Death of the Perfect Girl

71- The Downside to Popularity

     Poppy sat in the living room with her parents. Her mother sighed. "The cops said that the suspects must've snuck through the front door when you walked upstairs to get your money. Which meant the person must've known the code for our alarm. Who do you know that may have known it?"

"Have you told anyone?" Her father tilted his head.

"No," Poppy looked at him. "I would never tell anyone something like that."

"Then how did they know the code?"

Poppy stared at the carpet under her feet with furrowed brows. She didn't know.

"One of them snuck into our room. They took a few of our things. Including...," her father looked away," including your mother's wedding band and an envelope filled with money."

Poppy frowned. How many times did this have to happen?

*  *  *

Poppy walked into her room and shut the door. She stared at her bed. There were new sheets neatly made but she was still afraid to go lay on it.

She walked over to her study table and ran her fingers over her broken laptop. She had made the excuse that it had fallen off of the bed. It did. But Mason had crushed it. Mason. He must've been the one to punch the code into the alarm. She was about to run over to the door, but she froze. Charlotte had seen her do it too. And Fisher.

She stepped backwards and walked over to her bed, sitting down on it. She looked at her new, clean sheets and brushed her fingers against them. Then she climbed unto her bed and laid down. She shut her year filled eyes and fell asleep.

*  *  *

She woke up to a hand on her shoulder. She hissed at the pain and quickly opened her eyes. Noah smiled at her. He was sitting on her bed. Jenna, Charlotte and Liam stood beside him.

She slowly sat up. "What are guys doing here?"

Jenna held up here phone. "Is it okay if I record this?"

"Sur-"

"No," Noah turned to her. "You shouldn't do that."

"Why not?" Poppy looked at him.

"Jenna's been posting videos on YouTube. She and Sadie have been having a feud and yesterday Jenna came to your house and recorded herself right in front if it. People know where you live now."

Poppy looked at Jenna. "Why would you do that?"

"Because Sadie needs to be stopped," Jenna put down her tripod on the study table. "Someone needs to stop her. She's ruining lives for fun."

"Poppy." Charlotte knelt down in front of Poppy's bed. She put her hand on Poppy's. "#JusticeforPoppy is trending on Twitter and on Instagram. People want to know your story. They want to know what happened."

Poppy looked at Liam, then Jenna, then Noah. "I don't need people to know anything about me. I need to be alone," she frowned. "Unlike you, Jenna, I don't need validation from viewers." Poppy laid down on her bed turning to lay on her injured shoulder. She suddenly flinched. "Ouch," she rolled back over. Laying on her back.

They all stared at her.

"Please leave me alone."

Everyone began to walk away except Noah. He put his hand on Poppy's upper arm near the bandages and began to gently massage her skin.

She frowned. "I wanted to die. Sadie held a knife to my throat...and I wanted her to kill me."

Noah froze. "She held a knife to your throat? Did you tell the cops that it was her?"