The Rumour

March 21st, a week later

The bus ride to Owen’s was a strange one. Walking around and being exposed to light was strange enough, but knowing I was going to see Oliver again, was strange in itself. Since I hadn’t seen him since he was studying for his Music final with Ronnie.

I’d been stuck in bed all week, trying not to think about Oliver. I’d texted him a few times, asking how Vancouver was, and that I wanted to talk to him when he got home. He hadn’t replied to a single one of them.

I was half excited to be at Owen’s again, half scared out of my wits to see Oliver. Would he reject me again?

I was also scared because I was going to confront Kyle about his conversation with Josh, in the bushes.

I had given it a great deal of thought, and had sought Lindsay’s advice as I always did. And I decided to ask him exactly what he knew, and how. He should have told us all anyway, he hasn’t even told Sydney, who should definitely know about this. I’m convinced he needs a good talking to about this, anyway.

I knew I had a lot to do, but I knew I could do nothing over the phone. For these important things, I had to do this in person. No matter how nervous I got.

I jumped off the bus, Owen’s overgrown greenery almost poking me in the eye as it hung over the iron fence, holding it in. I threw my bag onto my shoulders, took a deep breath, and began to take the walk to the clearing.

As I walked over the grass and the mud mounds, past the picnic benches, past the play park, nobody came running to me. Not Max, not Ronnie, not Kyle, not anybody. I didn’t even expect Oliver to run at me. He hadn’t done that for about a month.

When I reached the clearing, my heart leapt out of my ribcage. I saw Oliver, for the first time in weeks, sat on the grass talking with Max. Oliver had his back to me, and they seemed to be the only people here. Strange.

Max looked up past Oliver and saw me, flashing me a weak smile, as if he was expecting to see me, but didn’t want to. I frowned.

“Err, hi?” I almost questioned, approaching them.

“Hey Vi,” Max greeted me. I expected him to stand up and hug me like usual, but he didn’t. My insides bubbled with anger. What was being kept from me?

“Hi Oliver,” I squeaked, through the anger desperate to fly out of my mouth. He turned around, his brown eyes glistening with anything, something that I couldn’t read. Something other than joy to see me.

“Hello.” He said bluntly, and turned away, pulling his phone out of his pocket. I could have ripped his hair out now and then. I’d never met a more frustrating person in my life.

I walked over and sat in front of him, next to Max. “We need to talk. And you know we do.”

He looked up, dumbfounded. I suddenly didn’t care that Max was listening. “You know what I’m talking about, don’t shoot your fucking puppy dog eyes at me.” I growled, and I saw Max’s eyes widen at the corner of my eye.

“Fuck, calm down,” He muttered, his cocky side shining through. His true colours.

“Seriously Oliver, what the hell is going on with you? You’ve been avoiding me for the last few weeks, what’s up? What are you doing? Why didn’t you come see me before you went to Vancouver?”

“Slow down for fucks sake, I can’t answer all your fucking questions at once,” His eyes finally met with mine, an angry tint in them.

I curled my hands into balls, turning them into an angry fist. “You fucking owe me answers, Oliver! Do you even know the kind of week I’ve had? You don’t give a fuck, do you?!”

“Maybe I wanted to get away from you for a while, is there anything wrong with that?” His cocky side was glowing like the sun now. Max, just sat silent, his head shooting between us as if he were watching a tennis match.

“Well you could have told me, texted me or something!” I began to shout, earning the looks from passers by.

“I called last week before my holiday, besides, do I have to run everything by you?” Oliver glared, his eyes shrinking.

“Actually Oliver, I called you. And you should run things by me if it concerns me, surely?!” I began tearing out the grass beside me, my fists shaking while I pulled, taking my anger out on the grass. If I didn’t I was afraid I’d hurt someone.

“It’s my fucking life, Violet. Stop trying to control it, you‘re acting like a fucking psycho,” He sneered back.

“I am not! I would just like to know if you’re going to ignore me for a couple of weeks, or you could at least give me a decent reason why,” My voice broke, as hot, angry tears began to threaten to spill. I saw Sydney and Kyle walking through the gate at the other side of the park.

“Maybe we should go on a break,” Oliver muttered, turning back to his phone. I wanted to smash it, as I glared at it.

“Yeah, maybe we fucking should. You drive me crazy Oliver, and not just in the sense you’re doing now,” I choked, and stood up, my legs quivering. I’d never felt so angry in my life.

“Well it’s settled then” He said. And I would have just walked away then, until I saw a sly, satisfied smile spread across his face. I gasped.

“You asshole.” I snarled, my lips shaking violently. “Stay away from me,”

And with that, I finally did storm off.

It wasn’t just Oliver that got to me, It was Max, too. And even Josh. They were all acting weird with him, and I was convinced they knew something. I wanted to go back and interrogate Max, but I didn’t think I could look at Oliver’s cocky smirk again without shoving my fist at it.

The funny thing was, I wasn’t usually an angry person. I just think Oliver brought out the worst in me, at the worst of times. I slowed my fast-paced walk down a little, when I saw Kyle approach me, beaming as he always was. I would never know how he did that.

“Vi, I heard shouting. Is everything ok? Your face has gone all red.” Kyle stroked my face, and I remembered what I had to talk to him about. “Your face is hot, too.”

“I had an argument with Oliver.” I croaked, my throat hurting from the shouting.

“You should take it easy, you’ve only just recovered. You shouldn’t be getting yourself all hot and bothered,” Kyle pulled me into a hug, where a tear dropped onto his shirt. More an angry tear, than an upset one.

“I’ll be fine,” I sighed, expelling some of the fury.

“Yeah, I know you will,” Kyle smiled, holding me at arms length and keeping a grip of my shoulders while I calmed down. Now is the time to talk. I thought, as I saw Sydney go over to Max and him. I could barely think his name for fear of it irritating me again.

“Hey Kyle…” I started, sitting down on the grass, my back to him “Can I talk to you about something important?”

“Sure, shoot,” Kyle said, sitting in front of me, legs crossed.

I sighed, composing myself. My heart raced. It’s no big deal… I kept telling myself.

“Don’t hate me, but a few weeks ago, I overhead a conversation between you and Josh, in the bushes.” I squeaked. I didn’t look up into his big brown eyes for fear of him hating me.

“You know about Adam, don’t you?” Kyle’s disappointment shone through his tone of voice. He never sounded so glum, ever. I looked up, his permanent grin fading from his face.

“Yeah…” I admitted. My heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t fall out with Kyle, too…

“Okay.” He sighed. “Listen, there’s something important about that, that you should probably know.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Well my dad’s on Adam’s case, as you know. And the forensics’ had been doing some research…on his body…before he was buried.” He started

I nodded. Why did I feel like something bad was going to be said?

“And my Dad has kept this from me until I got over Adam. Which I’m really glad he did, considering what I’d been told. Which you already know. They proved it wasn’t suicide, Vi. And that somebody murdered him. And they’ve been doing some research on some possible suspects, naturally…”

“Yeah?” I urged him, getting more and more nervous by the second.

“They’ve pointed to all of us as suspects, basically.” Kyle squeaked.

I swear, just the second he said that, my heart stopped. How could it be one of us? How?

“But-” I stammered.

“They’re going to call us all in for questioning.” Kyle cut in.

I said nothing. I hadn’t processed the weight of this yet…

“We have to do this for Adam, Vi. Because if it was one of us, then they’ve betrayed us. I’ve given this a lot of thought. The killer doesn’t deserve to be our friend if they killed such a wonderful man for whatever reason. I mean, they’re not even sure if it was one of us yet. But according to their research, it’s highly likely that it was one of us.”