Flowers For Your Grave

Chapter Ninteen

I waited for Mitchell after school outside the gym doors. He had basketball practice and it should be ending soon. I felt like a total creeper just standing here waiting for him to come. I was busy playing with my nails that I didn’t even see him walk pass by me, he didn’t even notice me standing there. I was like some kind of wall flower.

“Mitchell!” I shouted.

He turned around. “What’s up, Hayley?”

“Can we talk?”

“Sure. Will you walk with me to my car? I’m kind of in a hurry.”

“Okay.”

There was a breeze outside and my hair flew all over the place. I had a rubber band with me so I pulled it up into a bun.

“So what do you want to talk about?”

“Carrie.”

His shoulders stiffened. “What about her?”

“Were you two…dating? In secret?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because I read it in Carries journal. She didn’t have your name in there, all she had was your initials so that’s why I’m asking.”

“Does it matter?” Mitchell stopped walking and looked around the parking lot for his car.

“Yes, it does.”

“What do you want from me?”

“The truth. All I want is the truth and I think I deserve that.”

Mitchell glanced over with me with a sad expression on his face. He felt sorry for me. He was sorry about the fact that I wouldn’t let this go.

“We were dating for a little bit. Then we broke up.”

“Why?”

He sighed. “Carrie wanted to tell you but I didn’t want her to. I wanted to keep it a secret. We disagreed on almost everything. Then there was Jeremy. He’s my best friend and I hated lying to him but he was in love with Carrie.”

“How long were you two together?”

“A few months. Not that long. Like I said, I couldn’t do that to Jeremy.”

“Did you brake up with her?”

He nodded. “Next thing I knew, I was at her funeral. I thought that me breaking up with her made her kill herself but people said that wasn’t the case. For awhile I blamed myself.”

I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t have anymore questions and frankly, I didn’t want to hear anymore. I was mad at Carrie for keeping it a secret but I wasn’t the only one who was being kept from this information. Jeremy had no clue about what happened.

“Please don’t say anything to Jeremy. He’s having hard time dealing with Carrie’s death and the car accident.”

“Everyone’s been having a hard time dealing with that.”

Mitchell looked up to the sky. I looked up to and saw a butterfly drifting through the air. It looked so elegant and graceful, like it had no care in the world. I wanted to be it so badly.

“Promise you won’t say anything,” Mitchell said looking back down at me.

“I promise.”

He gave a half hearted smile. “Thanks.”

I didn’t have to walk home because mom let me borrow her car. Before I went home I made a quick stop at Carrie’s. I haven’t visited Shawn since he was in the hospital. I knocked on the door. Right away he opened up and gave me a hug.