#1 Suspect

Chapter 1 - Apples and Bananas

Chapter 1

"Don't worry about it."

That was the last thing Gemma said to me before she went missing. Five days later she was found dead. I was on the phone with her stressing about the deadline for the school's newspaper when she ended the call with those four words. No touching lines of love or how much she meant to me because it wasn't like I was never going to talk to her again. It was.

As the sunligh lit through my closed blinds I forced my eyes closed. Another one of many sleepless nights stuck staring at the ceiling, thinking of Gemma. I forced myself up and rubbed at my eyes as my phone rang. I turned to look and saw Daniel's name displayed on the screen. Sighing, I picked it up. Ever since Gemma died, Daniel has been acting like I'm some charity case checking up on me every second. Though Daniel is more than likely hurting if not equally, more than me since he was in a relationship with her. We three were always close and the way he always looked at Gemma, I knew it would happen sooner or later.

"Hello," I said, my voice sounding groggy. I heard a laugh from the other end and I rolled my eyes. "What do you want Danny? Like really, do you have to call me every morning?" There was more time before he finally said,

"Isn't it obvious Avery? I want to hear your beautiful voice every morning. I refuse to start the day any other way."

I already knew he was smiling by the sound of his voice which made it hard for me to stay annoyed at him, but only a little. "Bye Danny," I said, making sure some attitude seeped in." As I was about to hang up he included in a rushed tone,

"I'm picking you up at 8. Don't make us late for school." Before I could come up with some witty reply that would've included where he could shove 8' O clock, he hung up.

After I got ready I grabbed an apple and immediately saw a blue Chevy pull up in the front of my house. I grabbed my book bag and ran outside as Daniel leaned to the passenger seat to open the door. When I got in, the radio was on some rock station like always and I handed him the apple.

"I like bananas. Do you ever see me eating apples?"

"We don't have any more bananas, it's a recession." I say as I turn down the radio. He turned to look at me, smiling as always, when he says,

"I drive you to school, crankiness and all, no gas money I might add and I just ask for a banana every morning and you can't even do that?" He looked at me as I just shrugged. He sighed and took a bite of his apple as he started to drive. When he had hit a red light he turned back to me and said, " Do you even know what a recession is?" I shook my head, trying not to laugh as I turned the radio back up.

When we finally reached the school, Daniel turned into the crowded parking lot and went to his original parking space right at the front. Yeah, I know. Who has there own parking space right at the front? Well one thing about Daniel is that he is very popular; football captain, charismatic and good looking. That's why he and Gemma made the perfect couple. She was equally popular which made me the boring one in the group. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm a "nobody." I'm the lead journalist at my school so I get a lot of attention even though it's usually just because they want to get into the school paper but still. It's just when you hang out with the two most popular people at school, you kind of get outshined.

As I was about to get out the car, Daniel put his arm on my shoulder stopping me. When I turned to see his face, his annual smile was gone. He looked so serious that I was actually scared of what he might say.

"Avery, I know with what happened to Gemma was hard on you. God it's been hard on all of us." He moved around in his seat showing that this conversation made him uncomfortable but I knew he wasn't going to back out of it anytime soon which made me even more uncomfortable. "But it's been almost a year and Gemma wouldn't want us to be sad or mad at the world."

I crinkled my eyebrows and said, "I'm not mad at the world."

Daniel ignored me as he went on, "We have to get pass this and move on. The police has, the case is almost closing. We have to go back to being teens again. Gemma would want that."

I couldn't believe he was asking me to get over Gemma and the horrible act someone committed on her. They killed her and threw her in the lake to get rid of the evidence. I was about to say that Gemma would want justice served and until then I wouldn't let go of crap. But when the words started to come out I looked into his eyes and saw how much he needed me to agree with him. His eyes begging me to go with life as it were before Gemma because he needed his old friend back. I guess it was my turn to repay him for helping me out. Crap. So I nodded and said, "Okay."

Relief swelled up in his eyes and replied, "Okay." Then his smile came back like it was never gone, "Don't want to be late for school do we?"

I smiled and we both got out the car but as I did so I noticed a crowd of people at the entrance of the school. As Daniel and I started walking closer to the mass of people, we saw an officer walking with a boy handcuffed, his head directed to the ground while he was being read his Miranda rights. As I looked closer I realized the boy was Cameron Johnson who used to be in my science class freshman year. While the officer's hand was on his shoulder, he led him to the cop car that was flashing dim blue and red lights due to the morning sun.

I turned to one of Daniel's friends, trying to figure out what was going on. Reading the confusion on my face, he explained to me that he thinks evidence was found regarding Gemma's death that has been connected to him. As the cop pushed Cameron in the back of the car, I turned to Daniel and whispered sarcastically, "Yeah, the case with Gemma is totally closing soon." But he was quiet, busy staring at the cop car driving off. As did everyone else like they couldn't quite believe it. Could the murderer of Gemma be the boy we all went to school with every day?