Page 157 of Obsession

Shane sighed.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll…”

“Fuck that, Shane, tell me,” I shouted.

“Harris killed his brother.”

***

The rest of the class I was like a ghost. Sometimes I just stared into space and repeated in my head what Shane had told me.

He had also told me that there hadn’t been any evidence that Harris had covered up his crime and tampered with the evidence, which was why he was still free, but everyone knew it was him.

I tried not to believe him, I needed not to believe him.

Harris wasn’t a murderer.

No, he wasn’t.

He wasn’t!

I kept telling myself that, like a broken record.

Shane had promised that he would take care of Joshua. If he was guilty of the scene at my house, he’d find out and punish him for it, but that wasn’t so important now.

The other problems Harris had with the police were none of my business, but he was there now because of me. Joshua wouldn’t have caught me if I hadn’t been wandering the halls half passed out. I tried to figure out how the hell he knew that. It seemed like he’d been waiting for me in the corridor.

I couldn’t forget the look on Harris’ face when I pulled away from him, that wasn’t the face of a murderer.

Ken was risking trouble too, and I didn’t even get the chance to thank him for saving me. And as if all that wasn’t enough, I also had trouble with the lock on my locker and had to be moved to another one. I had barely learned the combination for the first lock. If someone loved me as much as bad luck does, I would be the happiest woman in the world.

“Kath, you with us?” I saw a hand waving in front of my face and turned my head to notice Zac. I hadn’t even realized I was in the cafeteria, having lunch with my friends. They all had their eyes on me.

“Yeah, sorry,” I quickly apologized, shaking my head, and looking at the empty tray in front of me.

I hadn’t eaten anything, a good idea considering how sick I still felt.

“So, are you coming with us?” Continued Zac, who was the only one looking at me normally.

“Where to?” I asked, trying to get back into their world. I hadn’t been paying attention to anything they were saying.

“To the movies. I’m not in the mood for school anymore. Then I have football practice and you have cheerleading practice. I’m sure you don’t want to see Amber’s face now, do you?” he added with an amused smile.

Zac was right; Amber was the last person I wanted to see, not to mention I had detention afterward too. I tried to imagine what it would be like to clean the sports field with Harris, Ken and Joshua… my imagination turned into a horror movie.

I was still debating whether or not to tell Harris about the blood thing.

This time, Kristen was the one waving her hand in front of my face.

“Sorry, I’m all mixed up.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely coming to the movies with us, you need a distraction.”

I sighed and propped my head in my palms. What I needed was… Harris. And to know he was out of there. To talk to him. To hug him.

***

We all sneaked out of the school because we were quite a big group. All the football players, some cheerleaders and Kristen. Chris and Candice had refused.

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