The Trees Smell Like Lemons

23. Beautiful at nightfall

"Make yourself comfortable," Bea told Adam as they entered the house, "I'll be downstairs in a minute." She dashed upstairs to change out of her ratty old t-shirt and into a pretty, yellow blouse, pausing to check her reflection in the mirror. She still looked pale but the dark shadows under her eyes were less pronounced than in recent weeks. She headed back downstairs and found Adam sitting up straight on the sofa, hands clasped against his knees. His back was to the stairs, so Bea crept forwards and whispered loudly in his ear, "You can lean back you know, I promise you won't break it."

To her delight, Adam jumped in surprise. She so rarely managed to catch him off guard. He glared at her, but also leaned back as she sat down next to him with her bag. She pulled out the yearbooks.

"I have the yearbooks from my year, Sara's, and the year above hers. I'll start with Sara's year, and you can look through the year above." Bea handed him the yearbook. She also pulled out a notebook and a couple of pens. "I've got to return these to the library so if you find anyone with the initials A.H write it down." She ripped out a page and handed it to Adam.

"Can't I look through your year?" Adam pretended to pout.

"Why?"

Adam shrugged, "I want to see what activities you used to do."

"Liar," Bea narrowed her eyes, "You want to look at my picture."

"Excuse me?" Adam placed a hand on his chest and feigned innocence.

Bea rolled her eyes at his attempt of humour, the corners of her mouth curling slightly. "Alright let's get this over with." She opened her own yearbook and found her picture. "Now don't laugh, it's the worst picture in the world but it wasn't my best either."

Adam studied the picture, his lips pursed. "Hmm I'd give that a seven out of ten. Good job."

"Ha! Good job? Thanks, I really appreciate your honesty."

"Hey now enough of that sass, we've got work to do." Adam picked up his assigned task and set to work.

They didn't talk much as they leafed through the yearbook pages, Adam occasionally pointed out funny pictures. Bea finished looking through the student pictures and while she was waiting for Adam, turned to the front of the book. It wasn't hard to find lots of pictures with Sara in them. Group photos, school events and even pictures sent in by students. Everyone had loved Sara because she was one of those people you couldn't help but like. She was kind, funny and could be incredibly charming when she wanted to be.

"I've finished looking through this one," Adam interrupted her reverie.

"Great, how did you do? I only found two people in her year with those initials."

"I've got seven."

"Are you kidding? That's a lot. You were looking through the yearbook for the class that just graduated. It will take us ages to track them all down, they don't even go to our school anymore."

"Just to clarify, were we including girls in this?"

Bea looked at him, trying to decide if he was serious. "We're looking for someone who got Sara pregnant. I'm just curious Adam, how exactly do you think babies are made?"

"When a mummy and a daddy love each other very much-" Adam cut off laughing as Bea punched him in the arm. "Okay! I'm only joking calm down. I didn't find any boys with those initials. Lots of A's and lots of H's but none together."

"Okay well I guess it was a long shot anyway. Let's look through my yearbook together."

Adam shuffled closer to her on the sofa so they could both look at the pages. Bea found it hard to concentrate, every so often she felt his breathe tickle the side of her neck.