Masked (now an EBOOK on Amazon)

Chapter #9

                        CHAPTER #9

It's been three weeks since Alicia and I had met; we were really close now. We spent all our free time together, apart from sitting together in all our classes- Psychology, English, French, Business management and History of Art. I know it's an odd mixture of electives, but yeah, we both somehow had the same tastes. Since we'd become such good friends, I decided to ask her the question that's been on my mind for a long time now.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I said.

"Sure, why not? What is it? Something's brewing in that pretty little head of yours," she replied, tapping the side of my head.

"Funny, that's exactly what Sky says," I mused.

"Great people talk alike," she said, laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, just change the saying huh?"

"Talk."

"Okay...um. This might seem a bit weird, but I just had to ask. On my first day, how come you talked to me? Please please don't take this the wrong way but, I just really want to know. People never just come up and talk to me. It's not just you, I asked Ray the same thing and-"

"Wait wait wait, Ray? By any chance, do you mean Ray Chase?"

"Uh... yeah. Why? What's the big deal with that? Can we please just talk about you now?"

"Oh right. Why shouldn't I have come up to you? I saw you in the corner of the room, nose buried in a book, a murder mystery too, and I knew I would like you instantly. To be honest, I thought you would be one of those hoity- toity posh bitches at first. I mean, it's your first day and you don't even look up from your book. But once I looked closer, I saw that your eyes didn't say 'snob', they said 'funny, nice and will be an amazing friend'. So yeah..."

"And don't you start the waterworks now. Don't you dare," she warned me.

She could read my mind or my face rather. She knew that I cried for everything.

"I won't, I promise. You know you're the best friend ever?"

"Course I know," she said, smugly.

I smacked her arm and when we started laughing, I realized I had another question for her.

"I have one last thing to ask you. Given my history, you still are friends with me. I doubt that a sane person would do that."

"I don't care about your history, you know. I still can't believe you were framed for killing your brother, Noah. I don't give a shit. Even if you did something wrong, I would back you up and I would never leave you," she said, "I don't make friends based on a person's background. You see Rose there? Her dad was arrested so many times while their house was raided for drugs. We're close. And Ellie? She was put in Juvie for a while for shoplifting. We're friends. So yeah, background doesn't really matter to me, theft or murder."

"I'm so glad I met you, I haven't had a proper friend in ages."

"What about Aaron?" she said.

"Um... we WERE best friends, remember? He hasn't talked to me in 2 years. A while before I was framed, he just stopped talking to me. I don't know why, he just completely stopped making eye- contact; he ignored me; stopped coming home. He used to practically live at my place; all of us at home considered him family. Dinner every other night, casual, happy conversations with everyone. He knew the house inch by inch. He knew what everyone liked and what they hated. He knew just the right things to say when someone was in a bad mood. God, I sound like I'm in love with him. I'm not, though. Never was," I said.