Of Thieves And Do Gooders

“You…son of a bitch,” I muttered glaring at the monster that inhabited the floor at that particular moment. “If you don’t get out of the way I swear to God I’m going to stomp on you,” I threatened, pointing my finger to emphasize my threat.

The tarantula didn’t budge, it simply crept ever-so-slightly toward the open doorway and then sat there. Blocking my exit. I swore under my breath, I knew I wasn’t actually going to stomp on it, it would make the nastiest sound and get gunk all over the floor and my shoes. No thank you.

It was blocking my only exit. I took a step to the side of it hoping maybe that it wouldn’t move anymore. I froze when it turned briskly to watch me, reminding me of an oversized jumping spider. “Oh hell no,” I murmured, backpedaling several steps before stopping to glare at the creature again.

I yelped and stepped back a few more steps as the tarantula followed me, its creepy eight legs thumped against the ground in quick movements and I shivered in disgust. “Hey. Don’t even,” I warned, pointing a finger at the tarantula. I took a step back and almost tripped over myself as I turned to run.

The goddamn thing was chasing me.

“Shit!” I shouted, hopping quickly and clumsily onto my bed and standing on it, watching horrified as the tarantula followed quickly after me.

My heart leapt into my throat and I somehow managed to gain enough of my wits to leap onto Hayden’s bed and stand there once the tarantula had followed me onto my bed. “Ha! Douche bag!” I exclaimed triumphantly when the spider hesitated.

I gasped and stumbled off of the bed I was on when the tarantula leapt forward and smacked against the side of the bed. What the hell was wrong with this thing? I fell flat on my back and scrambled to my feet, before the spider could jump on me while I was down and rushed to the door, slamming it shut behind me.

I heaved a breath of relief. “Jesus,” I exclaimed, patting my pockets until I found my iPod and popped in my headphones. Just before I hit “shuffle songs” I heard a strange scraping sound and turned with a frown on my face. What the hell was that?

I almost screamed like the girl I was when I saw the goddamn spider fighting to make it under the door and into the hallway. The damn thing was stalking me! Somebody had sent a hit man spider after me!

I bolted down the hallway, down the stairs and only slowed to a walk when the dining room doors were in view. I huffed and searched through my music until I found the track I wanted.

“So sick of the hobos
Always beggin’ for change
I don’t like how I gotta work
And they just sit around and get paid.”

“I hate my job, all of my rich friends, I hate everyone ‘til the bitter end,” I sang softly, bobbing my head as I walked at a leisurely pace to the dining room.

Once I pulled open the door I froze, noticing that everyone in the room turned to look at me--no, they weren’t looking at me they were glaring at me. That was a little harsh, I mean I knew I was the new kid, but everyone was glaring at me. What did I do?

I looked directly at Headmaster Wilkins and grinned sheepishly as he stared me down, “Mr. Frost. I don’t believe anyone informed you, but diner is to be served at exactly eight, we wait until everyone has arrived before eating.” He sounded serious, which kept me from grinning anymore.

“Sorry,” I said loudly enough so that he could hear me and then slinked over to my seat, pretending to look embarrassed. Honestly, I didn’t care much if everyone else had to wait to eat because I was late, I thought it was funny. Even Leon was glaring at me, of course, I assumed his hunger was glaring at me, not him specifically.

“Mr. Jager? You had an announcement?” Headmaster Wilkins offered, waiting for Mr. Jager to speak.

“Oh yeah.” The younger teacher stood up, his neon green soul patch catching my eye instantly. He reminded me of Zack from Dead Or Alive 3, and the thought pulled a small smile onto my lips. Mr. Jager cleared his throat and then said, “As you all know. Juniors and Seniors at the school were supposed to run through scuba diving lessons with me today. But, Mrs. Lilany’s exam was higher on the priority list. So. Scuba diving will be moved to Monday afternoon. Don’t forget your wetsuits and gear. That’s it.” Mr. Jager turned his attention to the Headmaster.

“This weekend is a free weekend. So, feel free to go into town, but stay within the state, if you would. That will be all.” The Headmaster waved his hand in dismissal and the students cheered, but I wasn’t sure why.

“Hey, what’s the big deal about…?” I had begun to ask Leon, but he was already stuffing his mouth with food. So I turned to Damion on my other side and repeated, “What’s the big deal about the weekend?”

Damion grinned at me, clearly excited about the mentioning of the weekend. “It’s a free weekend, that means we get to leave the school to do stuff. Sometimes the weekend includes extra assignments for juniors or seniors, but no one does anything this weekend. It’s amazing, everyone looks forward to them,” he explained, his excitement showing through.

“Hey, Hayden? What are we gonna do? Go get something to eat? Go to the beach? Pick up some chicks somewhere?” Leon asked through a mouthful of food.

I grimaced and pushed up on his jaw when he let his mouth hang open, noticing my disgust.

“I don’t know. We’ll just go into town and see what happens. You comin’ Raymond?” Hayden asked, although he was loading his plate with food from the dishes in front of him.

“I…umm…Nah, I don’t think so. I got something I got to do. Thanks though,” I replied, thinking of the things I had to do while I was in town. I would need some more guy-like clothing and other supplies…ones guys wouldn’t need. I pondered where I would hide said objects and decided my underwear drawer was my best bet…hmm, speaking of which I’d probably need some boxers to stuff in there, so it at least looked like I owned a pair.

Besides necessary things, I wanted to do one more thing. Something I hadn’t done in awhile. And honestly I was starting to feel really bad about it.

“Alright, whatever. But if you need us, we’ll be in town. Here, Dame? Give Raymond your cell.” Hayden waved to Damion and Damion shrugged, handing over his cell phone to me, apparently he didn’t use it often. “Call us,” Hayden said, now stuffing food into his mouth.

“Sure, sure,” I agreed, stuffing the phone into my pocket and pushing as much food as possible into my mouth at a time. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until that moment. Let me tell you now, chicken and jell-o, do not mix well.

Dinner passed and left me in a giddy state. Maybe it was because Damion, Leon and Hayden joked around so much and threw off a happy vibe. Or maybe it had something to do with the twelve chocolate chip cookies I had eaten for dessert. You can never tell.

Nonetheless, I made my way back to the room I shared with Hayden, him following behind me as we bid goodnight to Damion and Leon. Although I was in a giddy state, I didn’t forget about that damn spider and already hit Damion over the head a few times for leaving the thing on my bed. I was a little jumpy, but once the lock was turned and Hayden was trying to sleep, I calmed down. Content in telling myself the spider was gone as I fell asleep.

__________________________________________________

I woke up the next morning with a bounce in my step and a grin on my face. It was the weekend! I hummed to myself as I walked into the bathroom with an armful of clothes, dropped them on the counter, walked back out, grabbed a small boom box that was sitting on the floor by the door, grabbed my iPod and walked back in, turning the lock. I used my iPod attachment, glad that the boom box was a newer model and switched it to my shower mix.

I whistled casually and paused, listening to Hayden’s deep snoring from the other room. I turned the boom box as loud as it could go and with a single delicate finger hit “play”.

Instantly, I heard the familiar peppy song that got me up in the morning.

“You put the boom boom into my heart! You send my soul sky-high when your lovin’ starts. You put the gray skies outta my way…!” I sang loudly as I danced my way to the shower, knowing that Hayden could probably barely hear me, therefore I could sing as badly as I wanted.

I was almost unable to hear the pounding on the bathroom door and grinned as I heard Hayden shout, “RAYMOND!! TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!”

I strode over to the door and shouted back, “You’re not a Wham Fan?” I asked loudly, sounding confused and then danced my way back to the shower, singing along again, “WAKE ME UP! Before you go-go! Don’t leave me hangin’ on like a yo-yo!” I snickered and hopped into the warm water.

By the time I was done in the shower three more songs had already played, consisting of What I Like About You by The Romantics, Bicycle Race by Queen and What I Got by Sublime. I turned the volume down to a low thrum of which I hummed to as I got dressed in my loose clothes of the day.

The moment I stepped out of the bathroom, I let out a sound between a yelp and a shout. Hmm, let me put it like this, I sounded like a dog that was in the middle of yelping but then got kicked in the ribs so it couldn’t quite finish. The reason being that someone tackled me to the ground so I hit my head on the bathroom door, rolled to the front door and hit my head on that too.

“Ow!” I protested, managing to get one of my arms free--since both of them had been pinned at my side--and pounded my fist on Hayden’s back. Hayden let go of me long enough to grab my iPod and run out the front door yelling something like, “I GOT IT!!”

There was cheering in the hallway. That was odd.

I blinked in confusion, registered that I had just been mugged and then leapt to my feet. “You bastard!” I shouted, barreling after him. Only problem was, I didn’t make it far, I ran right into Leon and was like a fly hitting a windshield. Stopped dead in my tracks. “Hey, Leon, where’s Hayden? He stole my iPod,” I said as if he didn’t already know.

Leon grinned. “Oh, I know. He’s deleting everything on it right now, and then re-syncing his own music on it,” Leon said thoughtfully and my jaw dropped.

“What? That’s not fair,” I whined, trying to dodge around Leon, but failing. He was pretty quick for a big guy, not to mention he took up the majority of the doorway.

Leon chuckled at my response. “Well, we all agreed, something had to be done.” He nodded to himself and I peered around him to see several rooms with their doors open and people glaring out at me. Alright, so maybe I had made a bit too much noise this morning.

I shrugged, glaring back at the people. Obviously, they didn’t know good morning music when they heard it. Although, maybe it was a bit ironic that both my morning list and my ‘annoy the shit out of people’ list had the same tracks on them.

I pouted as Leon continued to block the door and Damion attempted to talk to me, however, I was not in the mood to talk to traitors. So, essentially, he was talking to himself.

I ran my hand through my wet hair and grimaced, it was still too short for me. But I would probably have to deal with it for awhile, so I tried to ignore it. At least my hair would dry faster now, and now that I was a “guy” I didn’t have to care about what my hair looked like…although I wasn’t so sure I could kick the habit that quickly.

Hayden finally came back and tossed my iPod at me, sending me into a scramble to keep it from hitting the ground. I succeeded and then glared at Hayden, hoping that his skin was prickling because of my silent daggers. I hurriedly turned on my iPod and whimpered when my morning list was gone and went to observe the rest of my music.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t delete everything. Just the annoying songs. Why did you have so much techno on there?” Hayden asked, looking at me funny.

“You got rid of my techno?” I almost shrieked, but managed to pull it back into a yell to refrain from sounding like a girl. It was safe to say that I was appalled by his actions. I rubbed my face in irritation. “You left all of my rock, right? You don’t like rap or something do you? If so, your taste in music is horribly skewed. And you’re biased and you shouldn’t have been able to delete half of my freakin’ iPod!” I said pointedly, stuffing my iPod in my pocket.

“Don’t worry, I left all of the rock. Jeez, you’re paranoid.” Hayden rolled his eyes and then gestured to Damion, Leon and I. “Come on, let’s get out of here, we’ll show you how to get to town Raymond.”

Town? Alright, now we were getting somewhere. I ran back into the room, grabbed my wallet, stuffed it in my pocket and dashed after my three friends. I would have to mourn the death of my annoying music some other time.

It was only when we were leaving that I realized the entire school was surrounded by a dense forest. No wonder people couldn’t find it if they tried. After about a half-hour of walking, a parking lot came into view, and it was filled with cars, most being sports cars, an occasional Hummer, a pick-up truck here and there and of course a few Jeeps. The parking lot had virtually every car known to man. Even an old ‘73 Corvette Stingray. My eyes bulged out of my head. I loved cars. Especially fast cars.

“Please tell me we’re taking the Camaro--Oh my God is that a Dodge Viper? Let’s take the Viper--Holy shit, a Lamborghini Diablo? Shit, let’s take that--” This time I didn’t interrupt myself, but Hayden’s hand over my mouth did.

“Calm down Ray. We’re taking something a little more inconspicuous. Besides we’re taking four people, we’ll need a little more room than a two-seater can provide. So we’re taking that.” He pointed in front of my face and pulled his hand away.

I frowned, irritated. That was not a fast car. That was an old crappy Blazer with a shitty paint-job that probably didn’t even have a muffler anymore. “That’s a piece of crap,” I pointed out as if it weren’t obvious already. “What year is it? 1912?” I snorted at my own joke, but no one laughed with me. Was I close?

“Not that old. But it’s old,” Damion replied, sounding a little insulted by my guess. “And be nice to it. It’s practically my kid,” he added striding over to the old blazer and pulling the door open to hop into the driver’s seat.

“What?” I was confused.

“He rebuilt the thing in his spare time, which is pretty good considering he used all stolen parts, and it didn’t even run when he found it,” Hayden explained, hopping into the passenger seat. That left me and Leon in the back.

Oh. I thought, a little embarrassed at my comment now. Apparently, out of the group, Damion was the car guy. I had half-expected it to be Hayden, hmm, my mistake. I hopped into the backseat just as the monster-of-a-car roared to life, sputtered once, twice and then finally kicked on. My eyes were wide with uncertainty, but Damion was grinning like a madman. So, that must have been normal.

The entire time riding in that bumpy ride of a car I was hoping that we wouldn’t break down, but focused on my surroundings as I did so, in case I needed to find my way back on my own for some reason.

We drove for another half hour and then Damion turned onto a main road. From there on it was about fifteen minutes before a town came into view. My town I realized when we got to the city limits and first entered the town, I recognized the hardware store in the beginning with the graffiti on the side. There was a giant middle finger that the owner hadn’t bothered to clean up after he put the store up for sale. Yeah. I know, creative graffiti right?

Damion drove a decent way into town and paused at a stop light, picking at his teeth in his rearview mirror. I looked to the side, only slightly disgusted by the act. Then I saw the perfect store to buy clothes. I hopped out of the car just as Damion started pulling forward.

“What the hell!” I heard Damion shout, glaring at me in his side view mirror.

“Sorry. I’ll see you guys later!” I shouted back, darting to the sidewalk before a car could mow me down.

I wasn’t just going to grab any guys clothes that were nearby, I had to find some baggy guy clothes that didn’t totally suck. Girly girl or not, I had a sense of style. If any of the guys said anything about it, I’d tell them I was a meterosexual. Problem solved.

As I had expected, I found the perfect guy clothes, consisting of baggy-ish jeans, T-shirts mostly consisting of old school gaming remarks, such as “Mario’s my homeboy”, and the occasional cargo pants. Shoes were easy, I just bought some new converse and realized I had too much stuff as it was, I could barely hold onto it all.

With a scowl, I set down three bags next to a bench I sat on and flipped open Damion’s phone. I searched through his contacts and found Hayden’s number and dialed it. Well technically it was labeled “Homo (H)”, but I figured it was safe to say the “H” signified it as Hayden.

Hayden picked up on the third ring. “Yeah?”

“Hey, Hayden. Can you guys come pick some stuff up for me?” I asked casually, examining dirt under my fingernails.

“What? Stuff? Did you seriously just goshopping?” Hayden sounded thoroughly amused at this information.

“Yes. Yes I did. I needed some new shit, okay?” I replied defensively, uncrossing my legs when I realized I was very obviously sitting like a girl, and if not that, a very homosexual guy.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure.” Hayden laughed and then confirmed, “We’ll come pick up your stuff. Where’re you at?”

I looked around and spotted a coffee shop. “I’m at Barry’s Coffee House,” I replied, then said quickly, “See you in a minute.” And flipped the phone shut again.

I yawned and stretched out. I had already taken care of my necessities. I got…feminine products--telling the guy at the cash register they were for my girlfriend, just to make it clear. Boxers. Check. Guy clothes. Check. There was only one thing left to do now, and truthfully, I was getting a little nervous. It made no sense to be nervous, but I couldn’t help it, it had been at least two years since I had done this particular thing.

I heard a car backfire and scowled. My ride was not more than twenty yards away, Leon hanging out the window to wave enthusiastically in my direction. I waved back a little and rolled my eyes as Damion parallel parked in front of the bench I was sitting on. Leon stuck his head out the window and batted his eyelashes emphatically before saying in a high-pitched voice, “Hey buddy, lookin’ for a good time?”

I rolled my eyes and stuffed my bags into his face, pushing him back into the car. The car roared with laughter and I stuck my tongue out at them. So mature, I am. “I’ll see you guys later.” I said turning to leave but Hayden’s voice stopped me.

“What? Where are you goin’ now?” he asked curiously, sounding slightly suspicious.

“To the other side of town. Don’t worry about me, I know this place like a gay guy knows clothes.” I flapped my wrist in his direction to emphasize my nonchalance.

“Hold on, I’ll go with you,” Hayden said, hopping out of the car and waving to Damion and Leon, “We’ll meet up with you guys later.” Hayden reached into my pocket--startling the crap out of me--and pulled out Damion’s phone, chucking it through the window for Leon to catch. “We’ll call you,” he assured them and the two drove off, Leon crawling into the front seat as Damion peeled out.

“Where do you have to go?” I asked suspiciously. He sure as hell wasn’t coming with me. I didn’t need an audience.

“There’s someone I know on the other side of town. I figured I’d pay her a visit,” Hayden explained with a shrug, following me when I began to walk forward.

Ugh. Her. So he was going to go get laid. Or at least that was my assumption, so I dropped the conversation like hot iron.

“Humph,” was all I said, disgusted by my own mental picture.

“What about you? Where are you goin’?” Hayden asked curiously, although he wasn’t looking at me, but some blond that walked by in a miniskirt. Tch. Skank.

“To see an old friend. I haven’t visited them in awhile,” I half-lied with a shrug of my shoulders.

“Oh. Alright.” Hayden seemed content with my half-lie and we walked in silence until I reached the right street.

I cleared my throat and stopped. Hayden looked at me curiously. “What?” he asked when I stared at him.

“This is where we go our separate ways,” I said simply with a shrug. I didn’t need him following me.

“Alright,” Hayden said, sounding a little curious, but he didn’t pursue the topic. Thank God. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour or so?” Hayden asked, turning to walk the opposite direction of me.

“Yeah. Sounds good. See ya.” I turned and started walking in the right direction, then took a turn into an alley. I waited for about a minute before I peered carefully around the corner. Hayden was gone. I walked out into the street and started back in the direction he had gone, hoping I wouldn’t run into him. I switched sides of the street, just in case.

About another ten minutes of walking and my destination came into view: The cemetery. I strode in like I owned the place and weaved through graves, ignoring the pavement that led through the cemetery in an organized fashion. Five minutes of weaving and I came to the back right-hand corner, where ivy crawled up the barred fence and stone wall, hiding the spot from view. I glanced quickly around like a drug deal was going down and then stopped in front of a plain headstone, covered in ivy itself. Good lord, what did I pay the cemetery for? To have the help walk around and scratch their asses?

I stuffed my hands in my pockets and stood awkwardly in front of the grave. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, or say. Finally I heaved a sigh and kneeled down in front of the grave, brushing away the ivy and tossing it to the side so that the headstone was legible. “Sorry bro,” I murmured, uncovering words that read:

Raymond Philip Frost
1986-2006
Beloved Brother

My throat tightened at the sight of his name. It wasn’t a very personalized headstone, but I was tight on money when I arranged for the funeral.

“Sorry I haven’t been here in awhile. Two years actually. But…you know, I was kinda busy. Dodging the orphanage and all that,” I explained, aware of how crazy I probably sounded talking to a headstone. “Ah, crap. I forgot flowers,” I muttered to myself, swearing under my breath.

“Well, I guess I should just tell you what I’ve been doin’ huh?” I sat down in front of the headstone and swallowed hard, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them. My throat tightened again as I spoke, I felt tears welling up in my eyes, but I kept talking, “It’s a little weird, you know. I picked up thieving after you died, sorry about that, but on the bright side I’m going to school again.” I sniffed once, aware that my voice was hardly audible through my stinging throat, so I was whispering, “It’s a thieves school. I hope I can get better, you know, create a better life for myself, like you wanted. But thieving’s not all bad. I don’t steal from everyone.” I sobbed once and buried my face in my knees.

“Damn it,” I muttered to myself, angry at myself for crying every time I came to his grave. It made me look miserable. But I wasn’t completely incapable of living just because he was dead. Sure, it hurt like hell to have him gone, but I could survive, I could always survive, it was something I was good at. “I’m…s-sorry Ray,” I murmured, looking up to see his grave again. “I guess…I j-just miss you…Th-that’s all,” I stammered, feeling my face contort in pain when I pictured his face.

I stood up quickly, “I’ll come s-see you again. P-promise,” I told the headstone quietly, wiping any tears from my eyes, I had to pull myself together before I met up with Hayden again. I had already wasted about twenty minutes on getting to the cemetery and another five or ten visiting my brother’s grave.

I took a deep steadying breath and tried to calm myself down, brushing dirt from my pants and making sure my eyes were dry before actually turning to leave. I sniffed as I walked, and made sure to walk slowly out of the cemetery, giving myself more time to calm down.

________________________________________

Hayden’s Point Of View

Raymond had been acting weird all day, wanting to do everything on his own. Maybe that was just his personality? Nah. That didn’t make sense. Raymond was someone that enjoyed being around people too much to stay away from them. I almost didn’t follow him the second time, but the Headmaster’s words urged me to do what I did next.

“Hold on, I’ll go with you,” I said quickly but casually, hopping out the car to wave off Damion and Leon--who were probably puzzled by my actions. “We’ll meet up with you guys later.” I reached over into Raymond’s pocket and fished out Damion’s phone, then tossed it through the open window for Leon to catch. “We’ll call you,” I assured them.

Raymond couldn’t see him, but Leon was worried, looking at me as if warning me to not do anything stupid, and then he crawled into the front seat as Damion peeled out. Show off.

“Where do you have to go?” Raymond asked as he started walking. Shit. He sounded suspicious, did he know I was following him? Nah. He wasn’t that smart.

“There’s someone on the other side of town that I know. I figured I’d pay her a visit,” I said casually, shrugging my shoulders. That ought to get him off my case, anytime I mentioned meeting up with a girl a guy would end up punching me playfully in the arm and make snide remarks about getting laid. At least that would change the topic.

I was a little surprised when Raymond’s only remark was, “Humph.” No punching? No jeering? There was definitely something different about this guy. Maybe that’s why I liked being around him so much. He wasn’t so…normal. I guess.

“What about you? Where are you going?” I asked, although I somehow knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. I sounded curious anyway and was already prepared to pretend to believe whatever lie came out of his mouth. I stared at a blond that was walking by in a miniskirt, I wasn’t sure if she knew it or not, but her skirt was hiked up in the back. I didn’t tell her though, chicks get mad if you tell them that sort of stuff. Or at least when I did it. Maybe it’s because they always got twice as embarrassed around me.

“To see an old friend. I haven’t visited them in awhile,” Raymond replied casually.

Bullshit.

“Oh. Alright,” I accepted with a nod. Pfft, visit and old friend my ass.

We walked for awhile and I didn’t think Raymond was ever going to stop, until he finally cleared his throat and we came to a halt.

“What?” I asked curiously, although I already knew that he didn’t want me following him anymore. What was he up to?

“This is where we go our separate ways,” he said firmly, his hands stuffed nervously in his pockets.

“Alright,” I agreed, I tried to sound at least a little bit curious, so he wouldn’t suspect me, but I didn’t keep bugging him either. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour or so?” I suggested.

“Yeah. Sounds good. See ya,” Raymond said quickly and then turned in the opposite direction and started walking. I watched him until he took the first right…that led into an alley. Okay, now I knew he was up to something.

I hurried into the nearest shop--which happened to be a Victoria’s Secret, jeez, all the chicks were glaring at me--and pretended to look at some of the Pink brand sweats. If I looked at anything else, I think the girl standing at the door might shank me. Man, chicks are judgmental.

Raymond walked by the same store about a minute later, looking around nervously, as if I was hiding around the corner. On the contrary, I was hiding in a lingerie store. Once he passed the store I saw him cross the street and I casually strode out of the store and began to pretended to be window shopping, keeping Raymond on the edge of my peripherals.

He walked for about ten minutes before finally calming down and turning into the cemetery. What was so bad about the cemetery that he needed to sneak around? I followed him just after he began weaving between headstones, except I was darting behind trees. The guy was seriously paranoid, he kept glancing behind him to see if anyone was there. Well, I guess I was there, but that’s not the point.

In the farthest corner of the cemetery Raymond stopped, stuffing his hands into his pockets. I think he did that when he was nervous. I hid behind the nearest tree, but I still couldn’t hear what he was saying. I peered around the side of the tree and saw him pulling ivy from a certain grave, it was a small headstone and whatever was written on it was illegible from that distance. I sighed in annoyance and waited for Raymond to do something else. Was that really all he was doing? Visiting a grave? Then why was he so insistent on going alone?

My body tightened the moment I heard an unmistakable sob. I peered around the tree again. Raymond was hiding his face in his knees with his arms wrapped around his legs. Dude…wasn’t that the girl position for crying? It seemed like it, since I’d never seen another guy cry like that. Then again, I’d never really stood around and watched a guy cry, but still.

I felt a little bit guilty stalking him to a grave and then watching him cry. So I ducked back behind the tree again, blocking out any other sobs I heard. It was so quiet in that part of the cemetery that I could hear Raymond talking, but I couldn’t make out the words. Annoying.

I held my breath as Raymond walked past me, but he didn’t see me, he was busy wiping tears from his face. Thank god for that distraction. I moved around to the other side of the tree to watch him leave the cemetery and then, when I was sure he was gone, I walked nonchalantly to the grave Raymond had been standing in front of. I squatted in front of it, balancing myself with my hand on the ground and read the headstone:

Raymond Philip Frost
1986-2006
Beloved Brother

What the hell?

I stood up quickly and took several steps away from the grave, then leaned forward to read it again. Had I read it wrong?…Nope. It was the same.

Raymond was dead?

…Then who was the Raymond that just walked out of the cemetery? What kind of sick-o was impersonating a dead guy?

Calm down Hayden, I ordered myself, I was already jumping to the zombie conclusion. So I calmed down in order to allow myself to think a bit clearer. Alright, so whoever it was, was crying, so he must have known Raymond to take his name. But why?

I would have to think while I walked, I was supposed to meet “Raymond” in about twenty-five minutes.