The Answer Lies in the Truth

Chapter 8

Sunday I walked to my house. Michael offered for me to stay, but my dad said that today was cleaning day and I had to come home. I said goodbye to Michael and left his comfy house to go to my own.

My dad was already vacuuming when I got home. My job was to clean the kitchen and dust. His was to vacuum and do the laundry. We alternated so sometimes I would do the laundry and vacuum. It wasn't a job I'd envy. Especially since the washer and dryer were both old and broken.

I start at my bathroom and by the time I get to cleaning the kitchen it was already noon. Dad was still vacuuming so I made him some pizza rolls and poured some lemonade. Did I ever mention that I can't cook? I can't cook at all. Microwaves and water bottles are the only things I know how to use in a kitchen.

My mom tried to teach me once, but after almost setting the house on fire for the third time I think she gave up.

I took a plate of food over to Dad and we ate looking out the kitchen window at the slightly cool February afternoon. Things were getting ready for spring, and others were still covered in ice. Our grass looked like a winter wonderland, but the trees were trying to grow leaves. It was odd for us to see leaves this early. It's usually cold until at least the end of March, into late April. Today it was in the 50s so it wasn't too terrible.

We flipped on the news and the reporter was going on about teen suicide and how the statistic ratings were getting pretty high. After that they talked about a school bombing. No one was injured, but there was one casualty, though it seems no one really knew what happened. My dad growled something about never having any good news these days and turning on cartoons. We watched until the laundry beeped its demanding buzzer at us so it could be emptied.

I started cleaning again, and finished up what I had to do. I helped Dad sort out laundry and we were finished quickly after that. I checked my phone. I had three missed calls from Rich.

*riiiiing riiiiiing riiiiiiiiing riiiiiiiiiiing*

"Hello?" Rich said into the phone. He sounded tired.

"Hey Rich, you called?" I could hear him shift.

"Yah," he yawned, "me and Jakey D were hitting the town tonight and seeing what kinds of trouble we could get into. We know that Christine is coming along with Jenna, Chloe and Brooke, and a couple other people I know. We won't be out for long, but I was wondering if you and Michael wanted to come?" He asked.

"Uhm, I'll ask Michael, and text you back?" I replayed.

"Okay dude, I thought you lived at his house." Rich said teasing me. I hung up to call Michael.

He picked up after two rings. "Jer, hey buddy, what is it?" A silly Jamaican accent abused the line.

"Hey Mike, Rich invited us to go with the group to walk around down town. You in?" I asked walking upstairs to tell my dad. I held back a laugh.

"Sure man, what time should I meet you?" He swaggered.

"I think around f-four?" I said struggling to keep in the giggles.

"M'Kay," I burst out laughing, "what?" He asked in the worst accent by far.

"You're listening to Marley again, aren't you?"

"I'M LISTEN TO MARLEY AND THIS GROOVE IS SOUNDIN' GNARLY!" He screeched and I laughed.

"Weirdo," I giggled.

"You love me though," he laughed, the accent melting away to giggles of joy.

"Yah, I do," I said, and shit that sounded way too sincere, "No homo."

"Right..." he said, he almost sounded...upset? That wasn't right, maybe I heard it wrong. "Well, I'll see you at four," he said much more Michael-like.

"See you," I said and hung up. I texted Rich that we'd meet him outside the deli. I told dad that I would be going out and he gave the thumbs-up-dad-stamp-of-approval.

Michael and I met at my house and started walking in comfortable silence. There was still a little light out, but you could see the moon. It was really nice. Then I remembered, I still hadn't told Michael about Red and their messages!

"Hey, uh, you know that thing I talked to you a couple days ago. About the love letter things I've been getting through my Squip?"

"Yah, what about them?" Michael asked, he sounded a little bitter, but dismissed it for him just being cold. It was getting a bit cooler now that the sun was setting.

"From what I gathered, I think I know who it is." I said smiling at him softly.

"Y-you do?" He asked. Michael usually doesn't stutter so he must be colder than I thought. I handed him my thin jacket. It wasn't much, but I had a lot of body heat to spare at the moment.

"Yah, I've narrowed it down to only one person. All the clues point to them because they've seen me act, the were worried when I was sick, and they hide messages." Michael nodded slowly and looked at me. His face was red from the cold, I guess mine was too. "So the only logical conclusion would be Brooke."

Michael shivered and looked away. "Yah...you're probably right." I smiled and looked down the path.

"Brooke, wow, who'd have thought?" An idea popped into my mind. "Oh! Maybe I could take her to Rich's Valentine party, and confess that I know it was her!" I didn't catch Michael's response because we rounded the corner and saw our friends.

"Hello Jerry!" Brooke said after I had hugged Christine and Rich.

"Heeey, Broooke." I said smoothly as I could manage. She looked at me strangely then shook her head slightly and smiled at me. Before I could make more of a fool of myself Rich told the group that there was an old house he wanted to check out near here. It was said to be haunted.

We all crept down to the old house in a group. To be honest we weren't very stealthy. Jake couldn't stop making bad ghost puns and Rich couldn't stop laughing at them. Plus Jenna's phone wouldn't stop binging every two seconds.

We made it up to the house. It was dark and cold. Some idiot in the group dared someone to touch the door handle. Then someone else said they'd give five dollars to whoever walked up and opened the door and stood inside the house for three whole seconds.

Chole rolled eyes and scuffed. "You're all a bunch of babies." She walked up to the door and opened it. She stepped inside and stood for a moment. The door slammed shut.

"CHLOE!" Brooke screamed and ran to the door. "Chlo!" She wailed as she banged on the door.

"Chill out Brooke. If you bang on that door a few more times people will start calling it Madilyn." Chloe said standing at one of the broken windows and climbing out.

Brooke made a little gasping sobbing noise and hugged Chloe. "I was so scared, don't do that again!" Choke stood there for a while as Brooke cried and eventually she hugged back.

"Let's go get some frozen yogurt, how's that sound?" Chloe asked Brooke after a while.

"Pink B-Berry?" Brooke sniffed.

Chloe kissed the top of her head, "Pink Berry. Besides, Tom owes me five bucks."

The group laughed and I felt sick. So it couldn't be Brooke, because Chloe and her were a thing? I was unbelievably confused. Who else could Red be then? I only had two more weeks until the party!

This was going to be harder than I thought.