The Rumour

March 13th

Pressing the send button on my cell, I sighed, knowing that it was in vain.

After overhearing everything Kyle had said to Josh yesterday in the bushes, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. It was like a constant headache for the rest of yesterday, and in fact I had woken this morning with a terrible migraine, to go with my metaphorical headache.

Not feeling up to trekking to Owen’s, I attempted to call Oliver to come see me at my bedside, as he always did when I wasn’t feeling too good, but yet again, his phone was switched off. So now, I was texting him, in vain, asking where he was and what was going on. I assumed he was working, but whether he had been working all this time was questionable

Since I’d woken up, I’d been bombarding Oliver with my contact, but after half an hour I grew tired of it so I called Max instead.

“Hey Vi,” Max actually answered to my relief

“Hey Max, glad you actually picked up,” I croaked down the phone, smoothing my purple bedspread around my legs.

“You sound terrible are you okay?” A hint of welcomed worry.

“Not really, I’m ill, lonely, and have things I wanna talk about. Come see me?” I pleaded.

“Say no more Vi, I’ll be there in 10.”

“Love you Max,” I smiled.

“Love you too, Bye,”

With that he hung up.

I sat up in bed for the first time that morning, looking around my purple and black themed room. It was incredibly clean, since I was barely ever in it, except for a few of my Physics textbooks scattered across my carpet left over from the study session I attempted to hold to take my mind off Adam last night. The nuclear equations failed to hold my interest, and I ended up just lay out on my carpet, staring up at the white ceiling, thinking about how clean, pure, and simple it was.

If only life were that simple.

Climbing out of my warm haven also known as my bed, I gathered my textbooks and notes up into a pile and put them back in their corresponding black box under my bed, and plonked back down onto my carpet, drained and weak.

I dragged myself up, and trudged into the bathroom to roll a mountain of toilet tissue from it’s holder for my running nose. I think I have the flu or something; I feel that pathetically weak.

A few minutes later, my busy mother lets Max in, and my face lights up as he knocks lightly on my door.

“Come in Maxxie,” I call, watching him peek his head around the door and creeping in.

“Hey Vi,” He smiles, coming over to the bed to give me a hug. “Ronnie wanted to come over too, but I wouldn’t let him since you were ill,”

My face fell. “Oh Max you should have let him! I would have liked to have seen him,”

“Oh shit, sorry. I’ll get him to come over later. Anyway, are you okay?” He asked, stroking my puffy red face. “Have you been crying?”

“Yeah,” I admitted, wiping my nose. “Max, I overheard a conversation Kyle had with Josh yesterday. It scared me.”

Max looked worried, kicking off his shoes and climbing under the covers with me. I buried my head into his Jack Daniels t-shirt, pulling him back onto my pillow to lie with me as I sobbed messily into his shirt.

“Violet, I’m worried now darling what did they say? Was it about you?” Max consoled me, stroking the back of my head softly, cradling me.

“No it wasn’t about me,” I sobbed. “It was about Adam,” And with that he froze under my face.

“Tell me,” He whispered, as I lifted my head to look at him.

“You know Kyle’s dad’s the chief of the cops?” I asked, Max nodding. “Well, I heard Kyle saying to Josh that his dad is like, leading Adam’s death case and they did an autopsy - and proving it wasn’t suicide.” I cracked on the last word, gripping Max close to me and he clutched me tight in return, not saying a word, shushing me quietly.

“Some sick bastard murdered him, Max,” I cried hysterically, sobs catching in my throat and making me hiccup.

“Let it out baby,” Max kept repeating.

“It’s killing me, Max. I just want Adam’s memory to be laid to rest,”

--------

After I’d calmed down, and my mother had pulled her head out of her medical course on Cardiology and brought me some soup and Max his usual milk and cookies, we sat on my bed talking about other matters to take our mind off it, there was nothing we could do about it right now.

“Hey, promise not to tell anyone if I tell you this,” He lowered his voice and I leant in. He suddenly looked shifty and uncomfortable.

“You know Ronnie’s sister, Jenifer Radke? Well I found out that like, a month ago, give or take a day, she got raped,” Max gossiped. “Ronnie is really screwed up about it. Poor guy. She’s only 14,”

“Oh god, I had no idea. No wonder he’s so angry these days,”

“I know. He’s so torn up. They haven’t caught the culprit yet either. Kyle’s dad’s on that case too apparently.” Max took a bite of a cookie, brushing the crumbs it made off my bedspread. I enjoyed having Max’s company and I felt loads better now. Although of course I felt bad for Ronnie.

“When Ronnie comes over I’ll try cheer him up,” I smiled. “So I’m not allowed to say I know?”

“No, he told me and Sean in confidence, he doesn‘t want everybody to know. But you’re my best friend I tell you everything,” Max giggled.

“I know Maxxie I know,” I smiled, getting sick of my soup and stealing a cookie from his plate. “I’ll be more careful around Ronnie then. He doesn’t tend to get angry or aggressive with me that often anyway but still,”

“I know me too, but it’s probably best to be cautious. He’s an unpredictable guy,” Max took a swig of his milk, setting it down on the table, and I took this as a perfect opportunity to change the subject onto Oliver.

“Hey, there’s something else on my mind that I wanted to talk about you know,” I made eye contact with him, or at least tried to, but he was avoiding my gaze.

“S’up?” Max gave a short answer. This was beginning to look bad, and I was confused as to why.

“It’s Oliver. He’s acting really weird lately…his phone has been off since yesterday and I just don’t know what to do. It’s Valentine’s day tomorrow and he’s going on holiday the day after that…Do you know what’s up?” I pleaded Max with my eyes, begging to know what was going on. I was scared he was hiding something.

Max looked down at his now empty plate of cookies, vacant almost. He began. “No Vi, sorry. I can’t think of anything that might be wrong,”

Watching him silently, I nodded. I was sure he was legitimate about this, but suspicion could not help but creep out.

“Are you sure, Max?” I asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m scared,”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Max nodded, placing his plate on the floor. “I have to go, I’m sorry. My Mom wants me home,” He suddenly said, gathering his leather jacket up. I panicked. “Tell your Mom I said thanks for the cookies,”

And with that, Max Green walked out my bedroom door and out the house without another word, leaving me more dazed and confused as I was before he got here.