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30

After enjoying one of my favorite movies, The Holiday, with Mrs. Adams, I went upstairs to find Charlie asleep in his bed. He had half of the covers on him and the other half was waiting for me.

I climbed into bed and notice that he had his arm out as well as if he was waiting to wrap it around my waist. A small smile came to my lips as I laid down, immediately feeling Charlie pull me into him.

I closed my eyes as I tried to let sleep take over my body but I couldn't just yet. My mind was stuck on something about the dinner I had with Andrew and my mother but I couldn't seem to figure out what it was.

I thought about the silent dinner, as well as the exchange of words between my mother and I but that didn't seem to be bothering me. It was something about Andrew that was off. Every time he came into my mind, my stomach began to feel uneasy. Why was this happening?

Of course I was surprised at how rude Andrew had been to me but knowing how my mother had changed into a person I didn't want to speak to anymore, his attitude made sense.

I thought more of my interaction with Andrew at dinner and kept replaying when he opened the door, letting me into his apartment.

Pushing my nerves aside, I lifted my hand and  taking my knuckles, I hit the door three times. I thought no one was home as it took a full minute of silence before the door finally opened, revealing Andrew looking rather irritated by my presence. "Ugh, she's here."

I walked into the messy apartment to find boxes everywhere. Andrew seemed as though he wasn't ready for me to arrive as he called out to my mother to ask her where his watch was. When she answered, not knowing where his watch was, Andrew sighed and called back to her. "It must have been during the holidays. We were so busy preparing for the cruise and packing up, I must have misplaced it." I looked at Andrew in confusion. Why would he be packing up? Was he going somewhere?

I got the answer to my question about the boxes all around his home, so what was bothering me so much?

It took almost replaying our interaction in my head several times before I opened my eyes and shot up out of bed, finally finding my answer. Charlie stirred as he sat up to look at me as he tried to wipe the sleep out of his eyes.

"What's going on?" I was almost out of breath as I spoke. "I-I." Charlie rubbed my back, trying to help steady my breathing. I inhaled air and finally caught my breath as I spoke but when I did, it was as if the roles switched as Charlie was the one to lose his breath. "I know who killed Alyssa."

With neither of us being able to sleep any longer, Charlie and I quickly got dressed and headed straight for the police station.

~

After talking with officer Scott for almost three hours, our plan was set. We would finally catch who had killed Alyssa.

After returning from the police station, I went to my childhood home and with the help of Charlie and his parents, I collected my things and transferred everything to the Adams' household.

I would be returning later that night to Andrew's apartment to drop off the keys to my old home as well as give them a surprise of my own.

As the hours passed and it became closer to the time of going to see my mother, my nerves began to eat away at me.

Charlie seemed to notice how scared I was as he grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly in order to comfort me.

~

I arrived at the apartment with Charlie, his hand intertwined with mine as we walked up the steps to the seventh floor.

As I stood in front of the door, I took a deep breath as I looked at Charlie. "Ready?" He nodded his head and gave me a reassuring smile as I knocked on the door. There was no turning back now.

The door opened to reveal my mother looking just as disappointed as she did they last time I saw her. "Oh, it's you." I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Who were you expecting, the pizza delivery man?"

My mother didn't reply and only stepped to the side allowing Charlie and I to walk in. As I took in my surroundings, I noticed Andrew was sitting on the couch with his back to us as he watched tv.

"So do you have the keys or are you just here to disappoint me even more than you already have?" I took a deep breath as I tried to let my mother's harsh words flow through one ear and hopefully go out the other without me giving it any thought.

I dug into my back pocket and handed over the keys. I instantly began to feel horrible as I knew what was next. I was never good at confronting people if I had a problem with something so as I walked up to Andrew, my heart began to beat faster and faster.

"Andrew?" Andrew turned his head slightly, frowning when he realized who was talking to him. "I thought I was done seeing you. You aren't in our lives anymore." I felt Charlie tense up next to me and he began to clench his fist.

I grabbed Charlie's clenched fist and he relaxed instantly. "I believe this is yours." I put my hand out to reveal the watch I had found in my room. Andrew's eyes flickered from me to the watch and I saw him swallow nervously.

"Where did you find it?" Andrew avoided my gaze and continued to stare at the watch in my hand. "In my room the same weekend Alyssa died in front of my house." I didn't give Andrew time to answer as I spoke again. "It's funny that it ended up there considering you were apparently at the diner where my mother was."

"How did you know where I was?" Andrew fired back quickly, his voice becoming quieter every time he spoke. "Well the week I came back to school, I saw my principal in the hall and he was wondering how I felt. He also happened to mention that he called my mother one last time and you happened to pick it the phone. He said he explained the whole situation of what happened at school and you told him you would deal with it. Was killing Alyssa really dealing with it?!" I began to grew angry and my voice rose. It was Charlie's turn to grab my hand and calm me down.

A devilish smile appeared on Andrew's face and I was suddenly reminded of the Grinch from How The Grinch Stole Christmas when he came up with the idea to steal Christmas from the village at the bottom of the mountain. "Killing Alyssa solved every problem I had with you. Your mother already wanted nothing to do with you but killing Alyssa led you to him," Andrew motioned his head towards Charlie and he became tense. "Ultimately forcing you to live with him so you never pop up in our lives again."