Questions for Answers

Chapter Thirteen

One month later...

"Come on, you're gonna make me late. I still have to get some good seats. And you need to be leaving soon too", I said to Trisha as she slowly curled my hair.

"I'm almost done, I just had to make sure the sides matched", she said as she finished.

I took a look in the mirror and smiled, "Wow, you did a really good job. I look beautiful. But I really do need to leave, so I'm gonna head out." I ran out the front door and got in my car to go pick up Harlem. It was Tristen's graduation and I'd promised to get tickets for both of us so we could see him graduate together.

One of the great things about living in a small town was that it meant short graduation ceremonies. It was only a class of 100 seniors graduating and I was so glad that Tristen was one of them. He worked hard all year and it finally paid off. His father also couldn't be happier for him.

I gently tapped my horn to let Harlem know that I was outside of his house. He came out shortly after and got in smiling, "Hey, princess, how are you?"

I returned the smile, "Hi Harlem, I'm doing great. You look good!"

He shrugged, "Ah, I guess I clean up well for 63. Tristen tell you where he wanted to eat after this?"

I shook my head, "Nah, he told me to just surprise him."

"Well alright then, let's get to it!" He said cheerfully.

I finally drove off and headed to the graduation ceremony. Even though there were only 100 graduating seniors, the parking lot was still pretty full. When me and Harlem got inside we even had trouble finding good seats, but eventually just stuck to some that were in the middle row.

As time passed, the seats were all filled and the ceremony began. The marching band gave an entryway to the graduating class entering from both sides of the auditorium. We were all instructed to stand for the national anthem and once it was over, we got an introduction from the principal, the board, and a class representative to kick it off.

Graduation was always drawn out and kind of boring because most people were only there for one or two people. Technically, I was only there for one, but since Tilly and Thomas were both seniors who went to my school, I watched them graduate as well. I scanned the crowd until I spotted Trisha and Tim sitting a fair distance away from me and Harlem. As much as they swore they didn't want anyone at their graduation, I knew Tilly and Thomas were happy to know that their parents supported them in every way.

As I sat there in silence, I took time to reflect on the past month. Since the fire at her house, Kat had me blocked on everything and she rarely attended school anymore. It sucked not having my best friend around. What happened that night truly haunted me and it made it hard for me to sleep at night. I couldn't believe that I was the cause of her misfortune after everything she'd done for me.

Ever since it happened though, I had been bugging the fire and police department about it. I constantly asked them if they had any leads or any clues about who may have done it, but every single time, they told me that they didn't know. I didn't believe them. Someone was always hiding something and the police weren't as trustworthy as I thought.

Marco Evans, the man they had arrested for having possession of the crime scene photos, got released the same day he was brought in and I didn't find out until a few days ago. I couldn't prove it, but I knew that his being out was in relation to the fire that started at Kat's house. If people were looking out for him, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to guess that those same people could've easily helped in making mine and Kat's life miserable.

This wasn't like searching for clues for my parents. I genuinely wanted to know who could've done this and I wanted them to be brought to justice. If I was going to lose my best friend forever, I at least wanted to do her some good. I knew that she would hate me even more if she found out what I was trying to do for her, that's why I had to keep it a secret. It was different from the clues, really. But for now, I needed to get my mind off of that and focus on what was going on around me.