My 5SOS Hate Club

18. Forgiven?

He told me everything. He was straightforward about it, but I didn't know what to think. Should I trust him? Hate him? Or forgive him?

The first thing he said was that he was romantically together with April. I knew that already, but what I learned was that April was cheating with Ashton on her boyfriend.

She was with the most popular guy at school, Isaac Thaler. He was the jock, player, and smooth talker, and April had to be with him because she was popular and he was popular. Once Isaac found out that April was cheating after them being together for two years, he freaked out. April got a good black eye from him casing Isaac to be arrested for abuse.

But, in my head, the guy had a good reason to hit her. April had kept this from him for three months still pretending like nothing was happening. And she wouldn't tell him who she was cheating on him with.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the worst news that I heard from Ashton. He told me that after things went downhill with April and Isaac, April lost interest in him. Ashton told me that he kept trying to win her back because he fell in love with her, but she never wanted him in the first place.  As strange as it seems to me, April only pretended to fall for Ashton in the short time that he visited to get close to Josh.  

He told me how one time he remembered April going on and on about how much she liked me as a friend but not Katrina, and he thinks that Josh was that reason since Katrina was the only thing in the way of April getting to Josh.  

Then Ashton went on about this particular conversation he had with April and how she was just so aggravated with Katrina that she wanted her dead.  And that was Ashton's theory.  He thinks that April killed Katrina.  

It sounded crazy, but know that I think about it, April never really did like Katrina ever.  I kept trying to think of why April would actually go through with killing her, but I never came to anything.  The reasons were just too weak.  

I took and deep breath in and stared back at Ashton.  I thought it was sweet how he still went to her funeral even though she totally dumped him.  

"Look, Katie.  I know, you probably hated me because your sister's death is all my fault, but I understand that now.  I'm willing to quit the band, and you can tell all the guys about it."  He sounded really serious about this, but I didn't believe a word of it.  

"Ashton, none of Katrina's death was your fault.  If April actually did kill Katrina, then I still couldn't see how it would be your fault.  I don't know where you got that idea from."  I paused and he looked relieved to be hearing this.  "But, Ashton?"

"Hmm?"  

"What about that day we went to the quarter?  How come you guys weren't freaking out when you saw each other?"  

"Oh, that day.  Well, the rest of the guys don't know about this, so I was still trying to keep it a secret.  And it seemed like April had the same idea."  I just nodded.  I was pretty distracted by Luke that day to notice anything in particular. 

"But why would April want to kill Katrina?  And who would want to kill April?  It just doesn't match up."  He shrugged in response.  We both knew that it would be hard to get the answer to that question.  April was already long dead, and there was no way of getting answers from her.  

I groaned in frustration thinking about all of this.  Just when I get this new information about Katrina's death, it gets even more confusing.  

"Katie.  You look really frustrated, but I have a good idea."  I turned my head back over to Ashton.  "Okay, so I'm gonna tell the rest of the band about this, and we're all gonna help figure out who killed your sister."