hi y'all i'm finna be posting this in parts 🤤😍
just a reminder
1. there is no sex because this is for school and if i included sex my teacher would be like 👀🤐
2. this is for school!! so not really much swears!!
3. i'm gonna be posting this in parts for all of tonight and i'll upload the ending tomorrow
4. flashbacks are in italics
I stared at the coffin being lowered into the dirt, tears welling up in my eyes. I promised myself I wouldn't cry. I've barely talked to him in years for god's sake! Evan wrapped an arm around me, kissing the top of my head to comfort me. One of my childhood best friends, Ben Thompson, had been stabbed to death. Oddly, it'd happened soon after I'd gotten to start talking to him again. I missed him so much, and it'd only been a few days. San Cu was the safest place I'd ever known, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that there'd been a murder.
"Sleepover time, bay-bee!" Ben chanted as we stepped into my bedroom. We were all fourteen.
"Too bad Kaitlyn couldn't come too," Cameron rubbed his arm, taking a seat on my bed.
"My mom said no girls, sorry," I chuckled.
"Besides," Ben rolled his eyes, "you only want her here so you can..." He made kissy noises.
"Shut up, Ben," Cameron sighed, sprawling out on the bed.
"You hurt me," Ben whimpered. "To think I thought of you as a friend-"
"Shut up, Ben," Cameron and I said, almost in perfect unison without looking up. Ben frowned, finally quieting down.
"It'll be okay," Evan whispered into my ear, holding me tightly. I glanced away, a tear slipping from my eye as they finished lowering the coffin.
"Thank you," I mumbled, "for being here."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Lucas?!" I heard someone yell. "Lucas, is that you?" I whipped my head in their direction, seeing a short girl with long auburn hair trailing behind her barrelling toward me. I grinned, sprinting towards her and enveloping her in a hug.
Suddenly, I was back in my childhood. It was probably first or second grade. The little girl I knew with a big tooth gap and a wide smile was sitting before me. She didn't have that wide smile on her face at the moment. I was freaking out, so was Cameron, our other friend.
"Oh god! Ow, ow," Kaitlyn cried, grabbing onto her leg. She'd fallen from a jungle gym while trying to show off some of her new gymnastic tricks to us.
"Kaitlyn, oh my god," Cameron sat next to her, tossing me his phone his mom had given him in case of emergencies. "Call 911!" he stayed next to her, telling her she would be okay and such.
I punched in the numbers frantically, crying a little at the pressure on me. I glanced at Kaitlyn, I'd never seen her in so much pain. The most I'd seen her go through was scraping her leg up after falling off her bike--and she didn't even complain.
Cameron and I helped her up as the ambulance arrived, my mom picking the remaining two of us up and asking a million questions, understandably. We buckled up, watching as the ambulance drove away.
"Kaitlyn?" I asked. The girl nodded. "It's been so long!" I let go of her, taking a step back to get a good look at her. "You look good, barely aged at all. Your teeth look better," I joked.
"Right back at you," Kaitlyn replied. "What're you up to nowadays?"
"Well, I graduated and I'm looking for a job right now."
"What kind of job?"
"Teaching."
"Oh, that's great! I remember how much you wanted to do something like that," She smiled. "It's a horrible thing," she grimaced, her mood darkened quickly. "What they did to him?"
"I know," I shook my head slowly, "just terrible. But what's new? Let's not focus on the bad things right now."
"I'm working on becoming a veterinarian."
"Oh, cool! Can't believe you stuck with that after the dog incident."
"What can I say, Flores, I persevere," Kaitlyn winked as Evan stepped behind me, wrapping his arms around me again.
"Forget about me?" He asked.
"I could never," I breathed. I took one last look at the coffin before trying my best to forget about Ben.
"It's like you guys hate me or something!" Ben cried, tears streaming down his face.
"No, no-" I said softly. "We don't hate you."
"Really?" He asked. "Because it seems like it," He sniffled, pushing his glasses up his nose. "You never want me to talk, and when I do I get ignored or a 'Shut up, Ben!'"
"You just never said anything about it so I assumed.."
"Assumed?" He gasped out. "Nice job, Luke."
I didn't know if he wanted me to or not, but I hugged him tightly, trying to squeeze the hatred out of his tiny body. He hugged me back hesitantly.
"I'm sorry, man," I whispered. "I'm really sorry."
"It's-It's okay, just.. Please, try to be less..."
"Yeah, I get it."
I let go of him, looking into his eyes and smiling a little bit. Something clicked in my brain, and I leaned back in, pecking his lips. He pushed me off of him.
"Woah there, buckaroo," Ben laughed nervously. "Uh, Luke,"
"I'm sorry!" I squealed, covering my face with my hands.
"Sorry, dude I'm not, uh," He stammered. "I'm not into dudes."
"No, yeah, I got that," I picked up my bag. "I'll go."
"So," Kaitlyn clapped her hands together, "who's this?"
"This is Evan, my boyfriend," I shoved him forward.
"Ohh!" She squealed, jumping up and down, "congratulations!"
"A pleasure," Evan smirked, shaking her hand. I felt myself slip away from the conversation, caught up in my thoughts. Why are we talking so happily? Why did I suggest ignoring the bad things? We were at a funeral. Our friend died. He's gone forever. I felt like I was going to throw up, but I tore myself free from my thoughts.
"Well, what's the 'dog incident?'" Evan asked.
All four of us walked down the street, maybe ten or eleven, hearing a dog whimpering and barking in the yard nearby.
"Is that dog okay?" Kaitlyn asked, her high voice ringing in my ears. "Maybe we should ask it."
I wanted to tell her that the dog couldn't speak and would not respond, but I let her have her fun. I dug my hands into my pockets, sighing and walking over to the yard with her. I watched as she approached the gate, smiling at the surprisingly small dog on the other side of the fence. The thing was going crazy, yapping and yelping all over the place. I glanced at Cameron, who shrugged at me and looked back to her.
Kaitlyn bent over, cooing at the little dog. The dog head-bumped the gate, shoving it open and almost trampling over her. She stumbled backwards, landing on her behind. The dog approached her, aggressively biting at her face.
"Get off me!" Kaitlyn cried, flailing her limbs every which way.
"Oh!" I yelled, running over and grabbing the dog by its waist, pulling it off her.
Cameron sat beside her as I tossed the dog back into the yard, shutting the gate and holding it shut with my back. I let out a sigh of relief, looking over to my friends. Ben was screaming obscenities he was way too young to know frantically as Cameron and Kaitlyn talked on the cement.
"You okay?" I asked Kaitlyn, noticing a big bite on her cheek and another on her chin. She ran a hand through her hair, standing up with Cameron's help.
"I'm fine," She breathed. "That was crazy."
"Yeah," Cameron blinked, eyes wide. Cameron laced his fingers with Kaitlyn's, making a small grin at her. We kept walking.
"Wack," Evan looked dumbfounded.
"I know, right?"
"I brought someone too," Kaitlyn smiled, "wait here." She ran off, hair bouncing behind her.
"She seems nice," Evan gave me a thumbs up.
"She is. We used to be best friends when we were kids. Along with that other boy, Cameron, but I don't know what happened to him," I admitted.
I saw Kaitlyn dragging someone over, running at top speed. "I got 'em!" She projected.
"Who?" I squinted, trying to see who she was bringing over.
"Taylor!" Kaitlyn replied, now standing in front of Evan and I. Evan was holding onto me tightly. The man--who I assumed to be Taylor--had an arm around her.
"Hi," I reached out, shaking Taylor's hand. "Nice to meet you."
Taylor shook my hand gently, making a strange face at me. "Nice to meet you too, Lucas."
"How do you know my name?" I asked, letting go of Taylor's hand.
"Well, we used to be friends," Evan didn't lighten his hold on me. "Y'know, when we were kids?"
"I'm sorry, I don't remember you," I sighed in defeat, slightly embarrassed.
"It's me," he grabbed my hands again. "Cameron." He winced at that.
"Oh?" my voice raised like at the end of a question. "Are you going by Taylor now?" he nodded. "Why?"
"I'm-Well, I-I'm non-binary.. Bro.. Broski.. Brohemian Rhapsody," He mumbled.
"Oh," I pulled my hands away. "Alright. So 'they?'"
"Yeah." They shrugged, staying by Kaitlyn.
"Guys," Kaitlyn looked angry, staring down at her phone. "The police said they're dropping Ben's case."
"Can they even do that?" I asked, outraged. There's no way that this was allowed. Especially in the police force of this town. San Cu has some pretty good cops.
"I mean, apparently," Taylor commented.
"Why don't we do it?" Kaitlyn asked.
"What?" Evan, Taylor and I exclaimed.
"We can camp out at Ben's house tonight, look for clues," She continued. It didn't sound like a terrible idea.
"I don't know, man," Evan rubbed the back of his neck, returning his hands to my shoulders soon enough. "What if someone gets hurt?"
I turned to face my boyfriend, looking into his captivating brown eyes. "I'll do anything to find out who killed my friend, and have them thrown in jail until death do them part."
Evan blinked, running a hand through his blond hair. "I'll probably stay home," he huffed, "keep an eye on Arrow."
Arrow was our dog. We'd recently moved in together and adopted him. Arrow was a big german shepherd, and he was really friendly.
I nodded in affirmation. "Let's go, then."
