The Key Chased the Blade

"Oh my God," I breathed.

"Shoot, I am so sorry about that," Simon said, even though it wasn't his fault. "I'm really sorry."

I wrestled my way out of Simon's arms. The boy just laughed. "It's okay, that was a reasonable reaction. I think I would've killed Tyler too if I saw him flirting with another girl."

"Can I-" I started. "Can I- uh, talk with you?"

"Noah!" Simon was probably embarrassed about this whole thing.

"Okay, sure thing," the boy who was not Tyler Marvin said. "We can step away for a moment."

The chick and her friends made a slight noise of protest, but the twin ignored them. Simon grabbed onto my arm. I shook him off and jabbed a finger at Walgreens. "Go get some goddamn cough drops." Then I followed the boy to an empty parking spot.

"Who are you anyway?" I blurted.

He smiled. "I'm Alex. You?"

"Noah." Then I cussed under my breath. That was when I realized I actually had nothing to say to the kid. What had I wanted to ask before? I had almost gone through with my homicidal rage and then everything went whacked up. "Sorry about that a minute ago," I said lamely.

"It's alright. I think I should keep a low profile for a while. Do you know my brother?"

"Not really. I kind of know Sadie."

Alex's smile faded. "Are you going to ask about her death?"

"No, I mean, yes, I mean, damnit-" I cut myself off. "It's just, Jesus, strange things have been happening around town."

God, I was really babbling like an idiot. This kid probably thought I was raving mad, as if he didn't before when I tried to attack him. "What do you mean?" His brow furrowed. "Are you suggesting something?"

"There's a lot of vandalism." He probably wouldn't believe it if I told him about birds with nooses hanging from building rafters and ladies wailing at night. "And my friend was attacked the other night."

"What?" God, that was probably not the right thing to say. Simon was going to kill me for telling this boy. "Did you go to the police?"

My face flushed. "Yeah, I did, but that's not the point. I was- I was just trying to figure out why this is happening. I wanted to know if you knew anything."

Alex's face went solemn and pained. It was kind of uncharacteristic for him, given that he dressed like a douchebag and everything, but it was believable. Jesus, that made my heart hurt. "I think it wouldn't hurt to tell you," he said. "But it's kind of a sensitive subject."

I swallowed and nodded. I didn't know what to say and I realized right then what I was putting him through.

"We told everything we knew to the police," Alex said. "It wasn't much, but it was the least we could say. We didn't know the location of Sadie at the time she died, but we did know that she and Tyler were having a fight and she stormed out. She had probably gotten assaulted then. They were fighting over something stupid, it was about some guy at school that Tyler was having a conflict with. Tyler is really upset over it."

His voice cracked. A lump formed in my throat and Alex looked away and twisted his hat around. I almost wished I'd never even seen him. But he said, "You... You have a brother, right?" and looked back around. His eyes were a little shiny, but tears didn't spill over.

"Yeah, I have three," I said. "How did you know?"

"I think Tyler knew your brother. I think his name's John; he mentioned him having a little sister with your name. Did he ask you to ask about this?"

"No." I was stunned. "I had no idea John even knew Tyler."

"Oh." Alex looked a little deflated. "Tyler and him aren't speaking anymore anyway. After Sadie's death, they separated. I had a hope that he'd mention something about Tyler sometime. They were in a rock climbing club together for a while, and I think John must've quit."

"John never once mentioned him to me," I said. "I would think he would, given this situation."

Alex expelled his breath. "Okay, you have to promise me something." He shook his head repeatedly. "I don't know why I'm even doing this, but... I'm going to tell you some information, and I don't want you to take the blame on yourself. Can you promise me you won't?"

"Of course," I said.

"It was John Tyler and Sadie were fighting about," Alex said. His words hit me like a sledgehammer. "I think this was entirely circumstantial, but John was pulling some kind of prank and Sadie found out and told Tyler. It had something to do with a dead animal in someone's locker and a knife, I'm not even sure, and they were both kind of freaking out over it. I think I should let you know that."

"God." I was both pissed and thankful that no one found out about that. Dad and Rico would've flipped out and John could've gotten expelled. I told myself I was going to kill him when I got home.

"Yeah, I'm glad that never escalated," Alex said. "What I'm saying is that you should probably ask your brother about it if you want more information. It could be something important."

"Jesus," I said. "What did John even do anyway?"

The boy's nose wrinkled. "I think... I think he tied a rope around a dead bird's neck and hung it in someone's locker."

My blood ran cold.

"It would be a pretty nasty prank if it actually succeeded. Your brother apparently has a reputation of pulling good ones anyway."

I felt dizzy. "I-I need to go. My friend needs to get home." Luckily Simon was coming out of Walgreens at that moment. "Th-thank you, Alex."

"You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Simon locked his gaze into mine across the parking lot. "I think I'm going to have a chat with John about this."