GREY

Jacquarious sped off with the police officer, leaving me and the guys still idling next to his car.

"I'll...I'll see you guys at Casey's," Dash words dragged behind us.

I shot him a look, one that he didn't return. His eyes were in the gravel, and that's where they stayed until he climbed behind the wheel of Cody's G-Class Mercedes and started backing away.

"I guess we should...get going too," Brayden tried, turning to Cody. "You uh...wanna ride shotgun?"

Cody shook his head, slinking instead toward the backseat.

Brayden pulled open the door, letting him inside, then sighed as he turned to me.

I slid behind the wheel and adjusted the rearview mirror, though I didn't linger on it. Brayden climbed into the passenger seat, careful not to glance back at Cody as he did. The only sound inside the vehicle was the soft mechanical wheeze of the heater starting up, the faint ticking of gravel to cool the rolling tires.

Cody pulled the door closed more gently than I expected.

The quarry stretched behind us—cold, sprawling, and silent. Its sun-bleached stone stared after us with a kind of solemn knowing, shadows already lengthening even though nightfall wasn't for another few hours. Outside the windows, the woods were still—the stark bones of winter trees leaning in, almost as if to eavesdrop.

Engine idling low, my hands rested on the steering wheel.

Unmoving.

Afraid.

"I'll get us back," I said, voice pelting the steering wheel. "Unless you guys want food or something. We could...I don't know...stop by Shake & Cake."

Silence yelped at my ears.

I gulped hard; my neck twitched.

"It's fine," Cody said at last. "Let's just go."

I exhaled, palming the gear shift as I slid it into drive.

We screeched away from the quarry in what felt like slow motion, tires crunching over frozen grit. And for a wave of bated breaths, nothing passed between us but the muted hum of the road.

Brayden cleared his throat, but whatever words he tried to summon fell back down his chest like stones. He glanced at me, then at Cody in the rearview, and then just peered over the road again.

"I...didn't know what else to do," I said finally, the words abrupt, too loud in the frosted stillness that scarfed our bodies. "When...when I saw all that blood on those towels..."

Cody didn't respond, his gaze locked on the window, on the brittle branches whipping past like the final moments of a dream—splitting into nothingness.

My voice cracked. "I'm sorry."

Still no answer.

"I'm sorry," I tried again, softer this time. "I—Cody, I was so sure. And then Jac—" The words hitched in my throat. "Jac figured it out. He saw everything way before any of us did. I should've—"

"Yeah," Cody mused. It wasn't sharp, and it wasn't forgiving either.

Another frosted ember of silence bloomed, denser now.

Brayden looked over his shoulder. "Cody, I didn't mean to—"

"I know," he growled. "You followed Grey. Dash did too. You all thought you were doing the right thing." He never said "you weren't"—and he didn't have to.

If not for watching road, I'd have shut my eyes, tried to quiet the storm inside my brain.

"But Jacquarious," Cody whispered. "He...he got ahold of that cop." He gave a quiet laugh, but it held no humor. "Did more for me and Casey than anyone else."

I flinched.

"...We had no idea, man," Brayden whispered.

"I know," Cody said again before leaning his head against the window, the cold glass a small comfort. "But that doesn't mean it didn't happen."

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, knuckles paling. "You know," I muttered, eyes still on the road, "it's not like I wanted to believe it was you."

Cody didn't look up.

"But sometimes you don't make it easy, man."

Cody turned, brows furrowing. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I huffed a breath, somewhere between frustrated and guilty. "It means... I don't know. You're not exactly the easiest guy to put up with."

Brayden shifted in the passenger seat, his posture stiffening.

Cody leaned forward a bit. "And what, because I gave you crap one too many times, that made me a murderer?"

"No!" I barked, then winced at my own sharpness. I lowered my voice. "No, that's not what I meant."

"Then...then what did you mean?" Cody's tone fell even quieter somehow.

I exhaled hard through my nose. "That...I didn't have much of a choice."

That made Brayden shift, his head cocking toward me. "You had a choice," he muttered. "You just didn't trust him." I shot him a sharp look, but Brayden didn't back down. "You really didn't," he added.

"None of you did," Cody mused, Brayden's back arching at his words.

"Not like you didn't give us a reason," I spat, shaking my head. "You act like you're better than everyone else half the time. You always have. You tear into people who don't get things as fast as you, and you're the cockiest grammar weeb on the entire freaking planet."

Cody looked away. "I wasn't...trying to be a jerk." He stiffened. "Sometimes I screw around, man. That's just how I am."

I snorted. "Yeah, well, not everyone's always in on the joke."

"Grey," Brayden said, sharper now. "Come on."

"What? I'm just saying—"

"No," Brayden cut in. "You're still trying to dodge what you did."

I opened my mouth, but Brayden pushed forward:

"You didn't just think Cody might've done it. You flat out convicted him, judge, jury, and executioner."

My knuckles went white again, throat bobbing as I gulped down the guilt clawing from inside my chest.

"You were scared," Brayden mused, his tone lilting. "I get that. We all were. But you went way too far, Grey. Miles almost got away with abusing Casey because of you."

"Yeah, okay, but—"

"But what?" Brayden barked, his glare trained on me.

I sighed. "Nothing, alright?" My shoulders hunched forward, almost as if to hug the steering wheel. "You're right—I took it too far. I'm sorry."

Cody shifted, eyes locked on the trees blurring past. "I know I can be... a lot," he said. "But I never thought that made me disposable."

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, no one's calling you disposable. I'm just saying you made it hard to trust you. Are you really making me out to be the bad guy after everything you did to Jac?"

Cody winced.

"You treated him like trash, man. Like he was...beneath you." I scowled like I'd downed a double shot of black coffee.

"I know," Cody said. He pressed a palm to the side of his temple. "All I ever did was make fun of him, laugh behind his back—"

"No," I breathed, shaking my head. "You didn't just laugh behind his back—you made sure he knew how little you thought of him. And if he'd been in your place, if he'd been the one on that video with blood on his hands...well, it's not hard to imagine what you would've said."

I half expected Brayden to lay into me again, to skewer me for being the one to sell Cody out. But he didn't; Brayden held his silence, silence that hung over the three of us as what looked like tears started welling in Cody's eyes.

"You're right," Cody rasped out. "I just...thought about my sister. And that creep Miles." His eyebrows fell. "Every time I saw Jacquarious, I..." He sighed, a bitter edge crusting his voice. "Whatever, not like it matters anyway. I'm the world's biggest dickwad, and he helped me anyway." He shook his head. "It doesn't even make sense...why would he—?"

"Because," I flickered. "Maybe he saw something in you that...the rest of us forgot was there."

Cody sniffled.

"Maybe he saw that you're not just the guy who pushes people. You're the guy who shows at 2 a.m. to help us edit our essays. The guy who uses whom and mightn't in everyday conversation. The guy who stands up to his whole family to take care of his sister." My breath caught in my throat. "...The guy who sends me a million texts begging me to pick up when he thinks he hurt my feelings."

Brayden twisted in his seat. "You screw with people a lot, Cody. You say it's just messing around, but...it really sucks being on the other end of it."

Cody's shoulders drooped. "I know, man. I already said—"

"But you're there when it counts," Brayden offered. "It's just...sometimes, it's like you don't want anyone to notice how much you actually care."

Cody winced.

"You could've told us about Casey," Brayden said, hurt glinting in his voice. "Did you really think we wouldn't believe you?"

"I...I guess I just got scared. My mom and dad thought Miles was this godsend; he was rich and smart and came from a great family. And if they didn't even believe me, why would anyone else?" He slumped even more, his voice falling to a whisper.

The car rolled forward through the hushed afternoon haze, winter light fluttering between the bare trees and pockets of fleeting fog.

"And now Jacquarious probably hates me." Cody shook his head. "After everything I said about him, the way I treated him..."

"You don't know that, man." I flicked my gaze to the rearview mirror, meeting Cody's reflection shuttered in stillness. "He didn't seem all that angry when he was helping Officer Longchamp. If anything, my guess is he just wants to leave it in the past."

Cody sighed. "I can't just 'leave it in the past.' I have to apologize to him, just...I don't even know how to start." He shook his head. "I never once thought I'd want to be...friends...with a guy like him."

Brayden quirked a brow. "And now?"

"...I don't think I even deserve to be." Cody shook his head. "But I want to try."

The road dipped into shadow as we turned toward the main highway before light bathed us once again, the same skyscraping light that had painted the quarry stones in pale and glowing hues.

Shivering warmth from the car heater struggled to cut through the frost that sealed us in Jacquarious's car.

And for the briefest of moments, a flurry of soft snow petals twinkled beyond the windshield, their white trails brushed away as the first glimmers of nightfall slithered at the edge of the horizon.