My Best Friend's Funeral

Chapter 17

       “I should’ve known I would find you here” Grace grumbled. “Hello Grace” was all I could say. “At least have the courtesy to respect my dead son’s room Cheryl. Pick another room if you don’t mind” she said angrily and turned to leave. I looked at Paul in confusion and then at Jake. “Don’t you get it? She thinks you two were…you know…in her dead son’s room” he imitated his mom. “Oh no!” I quickly said holding Grace’s arm. “Grace, it’s nothing like that” “yeah right” she said and shook her head. “Just get out of his room please” she said and stood near the door. “Mrs. Wellings I was eager to see Jake’s room and so Cheryl brought me in here” Paul tried his level best to clear Grace’s mind of any misunderstanding. “Explain to me Mister, who is she to show you around?” Grace asked sternly. “Jake’s best friend” Paul said without hesitation. Grace fake laughed and said “3 years later she still claims to be his best friend? Where was she when he needed her the most? When he fell sick?” “Cheryl don’t listen to her” Jake said but I could barely hear him. “he was sick?” I repeated. “You see? She didn’t even know that” Grace said and left the room. “Cheryl I wasn’t” Jake said quickly coming forward.  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I shouted. “It was nothing. Mom handled it” Jake said and buttoned his coat. “Look at me Jake” I commanded. “Just leave before she comes again okay?” Jake said and he was gone. “He needs to stop running away” I said to Paul in frustration. “May be he doesn’t want to talk about it?” he suggested. “Why not? He was killed P. Moreover, he said it was an inside job. That’s too much to take ” I said and realized I needed to help my friend.

            “What are we gonna do now?” Paul asked sitting next to me on the window sill. “I have no clue. I need to talk to him but he just can’t stay in one place” “Cheryl, put yourself in his shoes. It’s hard for him. Didn’t he say he doesn’t know who killed him?” “that’s troubling me the most. How could he have no idea P? I mean, he said it was an inside job” “What inside job?” Brittany said appearing at the door. “Um..we were just talking about..uh” I stammered too much which made it pretty obvious that I didn’t want to tell her something. “uh..what?” she repeated in the same tone. “We were discussing an episode of CSI” Paul said coming to my rescue. “Oh, at my brother’s funeral” she said and stared at us. Now it felt like mentioning CSI which is a television show, was  a bad idea. “Relax guys! I'm not Grace” she said tilting her head. “You call your mother Grace?” Paul asked wide eyed. “Yeah” “Now I know why she loved Jake more” I said to myself, a bit too loudly. “Care to explain?” Paul requested. “He always called Grace ‘mom’” “obviously! Isn’t an adopted kid always grateful and does anything for the parent?” Brittany blurted and threw her hand against her mouth. “What did you just say?” Paul and I asked in unison. “Nothing” she said immediately and took a step back. “Britt wait!” I ran towards her and caught her wrist before she could slip away. “Ouch! You’re hurting me” she said. Drama queen. “I'm holding your wrist” “yes, but you are holding it tightly” “so that you don’t run” “you are in my house Cheryl Goldsin -“ “save the drama Britt. I have no time” I said and pulled her inside the room. Paul shut the door slowly and requested Britt to sit. She looked at Jake’s bed and then at us. “Are you gonna sit?” I finally asked after 10 minutes. “Are you nuts? You want me to sit in the bed that my brother died in?” I looked at her and then at Paul. “I assume you didn’t know that” she said and put her hands on her hips. “Cute shoes” Paul said breaking the silence. I gave him a ‘trying to be serious here’ look but he didn’t seem to notice. “Thanks. I love your suit. Is it Armani?” Britt asked with admiration. “You bet” he said and flashed a smile. “Let me know when you guys are done, okay?” I said vexedly. “Sorry” Paul mouthed and leaned against the wall. “Britt” I said taking a step towards her. “I'm not gonna tell you anything” she said firmly. “Listen to me, I need to know what happened the night Jake was murdered” I said slowly so that she could clearly understand how important this was for me. “Hold on” Britt said raining her palm. “Murdered?” she repeated in astonishment.  “I assume you didn’t know that” I said just the way she said it earlier. Britt gave a dirty look and then sighed. “My brother wasn’t murdered. He went psycho” “excuse me!” Jake yelled standing in front of me. “You dumb blond!” he yelled again. “breathe” I said quietly. “This is not the time to breathe Cher! It’s time to remind my sister that I'm dead and people say good things about the dead” Jake yelled furiously. “Will you please just sit?” I requested. “I said no!” Britt and Jake shouted together. “Aren’t you bothered? Don’t you wanna know who killed your brother?” I asked Brittany. She looked me in the eye and said without hesitation “ I told you before and I'm telling you again, I'm glad he is gone because he is gone for good. He was suffering Cheryl. I saw him suffer. William saw him suffer. We never hated Jake but we wanted to set him free and I'm glad someone did it. And just so you know Nancy Drew I loved my stupid brother. He meant the world to me”. I felt really bad now for forcing her to tell me about the night Jake died. I needed to ask someone who was much more stronger than her. “I'm sorry” I said hugging her. “Uncle Matt said you were looking for me?” she said ignoring my apology. “Um…yeah. But it’s okay I-” before I could complete my sentence Grace came striding in and cut me off. “They are  leaving” Grace said and looked at Paul.