--Six time award winning novel by June D. Silver-
"Hidden truths are unspoken lies"
As a straight A student, Finnley never got himself into trouble. He goes to school, runs track, hangs out with his two best friends Cristian and Emma and studies; a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
- Monday, May 23rd, 2016 -
– 4 months after the disappearance –
The second Nathan brings Stan up to his bedroom, Stan's eyes find me, gently swaying from left to right in the desk chair, staring at the picture of Finnley that Nathan likes to keep in his drawer, while I like to look at it.
He doesn't want to be reminded of Finnley each and every day, and I do.
We're all dealing with this differently. Nathan also gave me the green sweater since I refused to take it off last week. Now I'm back to wearing the sweaters I still have that belong to Finnley, instead of the clothes Stan bought for me, or the ones that I bought for myself.
"How did you get here? Did your parents bring you?" He stares me up and down, his eyes lingering on the green sweater a while longer than necessary.
"Nathan picked me up."
He squints his eyes angrily. "Why didn't you ask me? I almost pass your house on the way here anyway."
I shrug, feeling too tired to argue with him about this. "What's the problem? We're all here. Besides, my parents want him to drive me because Nathan actually puts in effort to get to know my parents."
"I know your parents." He snaps, looking at Nathan, who is casually strolling towards his bed, looking like he wants to stay out of this. He's nearly whistling to put some strength behind his casual attitude.
"You had dinner twice with them in 3 months. Nathan had dinner with us twice in a week." I sit up straight, slamming the picture on the desk. "All you do is snap at me, get mad for asking questions to which I deserve a goddamn answer, and you expect me to call you for a ride? I'm not your bitch, I'm your boyfriend."
"Then start acting like my boyfriend! Trust me a bit!"
"Yeah, well, that's the whole reason we're here anyway, aren't we?" My tone might be a little cold, but I am a bit pissed over his annoying behaviour in the past week. "Not even mentioning, or actually I am mentioning it, since I'm going to mention it now, the fact you dragged my ass to a party against my will, endangering me by leaving me behind with those shady friends of yours."
"Okay, enough." Nathan stepped in between us. "We are not here to mend your relationship, we are here because you." – he points towards Stan – "obviously know stuff you kept from Cris willingly, while trying to frame me for something I have nothing to do with."
"In my defence, you are very unlikable and you tried to fuck up my friendship with Finn." Stan snaps. "I told you not to mess with me."
"Dude... just..." Nathan turns around and looks at me with eyes full of disbelieve. "Just, what?" He hisses, looking back at Stan. "Finnley went missing and you have something to do with it!" Nathan losing his cool is a rare occurrence. "How can you blame me for warning him about you!?"
