The Key Chased the Blade

Simon picked up the phone I swear in a millisecond. Jesus. He probably had the phone in his hand and had his thumb on the talk button just waiting for me to call.

But we didn't say anything. His breath was rasping in the speaker and I really didn't know what to say. Eventually after waiting in that God-awful silence, listening each other breathe in the phone, he finally spoke up.

"Did you watch the news?" he asked faintly.

"Hell I did," I said. I realized that my hands were shaking. God. "The girl, Sadie Amala, she's dead. My dad didn't let me watch any more though."

"That was basically it," Simon said, and then I heard his phone jostle around. He was probably adjusting it so his stupid hearing aid could pick up what I was saying. "There wasn't more to it. I... I really don't know what to think..."

I really didn't either, but I said, "I don't think another cake would help in this situation."

I heard Simon let out a shuddering breath. Jesus, he was going to cry. "Simon," I said. "God, please don't cry over this, we didn't even know her, you hear me? Please don't cry."

But he cried anyway. That always seemed to happen with him. I'd tell him not to cry and he'd blubber anyway. It really, really bothered me to hear him sob. Simon was pretty sensitive anyway, but he'd never cry unless something like this happened. Death happening, to be specific. I didn't think he ever really got over his dog that died last year.

Jesus. My hands were still shaking.

"I don't want to go to school tomorrow," he said quietly. "This is all too much."

"Your mom would probably birth a cow if she found out you skipped," I said. "Especially since there's a potential serial killer out there."

My words shut me up once I'd realized what I'd said, but Simon kept going on. "Well, I need a sibling, anyway-"

I stopped listening. God. There really was a killer out there. Somebody had beaten Sadie Amala to death and put her under that bridge. Jesus Christ. She'd gone to our school too; this guy was in our district. Who knew who could be picked off next? Simon? Me? Those other kids in our school? We could be in a lot of freaking danger!

I blew out my breath and heard it fizzle in the receiver. God. The police had better be on this. I was probably making this into a whole bigger deal than it should've been though. I'd do that sometimes. I'd lost my binder in middle school once and I went on this whole detective thing to find it; I'd even interviewed some teachers and students being all Sherlock Holmes. It ended up being in the lost and found though. Jesus, I was stupid. The police would definitely take care of this before anything bad happened.

"Noah, are you with me on this?" Simon's voice brought be back to reality.

"Huh? What were you saying? I wasn't listening."

"Oh boy, Noah..." Simon laughed quietly. "I was thinking we should make a Facebook page for her, or start a grief group at school."

"I thought you didn't want to go to school."

"I don't, I really don't want to do anything but sleep right now." He paused. I heard his breath shudder again. God, he was going to cry. "Noah, I..."

"Look, I'll skip with you tomorrow," I said. I didn't really care much about skipping, the worst my dad would do was take the TV away. Besides, I could afford to miss a few classes. "We could go to the park or something."

He sniffed. I wasn't really sure if he'd go with it, but then he said, "Okay. Th-thank you, Noah."

God, my heart really hurt then. "No, problem, Simon. See you tomorrow?" I really couldn't stay on the phone any longer.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

Then I hung up. I let the phone fall to the side of my head on the bed and I stared at the ceiling for a while. Jesus. This had really shaken Simon up. I could still feel my hands trembling. But then I shoved my phone under my pillow, curled up under my covers, and tried to get to sleep even though I was still in my clothes. It was pretty futile, because after a few seconds, my phone buzzed under the pillow. God. I groaned and pulled my phone out to see a text from Simon.

Sleep well, Noah.

I closed my phone and put it under my pillow again, feeling my hands quiver. God. I hoped so. I hoped I would sleep well after this. I really hoped so.