The Rumour

March 12th

“Do you think Oliver will be here today?” I asked, jumping off the bus, hand in hand with Lindsay.

“I hope so, and I hope he’s there ready to apologise to you,” Lindsay grimaced, and squeezed my hand lightly, trying to give me at least just an ounce of hope.

The weather today was surprisingly cool, a big grey cloud hanging over Owen’s and the surrounding area of Long beach like a curse. It felt different, just like yesterday did, tension hung in the air but this time, a layer of underlying moisture hung dangerously close to my head…

Walking into Owen’s, it’s lush greenery a pleasing sight for my eyes, I spotted Kyle’s unmissable spiky hair from across the park, flailing lightly in the wind. An image of Kylie the drag queen (as he named himself last night after we’d dressed him up) flashed into my mind as he spotted Lindsay and I and of course, began to bound up to us, arms out stretched and grinning his wonderfully mischievous grin.

“Hey Kylie,” I giggled, standing on my tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. “I see you managed to scrub that horrific green eye shadow off,”

“Only just,” Kyle cringed.

“I have picture proof that your new alter-ego Kylie exists,” I raised an eyebrow, expecting a diva style reaction.

“I’ll have to be careful around you now, you can use those pictures for blackmail,” Kyle smiled.

“Don’t put ideas into her head,” Lindsay joked, nudging me with her hip. I laughed, and pulled myself back to the reality of why I was here.

“Is Oliver here?” I asked Kyle tentatively, stretching my eyesight to the group spread out on the horizon.

“Yeah, he’s fucking about with Josh,” Kyle nodded, a hint of hope in his eyes as well as mine. “Go talk to him, I’ll distract Josh.”

Nodding, I began to walk with Kyle and Lindsay toward the spread of kids sprawled out on the green, trying desperately to soak up the random outbursts of sunlight that broke through the clouds. I spotted Oliver tackling Josh by the ankles, and Josh falling to the floor with his infectious cackle, wiggling free of Oliver. I also saw Sydney, Ronnie, and Sean, sprawled out randomly in the small patches of sun. I saw Max stood under the tree in the shade, watching Oliver and Josh with an amused look on his face. I approached Josh and Oliver's forms, flailing and laughing on the floor, Kyle by my side. I panicked for something to say.

“Hey Oliver, we need to talk,” I said simply.

“Yeah, and Josh, I need to talk to you,” Kyle stood with his hands on his hips. I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

They looked up at us both as if we were teachers back in school telling them to stop being reckless idiots and get up off the floor. They stood up, brushing themselves off, and I could feel the rest of the group staring at Kyle and I behind my back.

“Sure, Kyle what’s up?” Josh piped up, smiling, trying to break the awkward silence.

“In private,” Kyle muttered, grabbing the sleeve of his white grass-stained t-shirt and pulling him off toward Adam’s bench. Oliver and I stood staring at each other, but he avoided my gaze.

“I gotta talk to Max,” He muttered hastily, pushing past me to get to Max who was stood against a tree at the other side of the clearing. I stood watching him with my mouth open, and I could feel Sydney, Ronnie and Sean staring up at me in disbelief, not understanding. I saw Lindsay’s fists curl up into balls out the corner of my eye and she began to stalk toward Max and Oliver.

“Lindsay leave it,” my breath got caught up in my mouth. I walked over to them, a tear escaping from my eye just as they began to walk away, back toward the iron gate entrance.

“Oli why are you doing this? What have I done wrong?!” I shouted after him, receiving a glance I couldn’t read from Max who walked reasonably fast beside Oliver. Oliver didn’t even look back, as they stalked out of the park, disappearing behind the fence.

Mouth still hung open, I sobbed, and let myself collapse on the floor. Ronnie, Sydney, Lindsay and Sean rushed to my side, cradling me as I just stared at the ground, questions and confusion rushing around in my head. I felt Ronnie’s muscular arms around my waist, and Sydney wiping the tears away with the sleeve of her pink hoodie. I heard voices, asking me questions but my mouth just stayed hung open.

“I need to be alone to think,” I whispered, and everyone got off me except Ronnie, who cradled me softly a little more before lightly kissing my temple and letting me go off on my own.

I walked slowly toward Adam’s bench, tears rolling down my cheeks and splashing on the front of my converse. I pulled a handful of leaves off a nearby bush in frustration and let out a cry of anger, before taking a deep breath and letting the leaves fall to the floor. I forced myself to think about my options, the only one popping into my head was leaving Oliver. Which I didn’t wanna do. So I pushed my way through the bushes, intending to just sit in one alone and undisturbed.

This was until I heard voices. I crouched down, moving carefully toward the sound of familiar voices, trying my best not to rustle the branches.

I remembered that Kyle had dragged Josh over here to talk to him, so I tuned in, interested.

“…How can you be sure? I mean, it might be just a Rumour.” I heard Josh speak.

“My dad’s the chief of police, Josh. He’s on this case, and the autopsy said that it wasn’t suicide” Kyle stressed, I stopped breathing. Oh my god. They couldn’t be talking about Adam.

“How come you only know this now, after Adam’s body had been cremated?” Josh spoke again, clearly as shocked as I was. They were talking about Adam.

“’cos my dad wanted to wait until I stopped crying over Adam,” Kyle admitted. Poor Kyle…“But the cops are dead sure of this one, Josh. Which means he must have been murdered. There is no other way.”

I heard Josh sigh, and a little bit of movement outside the bush I crouched in.

“So Humpty Dumpty got pushed?” Josh confirmed.

“It seems so,” Kyle sighed.

Oh god