Dreaming Is for the Free

Twelve

There have been so many unwanted opinions swirling around. Everyone is interested in knowing exactly what I found. So let's just say, riding back on the shuttle was more than uncomfortable. I had this feeling of being suffocated by all the wandering eyes.

I promised Detective Henderson, the woman who took my statement, that I wouldn't speak on what I found. She said it could hinder the investigation. But there's absolutely no way for me to not tell Maya. She's my roommate. And Don was in my search group and I've spent a lot of time with him since we have three classes together. Everyone else on the shuttle bus will be excluded. That's going to be hard to do because now everyone is facing me waiting on me to speak. This isn't story time. So I decide to wait till we are back on campus to tell Maya and Don privately.

Once we're back, I immediately tell the two of them to follow me. I already know what I'm going to tell them. I won't tell them all the details. I don't even want to describe the item. I still don't know who I can trust.

We end up in my car so I can give them the insight.

"It was a notebook."

Their faces drop as if they thought that it was more. It is. But I can't tell them more than that.

"Did you look inside?" Maya asks.

"No." I shake my head. "As soon as I found it, Lieutenant Black was walking up to me."

"What kind of notebook?" Maya continues.

"It was small. It could've been a journal or a day planner. I couldn't tell."

Maya squints her eyes, examining me.

"So they ended the search over a notebook?"

Her tone sounds accusingly, but maybe I'm just paranoid. I look to Don to see if he may have sensed the change between the two of us, and he's looking at Maya with a blank expression. I just shrug my shoulders suddenly feeling too tired to repeat the small lie.

"Well this is just getting weirder and weirder." Don states. "But there's nothing more we can do. I'll see you girls later."

And with that, Don gets out of the car and saunters away.

"Do you still wanna meet up with KJ and Kiara?" I ask Maya hoping it'll ease away some of the tension.

"Sure, then you can tell them what happened."

Maya mumbles the last part under her breath, but it sounded like she said "a lie".

"What did you say?"

"Oh nothing."

But by the way she says it, I know it's more. I know it's something.

The ride to the Rusty Tavern is extremely awkward. I want to say something so that we can talk it out before we get around KJ and Kiara. I don't want our negative energy to affect them. But every time I look at Maya, her face has a hard expression on it. So I don't even bother.

I told her the truth. I just didn't go into details. The way she's acting is confusing me but I have other things to worry about.

"What happened?"

That's the way we're greeted as we make our way to the back booth where Kiara and KJ are sitting.

Maya and I sit down without saying a word. There might as well be a sign over our heads saying, "there's tension". Neither of us bother to answer Kiara's question.

I pick up the menu acting as if I'm interested in the items when in actuality, I'm getting the same thing I got last time.

"Hello?" Kiara slightly raises her voice.