovered.

"Woah, you mean to tell me, Danielle's pervy middle aged boyfriend, was AT KYLA'S HOUSE the night of her dad's MURDER??" Charlotte stage whispered out, trying not to grab too much attention from the house that very well could contain a murderer. "I knew this guy was bad news ever since they started dating and the weird dissapearances around the time but I didn't think he would fucking murder someone."

"Wait, disappearances? What do you mean?"

"When Danielle and Eric started dating, she still had a thing with this kid named Titus but soon after he went missing, and the asshole who got me into the drug business, around the same time also disappeared...oh holy shit, he probably killed them didn't he?"

I could tell Charlotte now was experiencing the same bile rising stomach flipping sensation I was by her sudden gagging and hands on the knees stance. Kyla somehow seemed pretty calm about the whole thing, but I think she just in general had a more level head than both Charlotte and I combined.

"Eric Sullivan is a fucking murderer, our fucking vice principal is a murderer..." Kyla processed as the uber finally approached the tree lined and now street lights illuminated the cul de sac.

Charlotte waved them away yelling something about canceling the ride and then went back to her hands on knees bent over stance. My brain felt like it was on fire, like a hangover but an emotional one. Kyla was pacing around waving her hands around as if she was dragging around the puzzle pieces into one big timeline of events.

"Well fuck. We have to call the cops don't we?" Charlotte breathed out, hushed and stressed.

"Holy shit, fuck yes we do," Kyla smiled, grabbing her phone from her back pocker and quickly dialling the number. Charlotte grabbed onto me for support and I eased us both back onto the curb, now feeling the chill of the July night winds.

Kyla, after explaining the situation to the 911 operator, hung up and sat back down next to Charlotte.

"I guess now all there is to do is wait."