Stina's Story

Chapter two (dun dun dun...)

I close my eyes and take in the gasps of astonishment from my team.
There it was. The reason I had no hope of ever escaping societal judgement. The accusation that I murdered my best friend when I was four.
I open my eyes and look at my team's faces.
Wylie's confused.
Sophie's aghast.
Biana's shocked.
And Dex... I can tell he doesn't believe her. And somehow I fall in love with him even more. I mentally smack myself and tell myself to stop being sappy.
"Did you?" He asks.
I shake my head, unable to form words.
The others still look suspicious.
"Dex," Wylie says slowly. "Are you going to believe the one who was closer to the murdered, or the one who has hated you since she met you?"
I walk over to Dex until I'm standing in front of him, and reach into my pocket. I hold out my hand palm up. On my hand is the butterfly clip.
"Since we met?" I ask. "I couldn't have hated you then."
Dex stares at the pin in wonder. He picks it up as he replies, "You kept it, huh?"
I smile. "It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said or done to me in three years, of course I kept it."
"Why does she think that you murdered her sister."
I close my eyes again, focusing on the colors behind my eyelids so that my flashbacks won't take over. "Arissa was my best friend. I never would've hurt her. We went to the lake one day..." I trail off, unable to add more details without the flashbacks coming. "When I came back, I was sobbing and the only thing I was able to say was that she was dead. Rayni needed a way to soothe her grief, so she claimed I murdered Arissa."
"You were... four," he clarifies.
I nod.
"And you thought a four year old murdered her best friend?!" He asks Rayni incredulously.
"She's like the copy of her mother, would you put it past Vika to murder someone that young?"
"Uh, yeah," he says.
He looks back at me with a strange look. "One more question." He leans towards me and whispers so that only I can hear. I have to remind myself to breathe. "Why have you changed so much since we first met?"
I gasp as quietly as possible, all the masks I put up fall away as I look at him.
"I see..." he says and backs away, offering me the tiniest of smiles.
He hands me back the clip, but something is attached to it.
I don't think anyone else noticed it so I put it in my pocket before examining it.
"Well I don't know what to think about anything that just happened, and this doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Are we done here?" Biana asks.
"Alright," Sophie gives in.
We all leap back to our separate homes, Rayni giving me a death glare as I glitter away.