Dead at 15

The best thing about school was leaving it, but that of course, meant I had to go home. Having my mother possibly (depended on her mood) smothering me all afternoon was just painful. I couldn’t even watch TV without her hovering over me – I didn’t even like to do homework in the house. Actually, I rarely did my homework at all anyway. So in effort to postpone unnecessary ‘mothering’, I’d ditch the bus and walk to Killer’s to kill a few hours. Their thick shakes were good enough to kill for – ha ha, so funny, I know. Man my jokes suck. I went there almost every day. It was my only sanctuary, depressing much? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were cameras in my room but I regularly checked. I wouldn’t put it past my parents.

“Hey Timmy,” I called to the reasonably tall guy behind the counter. He looked up and smirked. His smile never ever reached his eyes for some reason, none of my business though. Everyone has their own story and I think that it should remain their own story unless it’s actually relevant to someone else. In this case, it wasn’t, so I steered clear.

“December. How’s it going? The usual?” I nodded and one of his blue eyes disappeared behind an eyelid to wink at me. Timmy must’ve been about twenty-six or twenty-seven. I didn’t understand why he worked there of all places though. He seemed like a pretty smart dude.

“School was shit,” I said, taking a seat on a stool at the counter, putting my bag on another.
“And you expected anything better?” I sighed and rested my head on my palm.
“Good point. It’s such a waste of time for me really.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Teachers are either too scared or too sympathetic to give me proper help and the kids are all shitheads anyway.”
“So you’ve said.” And he set my large chocolate thick shake with vanilla swirl topped with cream, chocolate shavings and Reese’s Pieces, down in front of me – with an extra long spoon so that I could dig out the Reese’s of course. He always put Reese's in specially, considering I spent so much of my pocket money there. That was one good thing about my parents, still got the pocket money.

“Ugh. Sorry dude. I’ll shut up now.” He smiled at me then brushed a few strands of brown hair out of his eyes. Then it clicked. “Nice haircut. Was Zac Efron upset when you stole it?” He quickly checked no one was looking before sticking his tongue out at me. I laughed before flipping him off and starting on my thick shake.

***

“Today class, we have a new student. His name is Thomas Jones and he’s transferred…” I tuned out. Homeroom was rarely interesting enough to keep me entertained, so I began thinking about September, the bitchy one. I wouldn’t get more out of October’s case no matter how hard I tried so it was time to move on. How old was I when she died? Eleven. I remembered that she – BRIIIING!!
“Fucking bell,” I muttered under my breath.

***

Where was I? Oh yeah, September tried giving me those damn flowers! It was lunchtime and I was sitting underneath a shady tree with my notebook out in front of me. I kept tapping it impatiently with my pen, trying to remember anything out of the ordinary that happened that night. She had a –
“Hi! I’m Tommy, can I sit with you?” I let out a frustrated sigh and lifted my gaze to the boy’s face only inches away from my own. I jumped back in surprise, hitting my head on the trunk of the tree in the process. I glared at him.

“What?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head.
“Can I sit down?” His blue eyes were twinkling and his teeth were so white they almost blinded me. He had fairly a fairly good complexion with only a couple of minor pimples and light freckles that dotted his nose. He had dimples in both cheeks only accentuating his freakish smile. His brown hair was naturally streaked with caramel and was cut quite choppy in the front.

“Uh, it’s a free country isn’t it?” I answered then looked back down at my notebook, trying to ignore the certain-someone staring at me as I heard him sit down. I slowly turned my head around to face the boy. “What? Is there something on my face?” I snapped. I mean, Mount Vesuvius had erupted on my forehead this morning to my intense annoyance. He chuckled and shook his head.

“Nope.”
“Then why are you staring at me?”
“You didn’t tell me your name!” I hit my forehead with my hand. You havegot to be kidding me.
“December…” I said through gritted teeth.
“December? Like the month? Is it a nickname or -”
“Look. My name is actually December. I’m fourteen. I do not have friends and you are really, really annoying!” Oh my God, he was still smiling.
“Well I’m Thomas! But everybody calls me Tommy. I’m fifteen and my parents died in a car crash three weeks ago.”
“That’s great – wait, what?”
“You do like to say ‘what’ a lot don’t you? And yeah, my parents and one of my brothers died. That’s why I moved here!”
“You know when you first meet someone, it’s not considered ‘appropriate’ to talk about how your family’s dead – especially not three weeks afterward. Most people take ages to recover.” He thought about this for a bit.
“Hm…I don’t get it,” he said. This guy was fucking me right off.
“Fine! Hi, I’m December and eleven of my sisters died on their fifteenth fucking birthdays! Oh and I’m next! Ha, ha. Great isn’t it? Now do us both a favor and FUCK OFF!” I shouted, my face red. I turned back to my notebook and waited for Tommy to leave. He didn’t. Five minutes later and he was still sitting there. Fuck it.
September was going out with her boyfriend that night…what’s his name? Matthew! He lived

“What are you doing?” A voice said loudly in my ear and I winced.
“Go away,” I replied flatly. I turned to watch his eyes scanning the page.
“So…is September your sister?” He asked.
“Yeah. Well she was. How did you guess?”
“What else would your sisters be called? December’s not exactly a common name and eleven of them died and stuff…yeah. It adds up.”
“Huh…well done. What do you want? A medal?”
“Nope! I asked you a question.” I sighed.
“What I’m doing, right?” He nodded, smiling again. “Well, basically I’m trying to find a serial killer.” A curious expression graced his features. “I sound like a bad version of Nancy Drew don’t I? But like I said earlier, my sisters were all killed on their fifteenth birthdays…”

I didn’t know why, but I explained it all to him. Maybe it was because no one ever talked to me voluntarily anymore. Maybe it was because there was no way that he was linked to the whole fiasco, no matter how annoying the stupid boy was, everyone else in town knew about the ‘Lambert Curse’ and he didn’t. Either way, I didn’t care.
“So who’s this Matthew guy?” Tommy asked.
“Sister’s boyfriend. He’d be a senior now, not too hard to find.”
“Should we look for him now then?”
“Come again? We?”
“Yeah! This is way more exciting than letting loose the science rats in the cafeteria.” I raised an eyebrow and he quickly turned his head. “I mean, that doesn’t matter, but you’re trying to solve a murder!”
“Murders,” I corrected.
“Exactly! Now where do we find him?”
“Tommy. Calm down. Seriously, you’re worse than a seven year old on Pixy Stix. And we only have a few minutes of lunch left anyway. I’ll go round to his place later, on my own.”
“You know where he lives? Google’s getting really good now isn’t it?”
“You idiot. In case you haven’t noticed. This isn’t New York City. It’s tiny okay? I went to elementary school with nearly everyone here. Everybody knows everybody okay? Well…by surname at least.”
“So…where do I meet you after school?” Tommy asked.
“Out here. Okay?” I said as the bell rang. “Bye.” He’s not going to be there. The kid’s attention span seems short enough as it is.

***

“Oh my God, he’s actually going to follow me round...” I muttered in disbelief as I strode over to the smiling brunette boy.
“Hey December. Ha! I still can’t believe your name’s De-”
“Well I can’t believe you won’t shut up. Now zip it or forget following me. Now Matt won’t be home till later I think so we’ll go get something to drink first. Okay?”
“Yes ma’am!” And he saluted me.
“You’re way too cheerful for someone whose family just died.” I expected another one of his random outbursts of…whatever it is, unnecessary positivity? Instead his face fell and his eyes darkened.

“We all have to keep up appearances don’t we?” He said in a low whisper. My eyebrow lifted slightly at the change of character. “I have my secrets. I won’t try to get into your head if you don’t try to get in mine. Deal?” I nodded slowly, still a little bewildered by how bi-polar he just went. Tommy clicked his neck then smiled at me again. Congrats December, you’re a psycho magnet! “Are we going now?” He asked with a smile that just seemed plastic now.
“…Yeah.”
“Cool.” I guess that some people just have a funny way of dealing with grief. I was in no position to judge even if his little moment was just a tiny bit, well, scary.

***

“My brother works here!” Tommy exclaimed as we approached Killer’s.
“Are you sure?” I asked him. It’s not like he was the most reliable kid – I could already tell, but he nodded anyway so I shrugged and we walked inside.
“Hey December. School any less shit today? Wait, Tommy? What are you doing here?” Timmy asked, frowning slightly. I grabbed a seat at the counter and chuckled lightly.
“You guys are brothers?” They both nodded as I finally noticed the resemblance between the two – brown hair, blue eyes, dimples… “Your parents had a sense of humor then. Timmy and Tommy, pft!”
“There’s Tony too,” Timmy pointed out.
“And Terry. Terry’s the one how was with Mom and Dad when it happened,” Tommy explained.
“Here I was thinking that my family’s names gave me a headache,” I said, rubbing my temples dramatically.
“Shake then Cember?” Timmy suggested.
“Good idea.”

***

I rang the doorbell and used my ‘telepathy’ to send waves of shut-your-goddamn-face-and-let-me-do-the-talking to Tommy. He smiled, giving me a full view of all his luminous teeth, before turning back to Matthew Davies’ front door. I brushed my fingers through my fringe and the door swung open to reveal a petite blond woman with pearls around her neck and a smiling face.
“Hello dears. Are you friends of Matt from school?” She asked.
“Not exactly, Mrs Davies. I’m December and this is…actually, never mind who he is.” Her mouth set in a hard line.
“Oh. Okay, well he’s upstairs, first door on the right and um, if you’re going to talk to him about ‘what happened’ try not to upset him too much please. He’s been through enough as it is.” I nodded understandingly but with no reassuring expression.
“Thank you Mrs Davies. We shouldn’t be too long.”
“That’s okay dear. Go on up.”

***

“Hello Matt,” I said as I entered the guy’s room with Tommy trailing behind me. It was pretty much what I expected. Clothes on the floor, computer, football shit in the corner etc. The blond boy was lying face down on his bed when we entered but he’d turned his head slightly from his pillow to look at me with an empty expression.

“December, right?” He asked.
“Yeah. By the way, don’t mention the nickname. I’m not too fond of it.”
“What’s the nickname?” Tommy whispered loudly. I rolled my eyes before taking a seat on Matt’s desk chair. Matt chuckled lightly, however the laugh was severely lacking enthusiasm.
“Everyone calls her ‘Living Dead Girl’,” he said and I glared at him.

“Yeah, thanks so much for that, Matthew,” I replied sarcastically.
“So what are you, like, doing here anyway, Little Lambert?” He asked in a sickly condescending tone. Bastard.
“You remember my sister September right?” He rolled over to face the wall. I’d struck a nerve. Good. “Yeah, I kind of figured you would since you guys used to date and all. Weren’t you with her just before she died?”
“What are you getting at?!”
“Nothing but now we’re on the same page. I just wanna know a few things about that night.”
“Didn’t you read the papers?” Matt asked hoarsely.
“Of course I did. You didn’t exactly give any interviews though, just a police statement I believe and I can’t be bothered going to get it. You can just tell me what happened. It’ll be much quicker. Start from where you guys left my house.” The room went silent for a few moments. Well, silent apart from Tommy who was rummaging through the contents of Matt’s closet.

“We left your house, went through the park ‘cause that’s the quickest way. She didn’t wanna go over that bridge. The stream was, like, full ‘cause of the rain but it was only a few feet across. She wouldn’t, like, let go of my arm till we were at my place. I gave her a necklace thing for her birthday and then…she left.”
“You don’t know why she didn’t take the long way home?” I asked. I watched him shake his head.
“No.”
“She was acting normally though? Apart from the whole ‘water’ thing.” That wasn’t an issue. I knew she couldn’t swim and that stream’s bad at the best of times. The underwater current was strong enough to sweep someone under and drown them, no matter what the depth of the water.

“Yeah,” he said then sniffled.
“Did you guys pass anyone on the way to your place?” He shook his head into his pillow.
“Okay. Well thanks Matt,” I said, getting up and pulling Tommy out of the closet. Matt suddenly sat up and walked over to his desk and pulled out a drawer. He lifted up a bit of cardboard, perhaps a false bottom, and then pulled out a thin chain of silver with a small heart locket on the end of it. He held it out to me.

“Take it. She should’ve been buried with it…but they gave it back. I want you to have it. It’s just…”
“Not healthy to have around?” Tommy asked and Matt nodded.
“Yeah.” I took the cold silver in my hand, clenching my fingers around it.
“C’mon Tommy. Take care, Matt,” I said as he flopped back down on his bed, tears glistening in his eyes. Now I couldn’t say that wasn’t weird, seeing a guy so close to crying.

We left his room and closed the door.
“So…what now?” Tommy asked as we went down the staircase.
“We’re going back to my place for dinner, do some digging there…and then we’re going to pay my uncle a visit.”
“Oh. Okay. Who’s your uncle?” I laughed.
“Uncle Tom. How ironic? Now let’s go, Loser.”