DELICATE / Brandon Darrow

thirteen

thirteen
who is monkey man?
FIRST PERSON

ROWAN TEXTED ME TO meet her and Hailey at the Grotto since Ash told her he knew something.

"Hey," I greeted them.

"You okay?" Rowan immediately asked me.

"Yeah, I just didn't get much sleep," I answered.

We weren't able to continue our conversation as Ash approached us. "Yo. I've been asking around, checking and I guess like a week ago Raven was messing with someone right here at the Grotto."

Rowan looked like a lightbulb flickered above her head.

"So, she was being mean to someone then winds up dead?" Rowan observed the situation aloud. "Who was it?"

"Someone told me that dude Brandon was here when it happened," he added. "You know Brandon, right?" He looked at me when he asked that question.

I just nodded.

"Okay, well, we have six hours," Rowan stated until she looked toward me. "Can you call him?"

I hesitated but still followed through. The last thing I wanted to do was to talk to him but I knew if I needed to pretend he wasn't on my nerves to help us get answers, then I would do it.

I dialed his number and waited but he didn't answer; it going straight to voicemail.

"No answer," I muttered with an eye roll.

"Do we have to go to that party tonight?" Rowan asked to confirm our answers.

"I'm not gonna stay home alone. After what happened last night, how could you even say that?" Hailey became offended at her question.

"Okay, okay, okay," Rowan reassured her. "You go, I go," she grabbed my hand which caught my attention. "You go, I go," looking at me, "-but we have to find Elisia. Did you find the list of Romeo's yet?"

Then something clicked in my mind. "Oh my god, I remember there was this one kid who seemed really pissed off about that."

They both looked at me seriously.

"Who was it?" Rowan asked.

"I don't know his name but all I remember was I told him to stop crying over it because it was stupid," it made sense seeing as he's probably terrorizing me for invalidating his feelings; which was mean of me. "He got pissed."

"Well, now there is a reason why whoever Monkey Man is hates us," Hailey concluded.

Rowan walked forward and started to whisper stuff.

"What?" I questioned, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Roses are red, violets are blue," Rowan repeated herself but louder this time.

Hailey and I turned around and there it was, sprayed onto the wall.

"Roses in my room," she realized before she jumped and grabbed us both. "We have to go."

♡

We made it to Rowan's where Hailey and I waited outside for her. They both badgered me to keep on trying to contact Brandon and I cringed while doing so.

My texts sounded fake as hell but I needed to do anything in my power to get him to respond and it seemed like he may have been ignoring me on purpose. Or maybe he was busy helping Nicki with her party.

Rowan ended up coming back over to us with a note in her hand as she began to converse with us, but I wasn't entirely listening as I kept my mind focused on finishing my chain of desperate messages.

"And Cynthia made fun of him for being mad over the whole Romeo thing," was what I heard Rowan say as it involved my name, making me look up.

They started to talk about Hailey's pill intake and, again, I zoned out as I felt like this conversation wasn't made for me to be apart of. I watched them smile until they started to do their handshake.

"I dig the handshake," I added. "I've always wanted friends to do that with."

Hailey smiled, grabbing my hand. "Well, now you do."

I smiled lovingly as I went to hug her. Rowan joined in and we all let this moment soak. But then Rowan's phone ringed and it brought us back to reality.

"Oh, it's Brie. She sent a video of my dad's drive," her words were comforting to hear seeing as it wasn't a threat from an anonymous messenger. She turned the phone for us to watch with her and what we saw was something we weren't entirely expecting. "That's Ash."

The video showed him shooting someone.

"Do you think Ash is Monkey Man?" Hailey asked us, obviously not wanting to believe it but still scared about the possibility.

"We have to tell Elisia."