DELICATE / Brandon Darrow

thirty two

thirty two
what the hell is a hawk?
FIRST PERSON

"You got a message from King Cobra?" Rowan whispered.

"Yeah. I texted Zoe where she was and King Cobra sent me this after the text to Zoe," I said, showing her my phone.

"Come find me," Rowan read aloud. "What the hell?"

"I know," I said as I sighed lightly. "But Elisia is right; Zoe is King Cobra," I said. "On Friday, I could totally tell that it was her."

At the right timing, Elisia joined us so I explained everything that I had already told Rowan.

"Well then she definitely wants us to know that she's KC," Elisia concluded and I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, maybe Stinger can dig up some more dirt on Zoe," Rowan suggested. "Where's Mrs. Dawson, by the way?"

"Oh, she got called up for deployment. She got shipped off this weekend," Elisia answered.

We all walked into the assembly and sat with each other. We listened as they talked about suicide prevention. Tessa came up and talked about Nicki and how bullying can cause severe issues with kids nowadays.

♡

It was after the assembly and I was talking to Elisia. We were walking up the steps until someone started to call for us.

"Cynthia! Elisia!"

We both stopped and turned around.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"You guys are friends with Hailey, right?" He asked us.

"So?" Elisia said, attitude evident in her tone.

"Well, I'm Hawk, we've been hanging out-" he explained until Elisia cut him off.

"You're Hawk?" Elisia asked.

"Her tutor?" I asked as well.

"Yeah, do you know where she's at?" He asked us.

"We, uh, we got to get to class," Elisia said, pulling my arm and dragging me away from him.

"What was that for?" I asked her.

"Nothing. Let's just go," she told me.

♡

"Nice digs," Elisia complimented as we entered Stinger's new secret location. It did look pretty nice.

"The fed's we're trailing my IP so I had to split," Stinger informed us. "I only live in bars and churches— pretty much the same thing."

"What'd you find?" Rowan asked him.

"Nothing. It's like Zoe Desaul doesn't exist," Stinger answered. "No address, no social security number, no birth certificate."

"Well, then it's a really good thing it's easy to swipe personal files from the admin office," Rowan said, pulling her phone out. "She has a flash account. Her last post was camp."

"I remember that," I nod, taking Rowan's phone for a closer look.

"Did she go to camp with you?" Elisia asked me.

"Yeah, she was my best friend until..." I paused.

"Until what?" Rowan asked, taking her phone back.

"Until I started to hang out with Brandon. She got really jealous and started to ignore me when I tried to talk to her. It wasn't like Brandon and I hung out all the time. Most of the time he treated me like crap," I answered. "But it's strange— she was talking to me normally when she transferred like nothing ever happened. She even brought him up quite often."

"Then Hailey was right," Elisia concluded.

"Where is Hailey?" Stinger asked us.

"She was acting really weird after the bonfire," Rowan responded.

I started to get anxiety. I knew why she was acting weird. She saw Sean. But that doesn't mean you ignore us. He's my cousin and I'm more shocked but I would never leave Elisia or Rowan.

"She didn't go to school today, she won't return our calls," Rowan nodded. "I'm positive that Sean was there."

But I didn't hear the rest, as I walked away. I walked to Stinger's pool table and just looked at it. I didn't want to believe that Sean was there. First, it was Brandon, now it was Sean. I'm afraid of everybody. I'm afraid to get too attached.

"You okay?" Rowan asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out," Rowan tried to console me. "I promise."

I just gave her a hug. The thing I needed most and the only thing I could depend on helping me calm myself.

Hailey used to always be there for me to talk to but since she's been ignoring us, I've been gushing my feelings to Elisia and Rowan. I love them both so much.