"I've got this place that I've filled with empty space." -Imagine Dragons, Hopeless Opus

LUKE, WHO IS ANGRY AND RUDE AS USUAL, GREETS US by hastily hanging up his phone and turning to snap, "What are you two idiots doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Jas counters, stepping forward with a wicked glare. "Weren't you in jail?"

"I was,” Luke growls, putting venom into his voice. I step back, feeling slightly unsteady from the anger being repelled off the two of them. Luke can be scary, and so can Jas, but together they make for a pretty terrifying scene. "But they finally realized they didn't have enough evidence to lock me up."

"Of course they didn't," Jas scoffs. "The police here are idiots."

Luke looks genuinely shocked that they agree on something. "Exactly!"

"Besides," Jas nonchalantly adds, "It's not like you would have the guts to even hurt a fly. They were stupid to lock you up from the start."

"Excuse me?" Luke seethes.

"It's the truth," Jas shrugs. "Besides, take it as a compliment. I said I believe you when you say you didn't kill Ford."

Suddenly, Luke's face changes. It drops its anger, taking on a worn out and tired appearance. Luke runs one hand down his face, sighing. "I... I really didn't. You have to be the first person to say that."

"Don't get soft on me, Johnson," Jas says, but her voice has suddenly dropped her venom too. I take this as a safe time for me to slowly approach, stepping up beside Jas and examining Luke. He still looks the same; dirty blonde hair, stormy blue eyes. But now there are bags underneath those stormy blue eyes, his dirty blonde hair is uncombed, stubble is pricking out of his sharp chin and his normally confident and proud posture is slumped.

"What are you doing here, Luke?" I ask softly.

Luke's blue eyes turn hard again, masking emotion. "I could ask you two the same."

I look to Jas, worrying my bottom lip. The truth is, both of us just don't have a good excuse. I open my mouth, then close it again, trying to find something to say. Jas speaks up before I can say something stupid, though. "Listen, Lukey. I'll strike you a deal. I'll pretend I never saw you here, you pretend you never saw us here, and we'll move on with our lives and never speak of this again. Sound good?"

Luke studies Jas for a moment. "Fine. You have thirty seconds to get out."

Jas scoffs. "You have thirty seconds to get out."

"Let's go, Jas," I say, grabbing her by the forearm and dragging her to the school entrance. Jas protests, but eventually I'm able to drag her out of the doors, huffing out a large puff of air. Jas isn't happy about it, but with one last glare at the doors, she follows me away from the building.

"He's hiding something," she declares.

"You said it yourself," I say, sticking my hands in my jacket pockets. "Luke couldn't hurt anyone. Even Ford admitted it. He's all talk-"

"But no do, I know," Jas says. "But Ava, think about it. Maybe Luke didn't hurt anyone."

I look over at Jas. In the moonlight, her brown eyes sparkle. "What do you mean?"

"We've been so convinced that this is a one-man thing," Jas explains. "What if Luke never did any of the hurting, but he was part of this, all along? More than one person could be in on this, Ava. Besides the fact that Luke has no balls, he fits every thing we're looking for. Smart, good with technology, hates Ford. He practically broke Victoria and Ford up, for Christ's sake! He obviously wants bad things to happen to the kid."

I bite down on my lip and rub the back of my neck because, yeah, Jas has a point. "So you think it's all students now?"

"I- I don't know," Jas admits, her voice strained. "God, this is so confusing. Screw you for getting me into this mess."

I laugh, squeezing her shoulder as we leave the school behind. "No problem."

x

"I still don't think Luke would do it," Ford says.

Jas groans, throwing herself onto the motel's bed and burying her face in the pillow, staying that way for three seconds before propping herself on her elbows. "Work with me, Wilson. I'm not saying he killed your mom. I'm saying he might have planned things, or brought you the notes. Do you really find that so hard to believe? He hates you."

Ford, from his spot on the floor beside me, thinks about it for a moment. "Yes."

"Yes what?"

"I find it really hard to believe."

Jas groans loudly and buries her head back in the pillow.

I take Ford's hand while Jas isn't looking. "Ford, I know it may not seem like it, but we never know. What if it is him, and we're overlooking it because we just happen to think he doesn't have the guts for it. We just... we don't know."

Jas looks up again. "Exactly."

"But I thought you said it can't be a student," Ford points out, eyebrows scrunching together, and I have to resist myself from solely focusing on how cute he looks. "Thirteen year old Luke killing my mom?"

"Maybe some adults are involved with it too?"

"Why would so many people be out to get me, though?" Ford asks, sounding frustrated. "Seriously, what did my mom and I do so wrong? I just don't get it. I don't remember running so many people's lives that a huge band are out to drive me out of town."

We're quiet for a moment, processing that. The truth is, I don't have a good answer for that. I really don't. Ford has always been the good kid in the back of the class. He didn't do anything to get on people's bad side. I just don't understand it.

Jas is the first to break the silence. "Ford, did you write down some facts like I asked you to?"

Ford nods, reaching up and pulling the notebook and pencil Jas had given him from off the nightstand. He opens it up, and I examine Ford's messy writing, which has filled the page. Ford says, "Alright, so the first notes came back in January. I don't remember the exact date. They stopped for a couple of months and started up again in March. I got one in my textbook."

"Textbook?" Jas interrupts. "Even more reason for it to be someone in the school."

"I doubt someone who isn't constantly at the school would know where your locker is and what textbook to slip it in," I agree.

"The creepy thing was that the note was in the exact page that the lesson was on," Ford adds.

Jas' eyebrows furrow. "Who's class were you in?"

"Mr. Cutler's."

Jas get's up from the bed. "Okay. Come on, Ava. Let's get home. We need some rest; we have a big day tomorrow."

x

"Hey, Mr. Cutler," Jas smiles brightly, and I find myself mildly impressed with her acting skills in the back of my mind.

Mr. Cutler, the school's middle aged tech teacher looks up as we enter his office. "Ava and Jaswinder. How can I help you girls?"

Jas doesn't even twitch at her full name. "Oh, we're just wondering about some of the summer classes you have. I want to take some tech classes before University, I think it'll be super helpful. Ava here is just tagging along."

Mr. Cutler smiles. "Well, when are you thinking would be the best time for you to do them? August or July? I'm pretty sure there are classes for both months..." He begins to rummage through brochures in his drawer.

"July is good." We take a seat in the two chairs in front of Mr. Cutler's desk. I watch as Jas leans back in her seat, suddenly blurting out, "Say, no one's heard anything about Ford lately, huh?"

Mr. Cutler looks taken aback by the question, but he takes it in stride. "No, they haven't. It's a tragedy, really. The child has been gone for more than a month. Actually, it's almost been a month and a half now, huh?"

"Yeah," Jas says. "A tragedy."

"I really do hope they find something soon," Mr. Cutler adds. "Cailbridge is starting to lose hope. Oh, here, found them!" With a bright smile, he hands Jas two brochures. "One for July and one for August. Do you want me to go over the programs with you?'

"No thanks, I got it," Jas smiles, though this time it's strained. "Thanks."

The first thing she says to me when we close the door to the office is, "Shit."

I frown, following her down the hall. "What?"

"It's not him," Jas says, looking defeated. "Did you see his face! That ugly old man doesn't know one thing about Ford. Maybe we should go through who was in the same class as him?"

I groan, burying my head in my hands. "Jas, I feel like this is all useless. We're not getting anywhere!"

Jas' shoulders slump, and I know she knows I'm right.

We don't talk much about it for the rest of the day. After lunch, things go by as usual, and seemingly nothing is out of the ordinary. I should have known better, though. Because at the final bell, Jas is running to me at my locker, eyes wide and crazed.

"Jas?" I ask, panic building up to my throat as Jas catches her breath. "Jas, what's going on?"

She leans in to whisper, "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit."

"Jas, you're not making any sense." I grab her by the shoulder, shaking her a bit. "Jas, what's going on? What happened?"

"They kept their promise," Jas murmurs.

Panic is tearing my stomach apart. I feel a sudden urge to vomit. Unable to take it anymore, I pull my hand back and slap Jas across the face, ignoring the looks it gets me. It works, though; Jas snaps out of it, hissing and grabbing her cheek. "Crap, Ava."

"Tell me what's going on," I demand.

Jas nods, shaking. "It's Molly."

AND THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS WHERE THE STORY REALLY KICKS OFF. This is the beginning of the end. There's around ten to fifteen chapters left of this story, I'm guessing. This is the beginning to the real build-up of the climax, which I am super excited for :)

If you enjoyed this chapter, please take the time to leave COMMENT and vote! Also, I started a new story called The Ribbon Campaign. It's a story about a girl who creates a campaign supporting her gay brother and his boyfriend, after his boyfriend got kicked out of his home for being homosexual. It's also a romance story between the girl and another boy, so if that sounds interesting, take a look! I'm also going to be posting a darker story later titled 'Til Death Do Us Part so look out for that :)

I love you all so so much! (: xoxo