Clouds of Violet

Chapter Twenty

Wednesday, October 1st, 12:09

It's officially October.

And it's officially been two weeks since Aaron told me about Ezra.

I have a goal this month: to have a better month than September. The last month has been hellish, exhausting and mentally draining. I want October to be normal, like all the months we had before that.

But I doubt we'll get back to normal any time soon.

Sheriff Hudson still hasn't found any new evidence, so either the killer is really good or Hudson needs to be demoted. Either way, things in Summer Cove will never be the same again.

Lunch period zooms by and I find myself walking to History, when I hear Aaron's voice from the other side of the hallway. I turn around to see him running toward me, panting as he stops right beside me.

"I talked to Ezra about the blood."

"Are you insane?" I say.

"Yeah, but it's fine because he's not the killer," Aaron says. He takes a deep breath, before joining me in our walk to History. "Ezra said he had cut himself, which would explain why he had a bandage on his leg." He gazes up at the ceiling lights, almost quizzically. He looks back at me ad shrugs. "He said he couldn't be bothered to clean the blood, which is very un-Ezra-like. I think he might have something else going on. His parents are kinda abusive, like mentally. They don't hit him but they kinda treat him like shit. But it's 100% not Ezra. He's like a human puppy."

"Okay, Aaron," I say. "But please, don't go around asking people why there was blood on their bathroom floor."

"Are you worried about me?" The way he says it makes me sick. He arches an eyebrow and smirks. "Y'know, sometimes I think you have a crush on me."

"Take a look in the mirror, Casanova," I quip, bumping his shoulder. "You're my best friend's boyfriend, that's literally illegal in girl code. Besides, I have standards."

"I get it, you think I'm ugly."

"And an asshole."

We stop outside the History classroom. We both step in, parting ways to our different tables. Today, I decide to sit down next to Ayeza.

"Hey," I say. She takes her headphones off and looks up at me with doe-like eyes.

"Hi." She puts her headphones back on, leaning back in her chair. I notice a bruise on her upper arm, right where her short sleeve cuts off.

"How'd you get that?" I ask, pointing at her bruise. Her chair hits the ground as she hastily pulls down her sleeves.

"Oh, I fell...out of bed...this morning."

"How hard did you fall for it to bruise that badly?"

"Pretty hard," she says. She sets her headphones onto the table and pulls her hair into a low ponytail. That's when I see another mark, right under her ear. It's dark red against her brown skin and in the shape of a disfigured heart.

"Hey, you ha-" I stop myself when I realise what it could actually be. If it's not a bruise, then I'm going to put her and myself in an awkward position. Her love life is none of my business, but Ayeza doesn't seem like the kind of person to get a hickey.

Like ever.

"What did you say?" she says. loosening her ponytail.

"Oh nothing," I say. "You just...okay, this is a girl looking out for another girl. You have a hickey."

Her eyes go wide at my statement and I immediately feel embarrassed. She puts her hand over the mark, untying her hair and bringing it to the front to cover the mark. She quickly reaches for her headphones and doesn't take them off the entire lesson.