Sweet But Psycho | Milia

Chapter 8

"Hey, Rosie, I've got a question for you?"

Lilia turned around to find Romeo Beckham leaning against a vending machine in the precinct corridor.

"Why should I talk to you?" Lilia rolled her eyes. "I don't speak to rats."

A couple years ago, Romeo turned himself over to the pigs in exchange for a deal. He got community service while Blaine and Bryce got ten years.

Therefore Lilia did not count him as a person to talk with, but somehow here she was with him watching her while David did paper work.

"Because I have a question and you have the answer." Romeo pushed off the wall. "What's she like? The Chief's girl."

Lilia wasn't sure why he wanted to know not that it really matter because she wasn't going to tell him a single thing.

"I've seen her around here and I can't help but wonder what she feels like." He thought aloud. "How she'd feel-"

"Shut up would you!" Lilia snapped. "You sound like a twelve-year-old pubescent preteen."

"That was repetitive." He pointed out. "Now tell me about her?"

"Never." Lilia sighed. "Now let me get back to counting the tiles on the ceiling."

He leaned against the wall once more. "I know you're curious about that lays beneath those guarded chocolate eyes. I could tell you all the secrets she holds inside." He offered, trying to peak her interest.

"Nice try." Lilia muttered, hey eyes glued to the ceiling panels.

Romeo exhaled loudly. "You're not even the least bet curious? Not even about Maddie?"

This got her attention. "Maddie?" She asked. "What do you know about her?"

"Plenty I was living here when it happened."

She pulled out the chair next to her, patting the seat afterwards. "Sit, rat."

He sat beside her and grinned. "I win."

"Just tell my about Maddie before I lose my patience." Lilia crossed her legs and looked at him expectantly.

Romeo took his sweet time answering her. "Where do I begin about Madison Ziegler? Oh yeah she's dead."

"I know that. How'd she die?"

"She drown in the lake summer before last during the big storm." He told.

Now that made sense why Millie hated storms so much. If Asher were to die during a storm Lilia imagined she'd hate them too.

"It took Chief Harbour and his men two days to find her body. The only reason they did was because she washed up on a bank down near the county line." He continued. "Millie was the one to actually find her."

"That's awful." Lilia gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.

The pain Millie must have gone through.

"Maddie and Millie weren't exactly the most kosher girls in this town. They were.... Well they were truly in love and that made a lot of people upset." He shook his head.

"The poor girl spent the next month and a half in her room not eating or speaking to anyone." Romeo caught Lilia's eye as he spoke. "Still to this day Maddie's death is a mystery because she was an excellent swimmer."

Lilia closed her eyes for a brief second. No wonder Millie got so upset when talking about Maddie, it was a wound she would never have closure upon.

She felt so bad about the way she had treated her now. "So she was murdered."

"Depends who you ask." Romeo shrugged a shoulder. "If you ask Chief she drown because she didn't listen to the warnings, 'even the best swimmers could have drown out there' he said at the time. But if you ask Millie, she was."

Lilia nodded a little. "I suppose both make sense."

"Though if you ask me I'd say it was suspicous how they searched for two days with no luck, but within an hour of looking Millie found her." He theorized. "I think they went to the lake, got in an argument, and Millie pushed her." He paused.

"I think she killed her, and felt so gently with what she had done that she didn't leave the house."

Lilia shook her head. "Millie wouldn't do that." She said sternly.

Romeo raised his hands and stood up. "Just an opinion. You asked." He left her with those words.

It was a lot for her to take in, but things were starting to make sense now. Everything about Millie seemed to be summed up in that simple story.

❦❦❦

Millie lay curled with her head on Jules lap. He was playing videos with Noah and she was watching.

"This game is so stupid." She groaned, watching as Noah beat Julian once again. "I mean you're practically just beating each other up."

"No we're battling." Noah never took his eyes from the screen. "There's a difference, Millsters."

"I don't see one, bubs." She played with a strand of her hair boredly. "I wanna cut my hair."

"The hair you haven't touched in forever?" Jules asked shocked. "The curls."

"I'll still have curls, J, just not as long of them." She picked at a string on his shirt. "I wanna dye it too."

Noah paused the game and looked back at her. This was a big deal to them.

To anyone else her statement would have seemed mundane, but to the boys it was a huge step in the right direction.

Her hair was something she'd never let anyone touch before. The long curls that fell to just above her butt hadn't been cut since when her mother around. 

"What is it a bad idea?" She asked, suddenly worried she'd said the wrong thing.

"No!" They said in unison.

Jules got up. "In fact, lets go now."