"Treasure Series" Book 1: CURSE [[CURRENTLY EDITING]]

Chapter 36: Gwen - A Lifetime Of Mystery Solving Hits The Dust

The menial work of picking up trash in the park was anything but relaxing. The smell of rotten food and other nose-wrenching smells made it impossible to see this as anything but tedious labor. By the end of the day, my clothes would literally be dripping from sweat, put on by the ever-strengthening sun in late March. It was currently only two in the afternoon and my bun of silky, black hair had already come loose from the hair tie I'd tied it with. My forehead was slick with perspiration as I jabbed the trash-picker-upper into the soft grass, lifting a piece of balled-up newspaper up into the air and placing it in my black trash bag.

The trash bag was just about full, so I decided to discard the contents within. I sashayed over to the trash can, my rough orange jumpsuit rubbing against my skin as I did so. On my way over to the trash can, I glimpsed Astrid sitting on the bench...only ten feet away. I wondered whether or not I should go over and talk to her. My instinct told me not to, but my emotions got the best of me, so I walked over toward the bench. As soon as I was within five feet of her, she gazed up.

She looked shocked to see me to say the least. Her mouth was open and ajar, her eyes sizing up my choice of clothing – that was sarcastic, by the way – and then landing back on my face. Like how normal people engaged in conversation with each other.

"Hey, Gwen," she eventually grounded out, her face taut and oddly fake. This wasn't the Astrid I had known and come to love for the past few years.

"Hey, Astrid. How's it going? What are you doing here?" I asked in the politest tone possible, but my words most likely came out as hostile.

Astrid looked down at the files in her hands and then looked back up. "Oh, this is just –"

"Community service," I answered for her. Astrid nodded and giggled at the same time. See, the thing is...Astrid wasn't assigned the same sentence as Tanner and I were. It was all partly due to her parents being one of the richest families in town. She had gotten away with doing volunteer work with her parents' political party. Things like getting the Republicans ready for the next local election. I guess money really could solve all your problems and it was the same thing with Sam as well. Being that his father was the mayor, he was allowed to do volunteer work with the Democrats' side of the election. The election wasn't coming up for a while, but I guess they wanted to get a head start on the campaign process.

"So how have you been doing?" Astrid suddenly asked.

I had to force myself away from my jealous thoughts as I replied to Astrid, "Oh, you know...the usual."

Astrid looked appalled by my tone of voice and to be honest, so was I. "I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to say it like that."

"It's okay. You didn't exactly get the fairest treatment when it came to the trial. I'm sorry for that," Astrid apologized. Her face was angled toward the ground, but I could pick up on the fact that she was being genuine. A huge part of my heart melted into true sympathy for her as she said this.

"Don't forget about Tanner. He wasn't so lucky, either," I added. A tear began to slide down Astrid's cheek, sparkling in the afternoon sunlight as it rolled down her face.

"I guess it's just hard, you know?" she began to say, her one tear turning into an onslaught of sobbing. "I mean, with everything that happened between me and Sam, I thought that I could still rely on you and Tanner to be my friends. But then they split us up after the trial...and even though we still go to the same school, it's just so different than before. I feel like I have no friends anymore."

I smiled at her, trying to cheer her up, but I knew she was far too broken for me to put her pieces back together. After the trial had occurred, that very night before everything changed for good...we had decided to vow not to solve mysteries anymore and more importantly, the mystery of the Death Disc. That one simple vow was probably what had ended our relationship for good. At last, I finally spoke out loud to her, "Well, I have to get back to work. Bye."