Blake began to ignore me in school. Whenever I tried to talk to him he just ducked and walked away from me. There was now a tension between us.
'Blake, what's wrong?' I said one day after trapping him in the hall.
'Nothing. Can I go now, please?' he said, clenching his jaw.
Ariel had been sad lately because her boyfriend had dumped her. But she began to hang out with Blake and that's when he began ignoring me. Ariel was her normal chatty self.
'No. Not until you tell me what's wrong.' I frowned. 'Why are you ignoring me?'
He pushed my arm away instead of answering my question and stalked away.
So I asked Jonas.
'Hasn't he told you yet? He hooked up with Ariel.'
I couldn't take this in. Why was Ariel so sad when she talked to the rest of us then? That's what hurt. It kind of made me feel like she just felt uncomfortable around us. I cornered her and asked personally.
'I'm never happy,' she said. 'I found out someone texted me pretending to be my boyfriend, dumped me through the text then killed my real boyfriend. It hurts a lot,' she said, great big fat tears spurting down her cheeks. I felt so sorry for Ariel. Imagine if Jonas was killed...wow. I pulled her into a hug which she returned gratefully. Then I mopped her up with my hankie.
'Thanks,' she said.
In the cafeteria everyone was talking about murderers. There was a guy, Ryan, who had been killed yesterday. Around the time when Blake excused himself from Starbucks. He said that he was sick and plus he had a lot of homework to do.
I sat there , listening, with Jonas' arm around my shoulders.
'Are you okay?' he whispered in my ear. 'You look kind of pale.'
'I'm fine, Joe,' I said. I kept staring at my food and thinking.
'Earth calling Gemma,' Jordan said jokingly. I looked up and smiled. I looked up when Hayden, Ryan's brother, stood up on a table.
'We have a murderer in this school,' he announced, 'and he's right here in this cafeteria.'
I gasped.
'His name is Blake Payne.'
