Swell (Complete)

Chapter Sixteen (Part One)

"I am not ok now,
But I'll find a way now,
I've been here before
But you sure are more, more, more,
Than I bargained for."

....

"Adora! Wait!"
Marti's voice and her longer legs caught up to Adora quick enough, but even when the two girls were side by side Adora didn't stop.
"Please..."
Adora shook her head as she followed the street straight down the to Esplanade, and then barely paused to cross the main road.
Marti gasped as she jumped onto the path on the other side, narrowly being missed by an angry driver who left her with a long honk.
It wasn't until the sand underfoot flicked up into her runners that Adora stopped.
For a few moments she stood still, her eyes staring out at the blue before them. White flecks of foam broke the distant depth and she tried to stop the pounding in her chest.
Marti arrived beside her, panting loudly and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Adora..." She gasped out.
'I did it for you.'
Adora sank down to the sand and leaned forward.
It was her fault. Somebody tried to kill Brett because of her.
Her brow creased and she hardly noticed Marti sit down beside her.
"It's not your fault." The voice barely broke through the pounding. "It really isn't."
"But it is, they did it for me... They tried to kill... Because of me." Adora shook her head and let Marti pull her into an embrace.
"They. Adora, you don't even know who they are, but it's their fault, not yours. That card, that person... They're sick, they're insane. You can't blame yourself. Brett doesn't, nobody does."
Marti's arms held her gently and Adora felt her shoulders shuddering.
"No. They did it because of me." She took a deep breath, blinking back a burning in her eyes before she pulled back and looked solemnly at Marti. "Please tell me Debbie isn't lying about being with Tom."
Marti frowned. "Why would you think Debbie is lying?"
Adora bit her bottom lip and pulled out of Marti's arms. "I know Debbie, we used to be friends." She sat down properly in the sand, her legs folded up against her chest and her arms wrapping around them. "She... Is fickle." Adora leaned her head on her knees.
"You think she could just be lying for Tom?" Marti sat close to Adora and let her long legs spread out in front of her.
"I hope not... But then, Tom's the only one who's been interested, and I really don't know him that well."
Her stomach was sickening. Would Tom try and kill Brett? Would Debbie actually lie to keep Tom for herself when it came to Brett's life?
"I-I hope not as well." Marti's voice was far from reassuring, and Adora leaned her head to the side to face her.
"You aren't sure if Tom would do that? He's you're brother..." She frowned.
Marti shrugged. "I guess we'd all hope our family wouldn't do something so horrible, but... sometimes..." Marti looked away, straight out to the sea. "Tom isn't used to rejection, we all know that."
Adora felt a heavy weight pushing her shoulders down. If it had been Tom...
She rested on her chin, following Marti's gaze to the water, but closed her eyes from the view.
A gentle wind blew her hair around her head, and she tried to focus on the soft rushing of the waves on the sand.
In.
Out.
Pulling sand along with the water, out into the depth of the sea.
Whoever it had been had tried to kill Brett because they claimed to love her.
They wrote that he couldn't love and protect her like they could.
Adora squeezed her eyes shut. Who would do such a terrible thing and claim it was for love?
"Adora?" Marti's hand was on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.
Adora turned her head and opened her eyes, the breeze blew cold slivers down her cheeks and that was when she realised she was crying.
"My fault..." She choked the words out from behind the lump in her throat.
Marti made a soft noise and pulled Adora into her arms again. "We'll find out who it was. Brett's safe now." She tried to sound reassuring, but Adora knew there was no real clue as to who had done it.
She'd nearly lost her best friend because someone wanted to love her more than he did. She felt Marti rocking her gently now, she felt her own shoulders shaking in her friend's arms.

Will had followed the band to the hospital at lunchtime, but after Rae's question about Tom he couldn't stay in the room.
Adora and Marti were gone before he reached the hospital doors, he powerwalked back to the school.
By the time he got there it was almost the end of lunch, he ignored the stares from other students, tried not to react to hearing his brother's name and didn't stop until he was at Tom's locker.
He didn't know where Tom would be, but he knew his brother would need to come to his locker before the last classes of the day.
He waited with his arms folded over his chest and his face down as he leaned against the metal doors. Tom had left Adora cards the week before and he had tried to convince her to have a second date but would he hurt Brett for standing up to him?
"Will..."
He looked up at the mixed tone saying his name; Tom somewhere between relieved and confused at the sight of him.
"I thought you went to the hospital to see Brett?" Tom put his bag down on the ground and Will shifted to let him open his locker.
"Yea. I did." Will leaned his shoulder against the locker beside Tom, barely giving Debbie a smile as she let Tom's hands escape her own.
"Is everyone back for class?" Tom pulled some books from his bag and Will watched him closely, wondering if his twin was capable of trying to kill someone. Wondering if he really was with Debbie now, or if he was just using her as a smokescreen for his feelings.
"No. I came back alone."
Tom paused with his books still in his hands, but now sitting on the bottom shelf of his locker. "Oh?" He frowned.
Will glanced at Debbie and swallowed a lump. "Debbie, can Tom catch up with you later? I need to have a chat to him."
Tom looked from Will to Debbie and shrugged. "I'll see you later. Thanks for this morning."
Debbie narrowed her eyes at the request, but leaned over and kissed Tom's cheeks. "I'll see you." She smiled at him and left them.
"Are you alright?" Tom asked Will as he swapped books.
Tom had confessed he's been drunk Saturday night, was it possible he'd been so drunk he would attack Brett and forget?
"We delivered Adora's card." Will said flatly.
Tom put his books into his bag and zipped it up. "What card?" He lifted the shoulder strap and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
"I've got felines for you." Will raised his eyebrows trying to see if there was some reaction Tom was trying to hide.
"Felines?" Tom repeated uncertainly. He averted his eyes from Will's face for a few moments, muttering the word under his breath. "Oh! Feelings." Tom laughed. "That's quite clever, who sent it?"
Will felt his mouth open. Was his brother playing innocent or really clueless?
Will closed his mouth and looked down the hall towards where Debbie had left. "Doesn't say. It was taped to her locker, we thought maybe you put it there."
Tom shook his head. "Nope, been with Debbie since this morning when she came to the police station."
Debbie went to the station? The confusion must have been obvious on his face because Tom chuckled a little.
"She came after you told her I was there. Just in time too, I was getting pretty antsy in the interview room."
"Debbie got you out of the interview room?" Will asked.
"Well, yea, she came and told them I was with her Saturday night." Tom kept smiling. "Lucky thing too, because I don't know how I would have carried on in this school this early if I didn't have an alibi."
Alibi.
Debbie was Tom's alibi. Will felt a wave of relief wash through him and allowed himself a small smile. "So you remembered what happened after the party then?"
"No, but Debbie did. Well, you know, she didn't get sloshed like I did." Tom shrugged his drunken amnesia off as if it meant nothing.
"You believe her?"
The smile on Tom's face dropped. "Well, yea. Why shouldn't I?"
Will shook his head. He didn't know.
"Wait, you think I shouldn't believe her? Do you think..." Tom pointed weakly at Will, before turning his hand towards himself and resting it on his chest. "Do you think I did it?"
His expression was wounded and guilt sank deep into Will's chest as Tom's hand dropped to his side.
"I..." Will let go of a deep sigh and leaned his back against the lockers. "No, its just... The card for Adora... It was from someone who said they loved her."
Did he think Tom did it? His shoulders slumped and he looked at the lockers opposite him.
"So you thought I gave her another card..." Tom copied Will's stance next to him. "I didn't leave her another card, she made it clear she wasn't interested in me, and Debbie jumped. I don't need to pursue someone who doesn't want me when I have someone who does. I'm not greedy."
Will ran his fingers through his hair. "Yea, I know."
"So, someone else left Adora the card then. Simple." Tom laughed a little. "If I didn't know better I'd suggest maybe it was Brett."
"No. The card was from whoever stole your car after the party." Will looked sideways at Tom for the surprised reaction he hoped to see.
"What? How do you know?" Tom stood straight and faced Will.
"The inside said that Brett couldn't love and protect her like they could." Will looked at Tom's face. "That they did it for her."
Tom's face paled. "I don't get it." Hewhispered.
"They attacked Brett because they love Adora."
Tom's face remained ashen and silent.
"Are you really over her, Tom? Or did you get drunk enough to forget onpurpose?" Will straightened up and stopped leaning against the cold metallockers. He watched Tom search his face, trying to see if the question wasserious, he saw Tom swallow and kept waiting.
"No. I was with Debbie, I am withDebbie. That's it." Tom shook his head and took a deep breath before he pushedroughly past Will, slamming his shoulder into Will's. "Don't ever accuse me ofshit like that." He yelled back over his shoulder.
Will frowned as he watched Tom walk away angrily.
He had accused his twin of something, hadn't he?
Will looked down at the concrete floor of the school's hallway. He had justaccused his brother of attacking someone.
Even though he had an alibi.
"Fuck." Will swore under his breath and punched his thigh. What had he reallybeen thinking?
Adora.
He had been thinking of Adora, that's what he had been thinking of.
The reaction to the card, the change in her face when she started to blameherself for what had happened.
The strange feeling that he had to protect her.
The thought made his eyes widen; protect. One of the words from the card.
Had the girls came back from wherever they had ended up?
Will had a study period for the next class, they were meant to be spent in thelibrary, but he wasn't sure he could sit still.
'Go swap your books, and then figure it out.' He decided.