Help Me

Chapter 28: Cousin?

•Not Edited•

Riley's POV

I looked everywhere for Jared. It was like he had disappeared into thin air.

I let out a huff of disappointment after I had checked all the empty classrooms.

If I were Jared, where would I go?

I don't know, Jared is too mysterious. He always distance himself from everyone.

Oh...

My eyes lit up when I thought of a place he could be hiding in.

I turned on my heels and sprinted off to the back of the school and into the forest.

I stumbled over the twigs and logs that were in my way, making a huge scene. You could hear me a mile away, screeching and cursing.

You can imagine how relieved I was when I saw the stream. My eyes landed on the huddled figure that was nestled next to it.

"What do you want?" His voice shocked me. He sounded so fragile. It was so.... un-Jared.

I ignored him and took a seat next to him, my body facing him.

We sat in silence. Jared stared at the water slowly flowing downstream and I watched him carefully.

He sighed and looked at me. When I got a clear view of his face, my heart cracked. His eyes were bloodshot red and watery. His hair looked like he had ran his hand thorough it multiple times and on his cheeks, there were some traces of tear tracks.

"What do you want?" He asked his question again.

"Do you need a hug?" I spread my arms and tilted my head.

He tackled me, wrapping his arms around my waist tightly. I heard him softly sobbing into my shoulder as I held him. I softly ran my hands through his hair, in hopes of calming him down.

When we separated, he let out a humorless laugh. "You know, that was the first thing she said to me?"

"What?"

"Bridget," he said her name like it was killing him slowly. "It was in freshmen. She came up to me and said, 'Do you need a hug? You look sad.' Then she just wrapped her arms around me in a hug." Jared had a faraway look in his eyes as he went for a stroll down Memory Lane.

"The truth was, I wasn't sad. I guess I always looked moody even if I'm not." He chuckled darkly. "We started hanging out at school. Cole and Lucy would tease me about Bridget and nag at me to not be a wuss and ask her out. I finally did. I asked her out and she said yes. When I asked her to be my girlfriend, she said she would think about it. She didn't give me an answer until two weeks later. She had agreed to be my girlfriend and you have no idea how happy I was."

I think I have an idea of what it was like...

He continued, "We had the best six months together. We liked each other so much, you could say that we were in love. But after the six months, she began receiving letters from her stalker. He told her that she will be his soon and that he saw her first. The police were no help at all. They couldn't locate the place the letters were being sent from. When she- when she d-died-"

I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from talking. "You don't have to go on if you don't want to."

He shook his head. "I need to tell it to someone right now." I nodded and took his hand giving it a small squeeze.

"Wh-when she-e d...died, I found a letter and a voice recorder. The letter said that I should have broken up with her and that he wins. He was right, I did lose. I couldn't keep my Bridget safe. My Bridget. My Bridget." He mumbled pitifully.