Clouds of Violet

Chapter Eight

Thursday, September 11th, 16:59

I open my front door and slip off my shoes, making it to the living room just in time for the Summer Cove Five O'Clock News to start telling us what's new in town.

The same lady with the pretentious-looking face and too-red lipstick appears on the screen again and I sigh when I see the headline.

BREAKING NEWS: CAMILA YOUNG—PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT TO BE MISSING—HAS BEEN CONFIRMED TO BE DEAD

"Her body was found this morning at Summer Cove High, around eight this morning, by students Ayeza Rizvi and Skylar Smith." The pictures we took for the school yearbook last Wednesday occupy the screen. My toothy and bright smile glares back at me and I'm looking into eyes I don't recognise.

So much can change in just a week.

"The state in which she was found is described as 'horrific' by Skylar Smith, who gave us an exclusive interview just an hour ago."

"Fucking liars," I mumble.

"...the corpse is told to have a threatening message scrawled across the back of it," the pretentious-looking lady continues. "Police will be going into further investigation. We're Summer Cove Five O'Clock News and we'll be right back after this message."

"They're lying," I say as an ad for toothpaste plays on the screen behind me. I put my hands on my hips. "I was in detention. I couldn't have possibly given them an interview."

Mom just shrugs and takes a sip of her tea.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Mom!" I yell. "You could at least act like you care!"

She looks like she's about to say something, but I don't want to hear it. I grab my bag and head up to my room. This time, I lock the door.

I take out my phone and see a text from Max on my notification bar.

Max: CALL ME

My phone lights up as Max's profile picture of him and his stupid friends flashes across my screen.

"Bro, you're on the news!" It's the first thing he says when I pick up. "Well, you and the other girl. Anyways, they actually said you gave them an interview. Nah, man, I don't believe it for a second."

"Yeah, maybe 'cause I was with you in detention doing my homework instead of talking to that pretentious-looking lady with her too-red lipstick."

"It's so bright!"

"Forget that, who do they think they're fooling," I say. "They're just pulling this out of their ass cracks at this point."

"Police are coming to investigate tomorrow," he says. "I heard Demor talking about it when I was heading to detention."

"What about it?"

"You do realise we're gonna be investigated the most?" he says. "Since we were supposed to be in detention with her? And she went missing only a few days before that."

"Yeah, but we still don't know when she died," I say. "It could've been within the last few days."

"Well, who do you think it is?" he asks.

Who do I think it is?

It could be anyone. I never thought that something like this could ever happen in Summer Cove, but I also never thought that any of my friends, or anyone I knew, would be capable of doing something like this. Anything's possible now. It could even be Max.

"I dunno," I say, plopping onto my bed. "Could be anyone. At this point, anything's possible."

"Yeah," he says. "How're things with your mom?"