𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑫𝒐𝒘𝒏 - 13 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝑾𝒉𝒚

Forty-Three

I was hiding the pain that I was feeling. I think everyone was. 

I sat in the passenger seat of Clay's car, outside of Bryce's house waiting for Ani. "I can't believe out of all places she could live," I said quietly, "She lives with Bryce."

"Well," Clay said, "The guesthouse."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever, it's still in Bryce's backyard..." Before I said anything else, police cars came up the road; Clay and I froze in fear as they passed us... They went into Bryce's driveway, his mother got in one of the SUVs. 

"Good morning, Clay, Dawn," The Sheriff who was in charge of everything said, he leaned onto the car and, "I didn't know you two were friends."

Clay and I were, I guess, friends. Especially now, with everything going on. "Yeah," I answered, Clay was visibly nervous, "Things have been tough. I needed a friend and Clay was there for me."

The sheriff nodded, "That is understandable."

"Is everything okay?" Clay asked him.

The sheriff looked over his shoulder and back towards us, "I'm afraid not," He answered, "Difficult time here this morning. So, what brings you two by?"

"We are here to pick up a friend," I told him.

"Friend? Which friend?"

"Ani Achola."

"I see," He nodded slowly, "I don't suppose you've remembered anything that might help us out? You know, since you two last spoke with us?"

"No, sir," Clay said.

The sheriff patted the car, "Alright, take care of yourselves. I'm sure we're gonna be talking again real soon."

As he walked away, Ani got into the backseat, quickly. She seemed panicked, "What the hell?" She said, "Today is truly not the day to break the rule!" She scolded Clay.

"Okay, wait," I said as I turned to look at her, sitting there in the backseat, "What the hell happened?"

Ani took a deep breath, "They found a body," She announced, "In the river..."

"Fuck."

"Jesus," Clay's eyes widened, "Bryce?" 

Ani shrugged her shoulders, "Mrs. Walker is going to the morgue to do the ID."

I felt a million different things now that it was possible Bryce was dead, "Maybe it was an accident," I suggested, "I mean, they found him in the river."

"Maybe he killed himself?" Clay asked.

"Maybe..." Ani said quietly. "they think it was a murder." 

I wasn't sure what I should feel; feeling relieved was wrong, my body rejected feeling relieved even though we could stop worrying about where Bryce was. But, now we had to sit and wonder if someone murdered him. "I mean, kids don't kill kids," I said, "There's school shootings and drugs- but nobody just goes out and murders someone... That would be stupid, especially with the fact that everyone's eyes are on Bryce 24/7."

"Didn't you want to kill him?" Ani asked Clay.

"I didn't mean it!" Clay argued. 

We went to school and went straight into the gym, where we met with Justin and Zach... We had to break the news to them, before anyone else did. Even though there wasn't a positive ID on the body they recovered, I was positive that it was Bryce, however. There was no way it was just some random guy they found in the river.

"Did they say what happened?" Zach asked us.

Clay shook his head, "That's all we know, that's they found the body... I just wanted to get to you guys before it hits the news."