The Real You (BWWM)

8:Tommy Leroy

April 26th, 2016

I couldn't sleep last night. The thought of Jacob raising the gun towards Darla's face and pulling the trigger kept running on repeat in my head like a broken record. My mind flashes to Darla's brains being spewed out her head and I feel sick to my stomach. I run straight to the bathroom and throw up in the toilet. I hear someone running to the bathroom to check on me. "Are you okay?" Kyra asks me, kneeling down by my side. Conflict in my head begins to arise. Should I tell her? What if she still doesn't want to call the police. I just slowly nod my head. 

"Yeah, I'm good. Probably something I ate." She looks at me concerned and I flash a weak smile at her. I close my eyes and swallow slowly. "I found something out." She looks at me intrigued. 

"About the killer?" Just as I'm about to say something, Jacob walks into the bathroom. 

"You guys good?" He asks casually. We both nod.

"Yeah, he just has a bad stomach." Kyra says, speaking for me (which I don't mind). He stretches in the doorway, showing his tattoo. 

"Alright, well I'm going back to bed." Kyra looks down confused then looks back at me in disbelief. The words about to come up felt like pure acid.

"He did it." 

"I just, can't wrap this around my head." Kyra says as we close our lockers. "Why wouldn't your dad just get someone else to do it? Your brother has so much to lose, all for a scandal and your dad having to quit the campaign." We sit down at an empty lunch table. 

"Its as confusing to you as it is to me." She looks at me concerned. 

"How are you holding up with all this." I scoff. 

"Can't say there not the people that wouldn't do this." I can see her close her eyes at the side of my eye and can tell she's going to regret what she says next.

"We can go to the police if you want." I shake my head.

"No, I need to find out more about them. I can't do that with them being occupied with the cops. She looked at me skeptical.

"You sure you want to go down this road?"

"I'm already down it, there's no point of going back." I sigh and rub my temples. "I'm gonna go clear my head, I 'll see you after school." 

"Okay." 

Coming here always helps me think. I sit at the exact spot I was when the car hit Hannah. The memories come back like a boulder. God,It's been three years already. You know the cliche everyone says about it feeling like it happened just yesterday, well I don't feel that. To be honest I don't want to feel it. The guilt. The grief. The heartache. I want to leave that in the past. She's in a better place right now. "Come on get'cha pippin hot chocolate ! Come on up e'rbody!"  I turn to see a man yelling cups of hot chocolate for two bucks. I examine the man a little more. I feel like I've seen him before. I walk up to him and take out my wallet. "Oh my god," I look up at him confused about what he's talking about.

"Excuse me?" He shakes his head as if trying to come back to reality. 

"Ah, nothing, you just look like someone. Oh, and its on the house." I smile.

"Thanks man." I take it and start walking away. 

"Tell your mom Tommy Leroy said hi for me will ya?" He yells out at me. I turn back around to him and look at him even more confused than how I looked before. 

"How do you know my mom?" 

"She was a friend of mine. A really good friend." I just nod my head and walk away. 

I run back inside the house and go to my room. I open my laptop and search for Tommy Leroy. I search all the results that come up but all of it is irrelevant. Until I find a result for a police booking for Thomas Leroy. I click on it and find a picture from 5 years ago on the county police department website. It says he was incarcerated for dealing cocaine. "Hey, whats'up?" Kyra asks, coming inside my room.

"I found something." I motion her ton come over without taking my eyes off the computer screen. "Thomas Leroy was my moms friend." She reads the booking information. 

"Maybe he is a guy she grew up with." I shake my head.

"My mom was raised in a wealthy family and her parents would never let her out. Nor would she hang out with a guy like that when she was younger. They know each other from another way." 

"Are you saying she bought drugs from him?" 

"Its possible." 

"Was your mom ever a drug addict?" 

"No, but she's a complete alcoholic. I just feel something fishy about this guy, Kyra." 

"We'll do more research on him then. Let's get to it." 

After hours of trying to find out more about this guy- his social media, his community involvement, even his picture on google Earth- we found only pictures and news articles about his drug dealing. I hear my mom come inside the house and Kyra and I go downstairs to ask her. "Mom." 

"Yes Landon?" She says in the process of putting groceries up. 

"Who's Tommy Leroy?" She stops in the middle of putting up the coffee beans. 

"How do you know him Landon?" 

"I met him at the park." 

"What did he say?" At this point it looked as if my mom had seen a ghost. 

"Does it matter?" 

"No... It doesn't. Just don't ever talked to him again." 

"Noted." 

I toss and turn all night. It seems like I haven't been getting any sleep these days. Just the whole situation with my mom and Tommy has been making go crazy all night. Not to mention that Jacob and my father are murderers. I just can't think clearly anymore. 

Then, I heard a scream.