Don't tell me bye bye (mystery/ thriller)

Chapter 14

I've spent most of the day praying that I wouldn't get the chance to confront Jennie or Namjoon about the note, but of course you never get what you wish for.

I'm in the toilets, washing my hands just after lunch, when Jennie slams the door open and sashays in. Seriously, doesn't that girl get tired of walking around like she's on the catwalk all the time? She spots me, her face grimacing like she's just trodden in something, then throws her bag onto the sink.

"Can I help you with something?" She spits as she pulls out her make-up bag.

"Yes, actually, you can." I rummage around in my bag until my fingers brush the note.

She turns to me, a hand on her hip. "I swear, for your sake, this better not be Tae. I know you went to see his Dad. What part of stay away from him do you not understand?"

I pull the note out, and hoping that those piercing blue eyes can't see through my bravado, I lift my chin and hold the note up.

"Funny you say that. Did you do this?" I ask.

She snatches the paper out of my hand. A smile spreads across her face as she reads it, then she holds it up for me, shaking her head.

"Please; you think I wrote this? Listen, if I was going to threaten you I wouldn't be stupid enough to do it with a hand written note. That's what social media is for; insulting fat and ugly people and making thinly veiled threats." She raises her eyebrows at me, and I take the note back from her. "Although, I don't disagree with whoever wrote it."

I look down at the words on the paper, not that I need to remind myself what they say.

"What happened to Tae is nothing to do with you, and the sooner you get that through your mousey head, the sooner I won't have to keep speaking to you."

I clench my fists and I glare at her. "Of course it's to do with me, Jennie, I was there when he jumped off the bridge! I was there when he set himself on fire! You weren't there for him then, were you? You didn't see his face, or hear what he said."

Her face softens for a moment, giving me a glimpse of what she looks like underneath all that makeup.

"He's lying in the hospital, Jennie, covered in burns. Whatever it was that he did isn't going away, and that's where it's got him. Me trying to find out what he's done isn't going to make things worse. How could it? "

She slumps against the porcelain sink, a shadow of the girl who strutted into the room moments ago.

"You don't know that. It's not going to end well for him if you carry on digging around for his secrets," she says, her false eyelashes straining under the weight of her tears. "It won't end well for you, either."

Her voice has softened, and she sounds like a different person. Her words aren't threatening me this time.

They're warning me.

I take a step closer to her, as she blinks away her tears. "What does that mean? Jennie, what are you talking about?"

We're standing close enough that I could reach out and put my hand on her shoulder, offering a little nugget of something that's not quite friendship but something, support or understanding. I hold my breath and lift my hand, just as Jennie shakes her head and turns to look in the mirror, wiping away any signs that she has human emotions with her little finger. She pulls out some powder and lip gloss and refreshes her mask, then clears her throat.

"Are you stupid or something?" she says, her ice maiden voice back in place. "It means what I've been saying to you all along, Y/n. Stay away from him, and just leave it alone. This Veronica Mars thing is getting really embarrassing."