Be With Me

Chapter Five

After multiple rounds of Cards Against Humanity, the group of friends couldn't bare anymore laughter and decided it was time to go. Finn and Poe wanted to enjoy the party a while longer but the girls decided to drive home with Rose.

Rey went back outside to where they had left Ben and his friends earlier. She looked around but the fire had burned down to glowing embers and nobody was outside anymore. She walked back inside and found Astraal-Talik nipping at a piece of pizza.

"Y'all leaving already?" She asked Rey.

"Yeah, Rose has to get back by midnight."

"Alright," she hugged Rey, "well, tell Cinderella I said 'bye' and see y'all on Monday."

"OK, I will," Rey smiled, "oh, have you seen Ben?"

"He left a while ago. He got a phone call and they all just up and left," she shrugged, then narrowed her eyes and stopped chewing, "why?" She asked.

"Oh, no reason,'" she said coyly and caught up to the others waiting in Rose's car.

Rose was humming the melody to Havanna by Camilo Cabello sounding from the radio, and tapping her fingers on the steering wheel to the rhythm. Rey looked in the right side-view mirror and saw Kaydell staring at her phone that lit up her face and bouncy, blonde curls.

"Kaydell?" Rey asked.

"Mhh," she answered, eyes still locked on her phone.

"We got interrupted before. You were telling me about what happened two years ago?"

Kaydell looked up and her eyes moved over to Rose. "Oh, you mean the fire?"

"There was a fire?" Rey's eyebrows jerked up. Rose shifted in her seat and sighed.

"Ugh, yeah... Rose?" Kaydell asked cautiously. Without taking her eyes off the road, Rose just nodded with a sorrowful expression. "So," she began, "there was this old, abandoned event space behind the paper mill over on Mothma Avenue. Kids would hang out there all the time... y'know for partying, drinking, taking drugs, getting laid and stuff like that. Well, two years ago a bunch of kids from our school went to meet up there one night... three guys and two girls." Kaydell paused for a moment looking at Rose whose fingers were now clenched onto the steering wheel. "One of those girls was Paige."

"My sister," Rose whispered.

Rey's eyes widened and Kaydell continued. "Paige, her friend Anyah, Ben Solo and two other guys. They must've been so drunk or high that they didn't notice the flames. But, the whole building burned down with them in it... Ben was the only one that survived."

Rey clasped her hands over her mouth in disbelief. "Oh my god," she said putting a hand on Rose's arm. "I'm so sorry I asked, Rose, I didn't mean-,"

"It's not your fault, Rey. You didn't know." She gently patted Rey's hand that was still holding onto her right arm. "Besides, you probably would've found out one day."

"I didn't even know you had a sister," Rey said softly.

"I don't talk about her," she sighed. "It's still too painful."

"A lot changed after that," Kaydell added. "The families of the two boys moved away, Anyah's mom committed suicide and her dad became an alcoholic. Ben changed for the worse, too... he started hanging out with really shady people, moved out of his parents' house, constantly skips school," she sighed. Rey listened silently. "A lot of people in town blame him, they think he started the fire."

"Woah," Rey put her hand on her chest.

"I honestly dont believe that, though. Some people need a scapegoat to process their grief I guess..." Kaydell shrugged and shook her head disapprovingly.