I'll Never Tell

Chapter 8

EIGHT

　

　

“You okay, Lex?” Mila asks, becoming increasingly worried by Lexy’s silence. Lexy hadn’t so much as said five words since the beginning of first period.

“Not exactly. Didn’t you see the news?” Lexy asks

“No… What happened?”

“They found another body yesterday.” Lexy says, feeling sick to her stomach all over again.

“Do you think the same person did it?” Mila asks, her eyes becoming wide.

“That’s what its looking like,” Lexy sighs. “Her body was in the same condition as Brydan’s.

“She?”

“Yeah,” she says. “They think its that girl who went missing.”

“Karina Scott?”

“Yeah, that’s her.”

To Lexy, nothing about this made sense. Why Brydan? Why Karina? She wondered were the murders completely random, or planned? She knew good and well that knowing who and why wouldn’t make this any easier, but it didn’t make her any less curious.

* * *

A week had passed since Brydan’s funeral, and much to Lexy’s surprise, she was spending a lot of time with Luke. Platonically, of course. He was very easy to be around, and he was the one person who was treating her like a normal person, not like a person who was always on the verge of an emotional meltdown. She was an emotional wreck, but she tried to keep that part to herself. For as long as Lexy could remember, she couldn’t stand crying in front of people. Only time she ever did was when it was near impossible to hold back.

Lexy knew what people were starting to think of her; cold, heartless, and unfeeling. Regardless of what people were saying about her, they didn’t know what was really going on, on in the inside. On the inside, she was a wreck, broken apart, shattered to pieces. Putting up a strong façade was what was keeping her sane. For the craziest of reason, it gave her something to do. Holding it together was keeping her mind occupied. Whenever thoughts of Brydan would slip through the cracks, she would push them away, unwilling to go there. She knew Brydan wouldn’t want her to be sad all the time. And that was exactly what she was going to do.

On Saturday morning, Lexy was feeling human for once and decided today would be a good day for a run. After slipping into some shorts, a tank, and some running shoes she stepped out of her house headed toward the road. It was nine in the morning and the neighborhood was deathly quiet. The only sound she could hear were the sounds of a small dog barking, and the far off sound of a lawn mower running. Everything seemed peaceful and normal for once, and Lexy was grateful for that. She could definitely use some normalcy for five minutes.

Pulling her iPod out of her pocket, she scrolled through her music and settled on a song by April Sixth. After she stuck in her head phones, she was off.

With her feet pounding on the asphalt, it became clear to her that she was out of shape. She used to love to run, and made it a point to run every morning, but since everything that had happened, she had completely stopped. It felt good to be running again, but the beads of sweat that were already forming on her brow said this wouldn’t last long.

Her calves were beginning to burn when she heard her name being called ten minutes later.

“Hey, Speedy Gonzales! Slow down!” she heard Luke call from behind her.

As she slowed her pace, she jerked her head phones out of her ears. “What are you doing here?” she asks, turning around.

“Me? I live here. What are you doing here?” he asked, cocking his head.