The Fire

Chapter Fourteen

Present

"It would definitely be best if you spoke to him, Sophie," Mum said.

Nodding slowly, I stood up and walked upstairs to James's room. I took a deep breath when I was stood outside the door before tapping on it quietly three times.

A mumble came from inside, "Go away."

"It's only me," I whispered. There was no reply. With another deep breath, I leant on the handle and heard the door click as it cracked open. James was lying on his bed, on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "You okay?"

"What do you think?" James said, without moving.

"I know they're wrong," I lied.

"How?" He sat up, "How do you know they're wrong? With the way things are going right now, you'll probably end up seeing their side of the story by the end of this."

God, I felt so guilty.

"The end of what?" I questioned. "What are you talking about?"

He sighed and looked away, "It doesn't matter."

I stepped towards him, "But it does matter, what do they think they found?"

James got off the bed and walked to the window, whatever was coming wasn't good. "You know Kacey, my girlfriend?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, when we didn't want anyone to know, Leah found out, and she constantly threatened and taunted me about it, and eventually blackmailed me. The police think I killed her to silence her."

My mouth was agape and had to shut it quickly when James span around.

"But it wasn't me Soph, you have to trust me."

I really did want to trust him, of course I did but I didn't know anymore. "You know you can tell me anything, don't you?"

James began to walk backwards, "Oh here we go, you think I did it don't you?"

"Of course not! You're my brother, I know you would never do anything like that!"

"Just leave," James said as he sat down at his desk, head in hands.

"But- "

"Leave!"

I turned around and left the room, slamming the door behind me. The tears began to run down my face as I ran to my room.

Who on earth was J? As far as I knew, there were just two people that I knew with J at the beginning of their names. James, and...and...

Josh.

I hadn't even thought about it.

But again, that still didn't make any sense, he really liked Leah and he had no reason to go as far as kill her.

Then again, J may have no relevance whatsoever. A typo maybe?

There was no way I could find out either, but I still wanted to speak to Josh, he might know something, and, if not, I still wanted to show him the messages.

I messaged him, asking him to come over.

Sure. On my way.

Even though Josh was one of my closest friends, I had butterflies in my stomach. I had no clue what I was going to say to him without sounding as if I was calling him a murderer. But if I wasn't blaming him, what was I doing? I'm not asking him round for a chat and a cup of tea. I guess I would just have to make something up as I went along.