Masks / Scream

Two Kegs?

"Um. Hello, miss? Why am I here?"

I looked up. Noah Foster.

"That's the mandatory part of mandatory grief counseling," Emma said, cocking her eyebrow at him.

"I feel shock, mild interest. But not grief," he said smiling.

I couldn't blame him. Nina and I had been friends, but she was always so mean to everyone.

"Guys, Nina was murdered in cold blood," Riley stated. "Do you not even care?"

I thought about it. "It just doesn't seem real."

"Here we go!" Jake started. We all rolled our eyes at what The Jake was going to say. "One of Nina's neighbors tweeted that her throat was sliced ear to ear." I winced.

"The press is all over this!" He continued, "They're playing the whole maybe Brandon James is back angle."

My head spun to look at Emma.

She took a deep breath. "Brandon James is dead," she spat at Jake before storming out.

I hit Jake's arm.

"What?" He smirked.

The new kid, Kieran watched her leave. "Who's Brandon James?" He asked.

None of us wanted to answer his question, and we were all trying to avoid it before Noah beat us to it. "Uh, he killed a bunch of students 20 years ago," he stated, pulling out his phone.

"Emma's dad got stabbed," Noah said holding out his phone. Riley and I crowded around it to look at what was a picture of Brandon. Noah then went on and on about facts no one else knew about this man.

Kieran seemed as weirded out as the rest of us. "And you know all of this, why?"

Riley and I smiled.

"Some guys like sports. I like serial killers, and Brandon James is my Dallas Cowboys," Noah said, smirking.

I looked over to Jake only to see he was rolling his eyes looking at his phone. Then I looked to Riley, expecting her to look back and laugh or something, but instead I saw her staring at Noah. Something was going on between them. I knew it.

-

"At this point, we are questioning persons of interest." The sheriff's voice was angry. We were crowded around Riley's laptop listening to a speech he had given about finding Nina's killer.

"We are looking for Ms. Patterson's ex-boyfriend, Tyler O'Neil." With that, Riley sighed and closed the laptop. She looked uncomfortably at all of us.

"So. Tyler did it. For reals?"

Will looked from Riley to Emma. "Em's mom worked the scene," he said, "tell them what you heard."

Emma sighed before starting. "A neighbor saw Tyler's car outside around the time Nina was killed. There was no sign of forced entry, and his fingerprints were found on the glass in the kitchen."

I shifted, and pulled the sleeves of my sweatshirt over my hands. I knew Tyler. We were friends. Had I been friends with a killer this whole time?

"Now his foster parents can't find him," Emma added. "Nobody can."

"When Nina and him dated they were always at each other's throats, but I can't see him doing something like this," Riley said. "How could he?"

Brooke, obviously not caring, was ordering something off her iPad. "Do you think one keg is enough?"

I couldn't help but smile, but I caught a disapproving look from Emma and my smile faded.

"Do you really think a party is a good idea?"

Brooke looked at me and playfully rolled her eyes, then looked back to Emma, "It's a prayer vigil."

Emma wasn't impressed. "People in mourning get thirsty," I added.

I wasn't really paying attention when Jake asked about the cops looking through Nina's laptop. I knew he had probably done something stupid. Not a surprise.

"I can't believe Nina's just a body now," Riley sadly stated.

Jake then added, "Kinda always was just a body." I smirked. He had zero respect. "But, top shelf all the way!"

If he weren't my twin brother, and if I hadn't known this is just the way he is around others, I would've punched him. Since he is my brother though and this is the way he is around others, I just continued to smile.

"Have some respect man," Will said, smiling.

"I have extreme respect. So did most of the basketball team, and some of the football team, and a couple of lacrosse - "

"Ok that's enough, I'm sure the sheriff is going to question every single one of them," I stated, rolling my eyes.

Brooke high fived me before adding, "and where were you Monday night, Jake?"

He smiled. "I was with Will. Up to no good."

Emma narrowed her eyes at Will. "You told me your phone died and you were stranded."

Goddammit Jake. I slapped his knee lightly and he mouthed "What?" I just smiled to myself. God, he was a good brother, but when it came to relationships - he was hopeless.

Will sent a glare Jakes way. "I was."

"Jake picked me up."

Emma didn't believe it, but Will just started kissing her neck so she would forget the whole situation happened.

Something must've caught her eye. "I'll - see you guys later," she said smiling sweetly at us before grabbing her stuff and leaving.

When she was out of sight, Will scooted over and kicked Jake's foot.

"What? Did I say something," he said grinning.

-

"Where's your dad?" I questioned, sipping on my iced tea. Yes. I was drinking iced tea. We were at Brooke's party and Jake was already by the table taking shots with his friends. I was going to be the designated driver - once again.

"Quinn has a lady friend in town. I have a party, he gets laid. Circle of life," she smiled.

We looked over to Will who was sitting on the coffee table. His knee was shaking.

"Calm down. You're like a purse dog," I laughed.

"What's wrong with you?" Brooke asked.

He shook his head. "Sorry coach has been riding my ass lately. We're supposed to have a scout from Duke at tomorrow's game - "

"The scout will be impressed tomorrow. Tonight, relax," Emma interrupted him. She placed a hand on his arm and they smiled at each other before they started to make out.

"Ugh, I'd say get a room but I don't think Brooke wants the cleanup," I joked. Brooke giggled. Emma and Will playfully glared at us.

Brooke and I were laughing about something when something caught her eye and she got up from her spot on the couch. I turned my head to see what it was. Noah was at the door with a girl. I stood up and smoothed out my pink patterned skirt. I squinted my eyes to get a better look.

It was Audrey. The girl in the video.

-

Author's Note

Let me know what you think of this so far. Thank you for reading if you did, once again, I really really appreciate it! Thanks!

-Emma 💞😇