After Mr. Robins left Dad went to his room without finishing his breakfast. James and I both sit back down at the table, where our grandma was quietly sipping her orange juice.
Moments passed by until she broke the silence by saying, "this is a good thing."
"How is this a good thing?" James asks sarcastically. "They basically just told us that their giving up on our dead mothers case."
"Exactly." She answered as if there was no need for her to answer. However she went on to explain. "It's closed. There's no more looking, no more tension. It'll help your father fully move on."
"But we'll always be left wondering." I say quietly.
Grandma leaned back in her chair before looking at me. "Even if you do find out who did it, you'll always wonder why."
The morning quickly passes and I soon find myself walking around the Saturday mornings farmers market with Elise. We had found a shaded area to sit at.
"So my dad found this girl." I say awkwardly.
Elise shoots a look at me. "Really?" She asks in a high pitch voice.
I nod my head before saying, "we're meeting her tonight."
"Dude, good luck." She says with sympathetic eyes. "I mean, it is what it is right?"
"Yeah," I answer quietly.
"So is Liam still your 'friend'," Elise then asked putting air quotes around friend.
"Yes..?"
"Well it just seems that you two get awfully close and-"
"There's really nothing else. And even if there was I wouldn't want to start anything anyways." I proceed to tell her.
She stares at me in silence trying to read my mind. And like always, she's successful.
"Is it because of what Jake did earlier this year?" She asks me as I'm looking down at my lap.
"No I just..." I struggle to find my words. "I don't want to ruin a friendship."
"Does he even know about Jake?" Elise then asks ignoring my comment.
"No. And he won't." I tell her quietly as memories from that night came back to me in vivid pictures.
It was only the second week of junior year. Jake and I had been talking on and off all summer, so he invited me to his house. I was blinded by my feelings towards him, as I couldn't see who he really was.
I was sitting on his bed when he started to kiss me, and feel me up and down. I was uncomfortable, but being only 16, thought it was normal.
However, when he started to take my shirt off, I subconsciously knew that a line was being crossed. A line that wasn't ready to be crossed. I heard his phone ding and I glance over to see that it was a text from one of his football friends.
It read, "bang Andi, you win."
My heart jolted at the thought. I was just a game to him. I push him off of me and run out of his house, crying. I told no one except for Elise.
"He doesn't need to know that." I say once again.
Elise looks at me, and then at her phone. "We have to get going, my shift starts soon."
We drive back to the cafe, but as we start walking towards the door I saw Liam's father sitting where he sat last time. However this time he was alone.
"Is that.." Elise started to ask.
"Yeah." I answer in a breath. He looks towards my way and gets up. The tall man walked out of the door and towards me.
"Andria." He greets, only acknowledging me. "I need to speak to you."
I swallow the lump in my throat as I tried to find any emotion in his dark blue beast eyes. Elise slowly walks away, glancing over her shoulder every once in a while.
Liam's father turns around to make sure that Elise was far enough away.
"What happened to Liam?" His face was solemn and unreadable.
"What do you mean?" I ask with my voice quivering.
"He came home with a black eye. What happened." He urged, making his intent very clear.
"I'm not sure." I tell him, trying to keep my voice steady. "I wasn't there when it happened, but he wanted to leave the beach after it did. So he came to my house where I cleaned him up." I say.
I could feel his eyes scanning me for lies. I felt my heart beat rapidly in my chest as I kept my eyes focused on a single point.
"He's a good boy." He then said shifting his focus to the sky. "Don't lie to me, Andria. There's things that we've all regretted. I know I have mine. So tell me what really happened." His voice got lower as he kept talking. I look off the side and saw out of the corner of my eye Elsie, watching everything play out.
"I-I don't know. I already told you." I say. Even I wasn't convinced.
"Shame." He scoffs. He looks down as he puts his thumbs in the pockets of his blue jeans. He looked back up. However it was as if he wasn't going to say anymore. I turn around to start walking to the cafe.
"Just like your mother." I heard him say in a voice that was unexpected. He didn't say it to catch my attention, or mumble it under his breath, but as if I was still standing right there, fully listening.
"What," I say in a breathed voice. "You knew my mother?" I ask intrigued.
"Sure." He answered in a relaxed tone. "Grace was a beautiful girl. You're much like her." Liam's Dad then took a pause before saying,"because you're a liar."
I furrow my eyebrows ready to counter what he had just said, but before I could open my mouth, he was already walking away.
