What Remains of Elizabeth Clove | COMPLETED & IN EDITING

Chapter 7

Welcome back. I see you've returned, which means you either found Chase, or you cheated, and you didn't do shit.

You're going to go nowhere in life if you cheat. I mean, hey, look at me, dead.

Anyways, I'm sorry for taking you on a man-hunt earlier, as I'm sure it was very exhausting and hard.

I hope it wasn't.

I'm happy to tell you that you'll be going on your second man-hunt! Yay!

Technically, it's not a man-hunt. I'll tell you where she's at, usually.

Fiona Massengale.

Valedictorian.

Now you might be wondering why someone like me, a stoner, a rule breaker, a-

Nope. I'll save that for another time, would be doing with someone like Fiona. Well, she played a big part in helping me pull this off, whether she knows it or not.

You'll usually find her in the library. Beware though, she hates it if you interrupt her while she's reading.

Cam and I texted over the weekend about how we would approach her, since neither of us really knew her that well. Cam knew her from his German class, but that was pretty much it.

Fiona Massengale was a curious character. She was like a shadow, always in the background, never seen never heard, but you knew that she was there, listening and taking notes on every single detail.

Not Liz's type of friend.

But would I know? I don't even know my best friend that well anymore, and she's dead.

On Monday, I made my way toward the library, which was like alien territory to me. I'm not sure if I had even been there until now.

I could see her, her dark curly hair almost covering her face as she read a physics textbook. Approaching her, I opened my mouth, but she cut me off.

"I know why you're here." She said softly. "She told me you would come eventually." Fiona looked up from her book, adjusting her glasses.

"Uh, what?" I responded, confused. "I'm not an idiot Maxine." She sighed. "You're here to talk about her." I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?" Fiona rolled her eyes. "Must you ask idiotic questions? Liz told me herself, that in 3 to 4 weeks you'd be coming up to me, asking a crap ton of questions." She paused. "I don't know how she knew that she was correct. Are you satisfied?"

I gaped. "I, um..." I cleared my throat. "No, actually..I-"

"Is Cameron coming?" she interrupted me. "I can get him here if you want?" I held up my phone. "Both of you should be here. You were both her two best friend and if I'm talking to you about he, it's better if both of you are here right? Efficiency is key Max."

Cam came about 2 minutes later.

"H-hey Fiona." He coughed. "Sorry, allergies." His nose turned red. He was lying. What was he lying about?

"Are you two ready?" Fiona said sharply. I guess I had been studying Cam for too long. Oops. "We only have 30 minutes." She said, picking at her fingernails, which were short and painted a gleaming maroon. Cam sat next to me. "Let's do this thing."

"It all started after I had ran into at the library. She had been looking in the biking and car section, which I thought was odd. I had asked her what she was doing there, and she promptly told me she was working on a project."

Cam held up his hand, stopping her. "Project?" Fiona sighed, blowing a strand of her hair into the air. "Yes, that's what she said. Now, can I finish?" Cam nodded.

"Noticing it was me, she asked me if I could help her. Naturally, I agreed. I can't have a poor soul struggling over academics, it's just unethical. She asked me the probability of dying in a biking accident, and I told her it was 1 in 20, which was 5%. Becoming suspicious, I asked her what class this project was for. Liz blew it off and said it was for forensics, which I wasn't even aware she took. Over the next few days, she kept coming up to me in the library, each time looking more frazzled and paranoid as she asked me question after question about how long you can survive in the wilderness and way you can die." Fiona stopped, looking at her hands. "I thought she was planning to run away but.." She sighed. "Then the accident happened and I partially blame myself." Fiona finished softly. "Everything I told her, when I helped her with getting information, that only helped her make the decision to run away and then cause the accident to happen." Fiona stopped, wiping her eyes quickly. "Are you satisfied?" she murmured.

"It's not your fault." Cam consoled her quietly. "Yes, Yes it is." She stood up. "I have to go." She speedwalked out of the library as the bell rang, clutching her books.

Looking at Cam and shrugging, I left the library and headed towards the bathroom. I had to fix my lip gloss.

What? Just because I'm not popular doesn't mean that I don't wear makeup.

I pulled out my tube of lip gloss, and stared at the mirror.

What was I doing?

I didn't have much time to contemplate life though, as I heard someone puking behind me.

"Hello?" I asked, cautious. "Are you okay?"

The door swung open, and my stomach fell.

"Oh. It's just you." Victoria muttered. "I'm fine. " She said, going over to the sinks. "Just finishing lunch." She said, washing her hands. "Finish- what?" I asked, confused. Victoria shrugged. "I can't eat if I wanna look this good." She moved toward the doorway, but I blocked her path. "What?! Why?! That's not good!" I exclaimed. Victoria raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care? You already ruined my party, got me in trouble, and got me an ISS." She spat at me. "You don't know the pressure of being pretty and popular and-" She choked back a sob. "And you wouldn't understand Max!" She cried as she pushed me aside, leaving me alone in the bathroom.

My lipgloss was sitting on the sink still, untouched and unopened. I took a step towards it, but then stopped myself.

No.

I didn't need makeup to look, or even feel pretty, unlike Victoria.

I was just me, and that was enough.

And just me was late to class.

•••

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