No one thought of murder, or if they did, no one ever said it out loud.
Northwoods is not the kind of place where these things happen. Usually, when a kid goes missing, it's just another case of teenage rebellion. A few weeks will go by, and they'll be back home, having regretted running away in the first place. Worst case scenario, it will be an overdose, or a suicide, or some accident that makes sense for a small town in the middle of nowhere.
The girls sitting on top of the school bleachers had considered suicide, but deep down, they knew it couldn't be. The one with dark circles under her eyes, trying and failing to light up her cigarette, opens her mouth to say something to her friend and then closes it again. She does it a few more times, before actually getting some words out.
"You know," she starts. "None of this would have happened if Levi had never set a foot in this fucking school."
Both girls look surprised by this, one for listening to such a thing, and the other for saying it. The wind rushes past them.
"Don't say that."
"But it's true, Brie. If there's anyone to blame, it's –"
"Don't," Brie warns her, eyes suddenly big. "Jesus Christ, you can't say shit like that."
"Yes, I can! Levi was a snob, and you know it! He was an attention whore until it stopped being convenient to him. There, I said it. Sue me!"
"That's not –"
"It is and you know what? This is all bullshit! I spent hours being questioned yesterday and I have nothing to do with this!" she says. She hasn't slept for days.
"Well, they're questioning everyone again."
"Yeah, but they're asking very different questions now, Brie! Did they make you look at the pictures? Cause I had to! They made me look at them, Brie! It was horrible!"
Brie looks down at the other girl's hand shaking as she tries to cover her lighter from the wind. At last, the cigarette lights up.
"Everything about this is horrible," she says after a while.
That is the one thing they agree on.
YOU ARE READING
One for the Team
Mystery / ThrillerThe body of a missing student is buried in the woods. But only a few know this. At first, it was just a running joke in the hallways of Northwoods High, a lowbrow school in a lower brow town. Finn Sexton never really thought the joke was funny, but...
