Two Sides of the Same Coin

Clues

Monday

When I got home from school, Jackson Hale was on my driveway.

"Jackson, what are you doing here?" I asked him while walking towards him.

"Did you tell any detectives about me?" He asked as if he was in a rush.

"What do you mean-" he cut me off.

"I saw you walk to the police station a few days ago, did you tell them that I was dating Kala?" He tapped his foot impatiently on the ground and looked around as if someone was watching him. The way fact that he watched me creeped me out.

"No," I said quietly and started to walk up to my house. He followed me. The sun disappeared behind the dark clouds, it was going to rain again.

"You better not lie to me, Lane. I don't want any part of this investigation thing you are up to."

"I swear I didn't say anything, the detective wasn't there when I went." I said, raising my voice. I also tilted my chin upwards to look more confident in myself.

He was about to say something else, but Ellie had come out of the house.

"Everything fine out here?" She asked. Her arms were crossed across her chest and she was glaring at Jackson.

"Everything is just fine, I'm going to head out now, my parents must be wondering where I am. Bye, Missy." With that Jackson walked down the driveway and onto the street.

"You okay, sugar?" Ellie asked.

"I'm fine, Ellie, thank you for asking."

She looked at me, like she was not sure to trust what I had just said, and walked back inside. I could see it was hard for her to just let go. After all, now she's the only thing I have left that's close to a parent.

I followed her inside and ran straight to my room. I pulled out Kala's journal. I looked for the newer dates to see if she wrote anything about Jackson. Maybe he could've been abusive? Maybe he forced her into the relationship rather than her trying to keep her popularity status? I skipped to the part where school started. She talked about meeting me and how we became friends. I found the entry on the day Jackson asked her out.

She stated:

Dear Journal,

Today Jackson Hale asked me out. I forced myself to go along with it after all Jackson was the only thing from keeping me into becoming someone lower on the popularity ladder. I wanted to put Missy back into the spotlight like when her mother was famous. Missy is actually really nice and smart when you get to know her, she's just sad since her mother's death. Well, I have to finish homework and study for some tests tonight, I told Jackson that our first date could be bowling in a few weeks on Thursday.

Kala

My phone started to buzz and I picked it up.

"Hello?" I asked my heart was almost about to leap from my chest.

"Hi, is this Missy Lane? I'm detective Darryl Collins."

"Uh, yes, this is Missy. I came in a few days ago because I had a few questions involving a suicide that happened recently." I was tapping a pen against the journal.

"I could try to help you but this was already named a closed case." He sounded annoyed as if he would just want to keep it suicide and not change it into a murder. I heard other voices from the other side.

"Alright, well, I'm Kala's friend and I have proof Kala didn't commit suicide."

There was a few moments of silence.

"Ma'am I have no time for jokes." It seemed he was about to hang up.

"This isn't a joke, I swear! Tomorrow at around four I'll stop by the station and drop the proof off." He was going to need a lot of convincing.

"Ok I'll make myself a note."

"Thank you." I replied and I hung up the phone.