Clouds of Violet

Chapter Twelve

Sunday, September 14th, 9:04

Zara's invited our entire group over to her house, which is why I'm on my bicycle racing at the speed of light to get to her place.

Also, I'm just discovering that I have a bicycle.

This morning, when I told Mom that I needed her to drop me off at Zara's, she said to take my bike, so I guess I have a bike.

This would've come in handy when I ran all the way over to Ayeza's house and back.

Things are better with me and Mom, I think. She's saying "good morning" and "good night" and "have a nice day." If I give her a few more weeks, I think she'll be back to normal. I mean, I get it. All of this must be shocking for her as well and I wasn't being an amazing daughter either. But I really just want it all to go back to the way it was.

I take a turn and enter the neighbourhood Zara lives in. She lives on Highland Drive, which is a mix of your usual middle-class family and the poorer ones. They're usually further away from the rest of the town, while the suburban ones live closer to the school.

I near her house and see Aaron's car parked in her driveway, meaning that half our group is already there. I park my bike in her front yard and run to her door. As I open it, I see Max standing right outside the living room, laughing about something. In fact, they're all laughing. I slip off my shoes at the entrance and join them.

"Hey, guys," I say. I stand next to Max, behind the couch where Zara's sitting with her feet in Aaron's lap.

"There's a doorbell for a reason, skank." Zara looks up at me, smiling. "Sit down. You too, Max, you're just standing there."

I sit down next to Zara, while Max sits on the armchair of the chair Ezra's sitting in.

"Alora's not here yet?" I ask.

"Yeah, she said she'd be late," Zara says. "But she's bringing some guy she wants us to meet. Said she met him over the summer and that they're in love."

"And she didn't tell us?" I say.

"Yeah, she's a bitch for that," Zara says.

"Who cares if she's a bitch, Alora got a boyfriend," Aaron says. "Top ten things I thought would never happen."

"It's weird that she has one since she's still weirdly obsessed with Max," Ezra says, nudging Max with his elbow.

"No, she's not," Max says. A blush of red creeps up under his tan skin.

"Yes, she is," I say. "She's been obsessed with you since the sixth grade. It was always Max this and Max that. Personally, I'm glad she got a boyfriend. No more Max fangirling."

"Anyways, before you got here, we were talking about the investigation," Zara says.

"Can we not?" I say. "It's all anybody's talking about."

"Yeah, for a reason," Aaron says. "Who else has been interrogated yet?"

"I was," Ezra says.

"You're not in our detention, though," I say. "He said everyone in our detention class was gonna be interrogated."

"Yeah, but somebody outside our detention coulda done it," Zara points out. "So only you two have been interrogated so far?"

"I think they might do me next week," I say. "Again. They said they might."

"By 'they', you mean Sheriff Hudson," Zara says, giggling a little. "You're lucky you got to be alone with him. I'd kill to get him alone."

"Ew, he's like thirty," Max says.