Signs From The Universe (bxb)

42. called out

George turns his head over his shoulder to look at me. "Yeah, and?"

I narrow my eyes towards George and then I cross my arms over my chest. "You said that Liam hit on your girlfriend, tried to take her out."

"And he did," I watch his throat clench for a millisecond before he clears it.

"Bullshit," I scoff and shake my head.

Everyone else silently listens to our conversation.

"Liam didn't even hit on your girlfriend because first of all, she's probably imaginary," I state and someone stifles a laugh, causing George to glower. "And second, you just tried to jump on the bandwagon and make the rumour worse than it was because you didn't like him. He was better than us at our jobs, all of us and you couldn't stand that so you lied and said he hit on your girlfriend to give you more leverage to hate him."

George's nostrils flare. "No–"

"You lied to make yourself feel better for wishing he was dead."

"I wasn't the one who killed him."

I quirk an eyebrow. "But you were the one saying he deserved it."

Lillian leans forward. "Is that true, George? Did you lie about that?"

"No!" He says loudly, his voice cracking. "You're the one who said your friend mentioned that Liam was being sly and sneaking around with other people's girlfriends."

I study Lillian as her eyes narrow towards him. "Yeah and then I realised they stretched the truth, but you on the other hand said that Liam did hit on your girlfriend. When exactly did that happen?"

George stands up abruptly. "We were all gossiping because it was all going around town. The news are trying to spin it, trying to make him seem good when really he was a bad person. We all know he's a bad person." He begins to look nervous that he's been caught out but there is no going back now.

"Oh shut the fuck up, George," I spit. "The three that got arrested have come clean, shoving each other into their own mess. Stop lying to yourself and admit it, Liam wasn't your favourite person so you helped the lies spread."

His eyes flare in my direction and he steps towards me but I don't back down, I literally have nothing left to lose at the moment. But I refuse to let people talk shit about Liam, not when all of this could have been avoided.

He died because of jealousy and that makes my heart ache.

George takes a tiny step back and my lip quirks because he can't even find it in himself to fight, he knows he's wrong. Then I glance back to the group who are all staring at us with wide eyes. "Liam might not have seen eye-to-eye with everyone but he cared about this town, he cared about the children and their wellbeing like we do. Someone took away his life because of something out of his control. We should be more fucking respectful to someone who was passionate about the same things we are. I think we all need to think about that."

I step back from the group, barely giving them a once over before I head straight towards Lacey's office. My knuckles raise and I knock once before she tells me to come inside, she didn't even hear our conversation because she smiles in my direction.

"River," she greets me. "What's up?"

"I have an idea for a project," I say walking towards her desk.

She flashes me a smile. "You've had a lot of ideas lately and I've loved them all."

"This one will be a little different."

"Oh?" She twiddles a pen between her fingers.

I nod and perch myself in the chair opposite her. "I just came back from a project today where the children were talking about how much they miss Liam, how they truly understood them. A lot of people in this town feel the same way they do, including parents and teachers."