{11}
I stood at my locker when an arm wrapped itself around my shoulders. Glancing up, I saw Conrad looking down at me with a smile on his face. “We need to have a little chat,” he said before he looked up into the small mirror that was stuck to my metal locker door and fixed his blonde hair with his free hand.
“About?” I asked ignoring the chills that ran down my back. Putting a few books back into my locker, I switched a few journals out and stuffed the ones I needed into my bag.
“About what you heard Saturday morning,” Conrad said so calmly another set of chills ran down my spine.
“I didn’t hear anything,” I replied.
With his arm still wrapped around my shoulders, Conrad let out a laugh. “If you want to know the rest to what you heard you’re going to have to tell me what you already know.” He said.
Everything in me froze at his words.
I was getting what I wanted, but I was getting it too easily. There had to be something he wanted in return. What, was the question.
++
Sitting the passenger side of Conrad’s truck, I ran my hands over my jeans one more time before I turned to face him. We were parked at a park, sitting in the truck with the engine off. Whatever he was about to tell me proved that we needed to be alone, and what better way than to be at a park during school hours?
“So, again, what did you hear?” Conrad asked as he rolled down the windows and took out a pack of cigarettes. He handed them over to me after he placed one between his lips and lit it up. Mimicking his actions, I pulled my feet under me and sighed.
“Nothing really,” I replied taking a drag. “I heard you got into a fight, Viktor saved your ass, and Bay asked something about a thing that happened the night before.”
Conrad stared at me for a few minutes before he let out a laugh.
“You weren’t lying,” Conrad laughed. “You don’t know shit.”
I rolled my eyes as I listened to Conrad laugh. After five minutes, I finally grew fed up and threw my finished cig out the window. “Okay, can you shut up now? I told you I knew nothing.”
“You made it seem like you heard something,”
“Because I did.” I snapped. “I heard something that spiked my interest and I wanted to what it was about.”
“Why?” he asked throwing his cig out the window as well before he turned in his seat and sighed.
“Because I had a feeling it involved the death of my sister.”
Conrad’s smile dropped and his expression grew serious. I hit something, a string of some sort that led to information about my sister. He knew something.
“You know something,” I said straightening in my seat. “What do you know?”
Conrad sighed as he ran a hand through his pale hair, “Nothing.” And with that he turned the key in the ignition and put the truck in reverse.
As Conrad drove me back to school where my car still resided, I gazed out the window, my thoughts running through my mind as fast as everything whizzing past us.
He lied to me. Conrad knew something, he just wasn’t telling me what exactly he knew.
When the truck came to a stop, I glanced over at Conrad who was staring straight ahead. His left hand resting on the car door while his right laid on his lap.
“Whatever you know,” I began, “You need to tell me.”
Conrad remained silent in his seat, the only indicator that he heard me came from his clenched jaw.
“My twin sister was murdered, Conrad.” I told him and I could feel my insides twisting. “And I want the sick bastard who killed her to rot in a cell for the rest of his life. If you know something, anything, please tell me.”
“I know nothing,” Conrad answered his blue eyes connecting with mine.
“You’re lying,” I snapped. “I know you know something!”
“Get out,” Conrad replied eyes hard. “And stop hoping to find answers. I’m sorry Mia was killed. Even though she was a major bitch no one deserves to be murdered. I don’t know who murdered her, Malia, but if you keep snooping around trying to figure it out. If you don’t, you’re going to end up like her.”
