My Best Friend's Funeral

CHAPTER 28

   “What are you doing here?” I asked walking in. “Nothing” he replied and shut one of the drawers back into the dresser. “Looking for something?” I asked again. “Nothing” something was wrong. I could sense it. “Why are you sweating?” “what’s with all the questions?” he fired back. “Answer me” “you first” “cut it out!” Paul said marching in. “Tell her” William said. “What are you hiding?” I asked him. He leaned against the dresser and said “nothing” . “Show me “ “Who are you? The FBI?” “what are you so afraid of bro? Just put your hands up” Paul said stepping towards William. “Stand back. You both are not supposed to be here” he said angrily. “Jesus! Remind me why I kissed a freak?” I said and buried my face in my hands. “Cheryl!” Paul exclaimed. “What?” “you are unbelievable” he said shaking his head. “Okay bye” “Whoa! William, you are not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on” I said banging one foot. “I'm not speaking” he said and took two steps backwards. “Fine. We do it the hard way” “yes” Paul agrees. “Cher, what’s the hard way?” he whispers to me. “I'll show you. Lock the door” I commanded. After Paul locked the door I said to William, “Tell me now” “it’s nothing” “why are your hands behind you?” “my wish!” “show me!” I screamed and plunged at him. “Get off me” William said again and again but little did he know, I work out. With all my strength I pushed him towards the window, little harder and he would’ve fallen out. While he was trying to balance himself I pulled his hand and snatched whatever he was holding.

“A diary?” Paul asked raising an eyebrow. “It’s no ordinary diary Paul. It’s Jake’s diary” I said looking at the initials on the cover. “Why do you have it?” I demanded holding William by the collar. “Calm down Cheryl” I looked behind William, at Jake’s tensed look. “I won’t hurt him if he answers” “Fine! Since the time grandpa died, Jake’s been keeping this diary. He never kept one before. He never let anyone touch, nor  would he write in it if anyone was around. He never let his long time girlfriend even ask about it. Now that he isn’t here anymore, I finally got a chance to see what my brother was hiding from everyone he loved” “you can’t touch my stuff just because I'm dead!”Jake yelled. “Stop yelling” I said clearly irritated that I didn’t find the diary first. “Nobody is yelling” William pointed out. “You zip it” I said pointing a finger at him. “You hold this” I said to Paul and tossed the diary to him. “Let go Cheryl” William said and help my wrist tightly. “Give me back the diary” he ordered. “No” I retorted. “I'm asking nicely Cher-” “no!” I said again. He tightened his grip on my wrist. “No William Wellings” I said furiously and punched him in the face. William fell flat to the ground. “Cheryl!” Paul exclaimed and pulled me back. “Wh-why is he so..so..still?” I stammered. “Wait” Paul said and knelt down beside Will. He pressed one finger at side of his throat and said “No pulse” .

“You killed my brother?” Jake shouted kneeling beside William. How does he appear out of nowhere? “No..no..I just punched him” “we saw the punch Cheryl, but you didn’t see how hard his head hit the floor” Jake said angrily. “Jake listen” I began but seeing his face turn red with rage I decided shutting up would be the best idea at the moment. “He can’t be dead. You hit like a girl” Paul said thinking hard. “You choose now to taunt me?” I ask in disbelief. “He’ll wake up” Paul said and stood up. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Positive” He said and handed me the diary. “He’s just saying that to make you feel better” Jake said and lounging on the bed. “I thought you were mad at me” I said walking towards him. “Nah, my anger is a onetime thing. I'm cool. He’ll wake up”. “I thought I'd be used to this but I'm not. You speaking to walls equals to freaky” Paul said. “Let’s see what’s in the diary” “Whoa! The owner of that diary is right here” ignoring Jake, I opened the diary and sat next to Paul on the bed. “What does the first page say?” Paul asked inquisitively. “Well, he wrote it the day after my birthday”. This is what his diary said:

  Girls are so difficult to understand. After being such good friends with Cheryl for so many years still don’t get her. How could she tell me to stop talking to her? Something’s wrong. I spoke to mother about it, but she didn’t seem surprised

“That’s because she’s the reason I stopped talking to you” I scoffed. “I heard your conversation with uncle Matthew” Jake said softly. “You little eavesdropper” I gasped. “Spare me the drama and read on” Paul said peeping in the diary. I skipped the first ten pages which were about how much he missed his best friend (me) and about his girlfriend and their break up and blah blah blah. “Wait!” Paul said pointing to the top right corner of a page. “Read the date” “23rd November 2013, so?” “Didn’t uncle Matthew tell you that Jake’s grandpa died last year?” “yes, he did. But Will said that Jake kept the diary after he died, but this diary was kept for quite a long time. Care to explain?” I asked turning to face Jake. “I kept the diary since  after your 18th birthday drama. Didn’t update it every day. But after Grandpa died, things started happening. Thins I couldn’t understand. No one could. That’s when I started writing again” “go on Cheryl” Paul urged.” He is one book lover” I said to myself.

    Old Grandpa passed away last week. According to me, happy people don’t deserve to die. Anyways, I know he is  in a much happier place. What I don’t get is, why Is his will missing? Once he had told me “After a person dies, people care about one and one thing only. His will”. William asked me if I knew where it was but I didn’t. I was the closest to grandpa and so was he to me. But he never really told me all his secrets like I did. I just wish people stop worrying about the will. I mean, they found half of it. Isn’t that enough?

“That’s it!” I said shutting the diary. “What’s ‘it’?” Jake and Paul asked together. “The will guys. The will is the answer to your murder” I said jumping up. “You are jumping to conclusions” they said. “No! I am not jumping to conclusions. Hear me out – Like grandpa said, the will is the one thing people care about. Now, why would William be interested in the Will?” I asked them kneeling next to William, who was unconscious. “Uncle Matthew mentioned that grandpa was filthy rich. He had only you guys left Jake. Obviously, he left his estate to his grandkids.  There is a possibility that someone found the will or killed you for it” “but why me?” he asked, confused. “You were closest  to him and the favorite one is always in favor” .