Murders at Westfield High

Chapter 13

By now things had settled down and I felt it was time to continue my relationship with Julia, but I sensed a certain amount of tension in her. She obviously didn’t care for me trying to solve her sister’s murder. She seemed reluctant to get serious, and that disturbed me. She seemed to be holding back, not really letting her feelings come out. It was as if she was having second thoughts.

“How about a movie tonight?” I asked her at lunch.

She was not really eating much of her lunch, a ham sandwich and fruit cup. “I can’t. I have to sit for my nephew while her parents go out.” The way she said it sounded as if she was not all that interested.

“I understand,” I said. I didn’t, but I tried to be sensitive to her needs.

We didn’t say much for the rest of the lunch period. She said her goodbye and left without so much as a smile.

And, it got much worse.

I tried calling her the next evening, but her mother said that she was out. I told her mother to have her call me, but she never did. She didn’t show up at lunch period the next day. I don’t know if she was just missing lunch or trying to avoid me. I also never saw her at her locker. Either she wasn’t going to it or she waited until I wasn’t there. In English class, she sat with other girls and ignored me. It seemed that my relationship with her had gone sour.

Was it because I was too obsessed with her sister’s murder? Maybe she didn’t want to be someone’s girlfriend. I had no way of determining what she was thinking, and the worse part was that I would be unable to protect her from the killer.

I became depressed and it was beginning to show. Even the ghosts abandoned me. I hadn’t seen Carrie’s ghost for weeks. Were the previous sightings figments of my imagination? It was beginning to get to me.

“What’s the matter, honey?” my mother asked me that evening. “Are you sick?”

“No, mother,” I said, trying not to reveal my sorrowful eyes. “I’m not sick.”

She smiled, but the rest of her face hinted concern. “Are you and Julia having a spat?”

“I haven’t talked to her for days. I don’t think she wants to go out with me anymore.”

“Ah, honey, there are plenty of girls out there. You’ll find someone else.”

“I know that, mother, but I don’t know what happened between us. I thought that she and I were going to . . . and all of a sudden she’s ignoring me.”

“Maybe she found another boy.”

I didn’t want to hear that. I had enough anxiety about my scar turning off girls, but maybe she was right. I should just get over it. But, I had trouble letting her go without a fight. Love is always a struggle, and sometimes it can get downright ugly.

I saw Julia in the hall at school, but she ignored me. It was as if she was telling me without words that she didn’t want to see me again. Her rejection depressed me and it started to affect my behavior.

“What’s wrong with you, Kramer?” Nelson asked me American History class. “You look as if someone wrecked your car.”

 I sighed. “I wished it was that. I think someone has stolen my girl.”

“Maybe she’s on the rag.”

My confused look made him interpret his remark. “You know, a period. Girls get shitty when they’re on the rag.”

I smiled, but it was a smile tempered with anxiety. “I don’t think that’s it.”

“You’ll get over it. Use your charm on another girl.”

That’s simple to say, but hard to do. A love lost results in heartache and self-doubt and affairs of the heart often take a long time to heal.

Speaking of cars, my car broke a tie rod and I had to spend a Saturday replacing it. Fortunately, Neil helped me by letting me use his car lift, which made it much easier.

“Nelson tells me that you and Julia are on the outs,” he said as he used a wrench to tighten a bolt.

“We’re on the outs, but I have no idea why,” I said, trying not to sound emotional. “She won’t talk to me.”

“That’s chicks for you. Most guys I know just love ‘em and leave ‘em.”

“Yeah, but that gets kind of messy after a while.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, if I were you. There’s always the next one.”

That sounded good, but it didn’t help me get over being rebuffed. I might have just chalked it up to the fickle cupid arrow misfire, but I was genuinely concerned about Julia’s life. I just had to reconnect and save her from a terrible tragedy.