Dead Girl's Fate (discontinued)

Chapter 15

I hopped out of my car that I parked near the front of the school. It was getting a bit cooler outside, and I still wasn't prepared for the winter to come.

Despite the weather, I can't stop thinking about Gianna's note. Should I be mad at her that she took them, or just thank her for giving them back? I just wish she would've told me, instead of taking them. I would've understood, I would've let her borrow them if she wanted to look at them that badly. Why did she do that? Of course, I did take into consideration how noticeably shy she was. Always bowing her head, never making eye contact, talking quietly...the list goes on and on.

The school day was a blur. There's always too much on my mind these days. During lunch I sat on my phone, desperately looking for plane tickets back to New Jersey. It's funny how I'd been dying to go back there this whole time, and now I am, but for all the wrong reasons. For all I know, I could run into the psychopath that took Jess and meet the same fate as her. On top of that, I have to track the people who took Gianna down. Thinking of them still makes me cringe. One dies, one comes back. I guess the dead girls' fate lies in my hands, huh?

Since I took the whole school day to think about how my life has been flipped upside down, I missed my trig lesson and Act 3 of Romeo and Juliet in English. However, I shrugged it off. School was the least of my worries right now.

Currently, I stood at my locker, just about to leave for the day, when Madi came up behind me.

"Hey," she said with a slight smile on her face.

"Hi," I responded back.

She leaned on the set of lockers to the left of me. "You've been kind of distant lately," her smile turned down to a frown. I was thinking of the best way to explain to her why that has been.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," I said, looking up to meet her eyes, "I've just been hanging out with Isaac a lot and-"

  "Wait," she cut me off, "Okay, you are ten-thousand percent forgiven now. But we need to hang out soon. Want to sleepover at my place tomorrow?"

  I smiled. This is one of the many reasons why I loved her. "I'd love to."

"Great! We'll get pizza and you can tell me all about lover boy." I rolled my eyes at her ridiculous nicknames. Madi came closer and said in a quieter voice, "Speak of the devil," then walked away, her hair bouncing with each step.

"Hey," Isaac peered over me on the other side of my locker. I greeted him with a smile. After our tiny reunion, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and we walked out to the parking lot together.

"You don't have to walk me to my car," I told him. I squinted my eyes as I looked up at him, the sun beaming in my eyes.

"Maybe I want to," he said with a smirk. I just shook my head and kept on walking, asking him why he would when his car is parked on the other side of the lot. Isaac didn't give an answer.

I put my backpack in the back seat and opened the front door. Isaac stood over me, and I waited for him to say something. I could tell he was debating whether or not it would be a good idea to kiss me again by the way he would shuffle forward every few seconds. That made me nervous, so thankfully I stopped him before he made up his mind.

"Isaac, I think we should take things slow," I told him. Breaking the silence was awkward, but not as awkward as standing there, waiting to see if he would make a move.

"Yeah, I agree," he said, scratching the back of his neck. I felt bad, as if I had somehow let Isaac down. He didn't take it as rejection, did he?

"It all just happened so fast and-"

"I know," he told me, "It's okay. How about a date? Tomorrow night?" he asked, balancing his weight on his left foot.

"I would love to, but I promised Madi we would hang out. I'm all free next week though," I told him.

"That's great," he said, "See you later, Cara." Isaac walked off and I drove home, desperate to escape the lonliness of my car. Turning up the radio didn't help my thoughts. Constant worry fills my brain about what might happen to those girls stuck in that house. Like always, I'm thinking about the consequences for me. It's so selfish of me, but I just don't know if I can lose Jess twice.

  The logical side of my brain is thinking it's a good possibility that Jess was supposed to die. Gianna said her neighbors came looking for her dad, not her, so she wasn't the intention, right? This is simply too much information to process, and a part of me is still telling me I should be freaking out right now because I'm talking to ghosts. I just can't win.

  I bounded up the stairs when I got home, dropping my backpack on the bedroom floor. Brendan was in the kitchen eating an apple, and my dad was bustling around doing something, probably for work. I shut my door and called Madi. If I were going to get away with leaving, I needed some help.

  "Hello?" Madi picked up after a few rings.

  "Hey, Madi!" I said cheerfully, "I need your help with something."

  "What's up?"

  "This is going to sound crazy, okay? But I need to go back to New Jersey. It's really important, but my mom would never let me go in the middle of the school year, so I was wondering if you could help me. It's just for the weekend," I pleaded. She was hesitant in her response.

  "What's it for? I mean, obviously I want to help you, but not telling your parents where you're going is a big deal," her words were slow. She was worried about me, but I needed to do this.

  "Look, I can't explain right now, but I will tell you what this is for. Soon. I just- there's something there. Something important, and I need to find it."

  No response.

  "Madi, I will owe you for the rest of my life if you help me with this. I will do anything. Please-"

  "Will you go to prom?" She asked. Her voice was joking, and I laughed at the change of heart within our conversation.

  "Mads, you know I can't dance," I said, rolling my eyes.

  "Then I guess I won't help you..." She started to say.

  "No! No, I will totally go to prom!" I said, anxious for her help.

  "Good," said Madi, "Now what's the plan?"

  "It's a good one," I told her, "but you aren't gonna like it one bit."