Keep me afraid

C H A P T E R - S E V E N

S U S P E C T 

It was the next day and all of us girls were hanging out at Cara's house, except Jules, who was still at volleyball training but would join later.

Yesterday's night when I came home from being sure that someone followed me, my parents were already waiting. Obviously worried since they didn't know where I was. After they gave me a whole speech at dinner of how dangerous and stupid it was to go out alone I went upstairs to take a shower and get ready for bed. Before I went to sleep and looked at my phone for the last time. On the display I could see a text from Cooper, who asked me if I got home safely.

I said yes, I didn't tell him about the feeling of being followed. I gaslighted myself into believing that it was nothing, even though deep inside I knew someone was watching me.

I didn't tell my friends either, not even that I went for a run where I saw Cooper and spent the evening with him.

I wanted to tell them but it wasn't the right time for that since of everything that was going on right now. And I wasn't so sure if it was the right time to fall in love when I should be focused on school.

What goes for school is: the rumors got less and people started to act normal again.

The police were still around the campus to question people, even Mason got asked questions since the rumors about him were going around the whole school.

To his luck though, he was pronounced innocent, at least for now. He had a good alibi, spending the evening with Cooper and playing video games. The silly story of both of them doing so posted on instagram was his proof.

But that meant the police still haven't found the perpetrator of Sarah's killing. This made the whole city shocked and frightened, knowing that the killer was still around. But since there were no traces or any suspects it was hard for the police to find the killer.

A ring at the door appeared which made us all look up from our books where we were supposed to do homework but rather talked than get our work done.

Cara was the one who got up and walked to the door to open it.

"Hey," the familiar voice of Jules said. Both Cara and Jules now walked into the living room.

Jules sat down next to me and took her phone out after she greeted me and Amber.

I could still feel the tension between Jules and Amber that was there since we had our argument about who could've been the killer of Sarah. Jules was really offended when Amber accused her of being the killer, which was understandable though.

Since that day no one really talked about that again, but everyone had a suspect in their mind. Except for me, I had no idea of who could've done such a horrible thing, but I was sure that it was none of my friends.

"Guys, do we want to watch a movie?" Cara asked us all as she put down her book.

"Sure," Jules said and didn't look up from her phone.

"I'll get some popcorn," Amber said and walked into the kitchen as if it was her own home.

"What are we going to watch?" I asked Cara and put my book and pens away into my backpack.

"I was thinking of a horror movie," She began but got interrupted by Jules.

"A horror movie? Are you kidding me, there is a killer around and you actually want to watch horror?" she confronted her.

"Come'on it's just a movie, plus maybe we'll learn how to survive a killer attack," Cara explained. But the characters in horror movies were mostly not the smartest so I wasn't so sure if that would actually help.

"What about we watch something else instead? We could watch mean girls, that's funny." I suggested it and everyone liked that idea.

After a while everyone was sitting on the couch, eating popcorn and paying attention to the movie. It only took twenty minutes until the first of us got thirsty.

"Does anyone else want something to drink?" Amber asked and paused the movie.

We all agreed and Amber got up, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge.

"There's nothing left," she yelled into the living room.

"There's more left in the basement," Cara yelled back.

And again Amber walked down the stairs so she got into the basement.

The movie was still on pause and we all waited until Amber would get back. But that took longer than we thought.

"Do you guys still think it's someone from our group that killed Sarah?" Jules broke the silence and made both Cara and me look at her.

While I was still sure about it, Cara took a bit longer to come up with an answer.

"I'm sure that it was no one of us," I promised.

"Well, I would like to say that too, but let's be honest. There are some of us who hated her." she admitted.

Before Jules could speak again, Amber walked up from the basement. She handed us all a drink.

"You have really weird stuff in your basement." Amber pointed out as she gave the last can to Cara.

"What do you mean?" Cara asked with a chuckle but clueless at the time.

"The knives, rope and the bleach," she listed. "Almost like a killer, huh." It almost seemed like a confrontation, but I was sure that my best friend had a good explanation for that and wasn't secretly a killer.

"Oh, that. My dad goes fishing, that's why he uses the knife, you know, to kill the fish," she stared and laughed at Amber's assumption.

"The rope is old, when I was younger I used to climb. My dad probably wanted it to keep, so it could be useful sometime."

"The bleach is for cleaning, you would know that if you would help in the household," She shot back.

"Why were you even looking around my basement, did you just come here to find a reason to sentence me as the killer?" she said with a louder voice.

"No, of course not!" She tried to defend herself. "Then why did you creep around my basement?" she asked again.

Jules and I both sat there in silence listening to their argument, we both didn't know if we should say something or if that would make it even worse.

"I- uhm," Amber couldn't find the right words. "I was just curious." She finally said.

After that we were all quiet. That was the last thing I wanted, to make up stupid assumptions about each other and destroy our friendship because of it.

"Maybe we should just...-" I started but couldn't find the right words to finish the sentence.

"...Stop this here," Jules finished for me and looked at everyone to see their reaction.

"Yeah, I have to go to Cheer anyways," Amber said after a moment.

"Okay, and I probably should go home and finish my homework," I said.

"Yeah, me too," Jules said as she agree fully nodded.

We all started to pack our bags and made our ways to the door. Amber was the first who left, saying a quiet "goodbye" before she walked out of the door.

Jules also left, but she on the other side, said proper goodbyes and also hugged both of us.

I waited for a few more moments before I also made my way to the front door.

"Sorry that it ended that way," I said even though I had nothing to apologize for.

"It's okay," she assured me and leaned in the doorway.

"I promise that it wasn't me," she said before I could walk away. "Even though the stuff in my basement seems like it, I could never." She promised.

"I know. You're my best friend. I trust you."