Until We Meet Again

Chapter 8

"I'm going to murder her!" Derrick's face was the color of fury. His veins bulged in his neck and temples. Spit sprayed in the air every time he talked. "She killed my mother. Release me!" Police officers grabbed him by his arms, holding him back. Derrick tried to force himself free from their grasp. His arms were wailing side to side violently.

"Derrick, she didn't kill your mother!" Lauren's motherly arms wrapped themselves around me. I was crying into her arms. I was too stunned by the horrific scene I had just witnessed. It was all entirely my fault. I had no clue why I decided to skateboard in the middle of the road. It was the stupidest decision I had ever made. Derrick swore a couple of times at me. I was too young to understand what any of his words meant.

"Would you like to press charges?" A police officer came to my sister. Derrick was in the back of the patrol car handcuffed.

~~

After Derrick's mother died, I received plenty of counseling. They were supposed to make me feel better, but they never did. All my "therapist" did was drug me with depression pills.

Sometimes the look on Derrick's mother's face woke me up late at night screaming. Her face was petrified, no words could describe how terrorized she had looked at me. In the course of a week, my mother and sister watched me change. I went from a clownish girl to a self-enclosed person. My attitude and appearance changed drastically. I never wanted to be that girl again. It was my happiness, my foolishness that killed her. Something that would remain engraved in my mind forever.

~~~

Derrick opened the door for me. I was waiting for his smile to vanish as soon as he laid his eyes on me. His arms shot up, which made me flinch. I was expecting two forceful slaps, maybe a punch. A hug wasn't what I was expecting.

"Tess! Look at you. You're a woman now!" Derrick's hug continued abnormally long.

Maybe he's reminiscing, I had thought to myself.

"Derrick!" I shouted. He dropped his arms. I surveyed his face thoroughly. His eyes were a bit too far apart, but other than that he was average looking. He wasn't necessarily ugly but he wasn't handsome enough to be classified as gorgeous, or at least in my opinion. "You grew facial hair!"

"You're such a mature woman now, wow!" He looked at me up and down. I could feel my cheeks reddening.

I asked him where Lauren was but he was too busy staring into my eyes thinking. I averted my eyes from his gaze and that's when he responded.

"Lauren is still packing at your old house. She will join us later."

I checked around the house. What had been so familiar greeted me like a stranger. Derrick's mother's old room would now be resigned to me. Derrick and my sister, as much as I hated thinking about the grossness of it, would be sleeping together in a room.

Then there was another room. Derrick made sure he got the point across when he told me that nobody was allowed inside. Not even Lauren could enter. It made me suspicious, but I pulled the thought away considering that it was just Derrick. Derrick was practically harmless. He cared about Lauren more than anything else on this planet.

Lauren told me that once when he went to work, she went inside and it was pretty much a shrine dedicated to his mother. Yeah, it made me feel pretty crappy.

"Tell me about yourself," he sat me down on the couch, making me feel welcomed.

Ever since I killed your mother I've pretty much hated my life. "I'm still the same girl. I just picked up new hobbies like drawing, and playing the cello."

"That's good to hear" he smiled at me. "I know you probably hate me for bringing it up but since that day"

Oh no, my stomach clenched. Why so soon?

"I hated myself for snapping at you. You were just so young, I know it wasn't your fault. I'm so sorry for the trouble I caused you. Your sister told me everything you went through, and for that I'm gravely sorry."

Yeah, I lost ten pounds in a week, I didn't talk to anyone, and I wanted to die.

"I shouldn't have been stupid—" he cut me off mid-sentence.

"You were young, you weren't thinking about the consequences." He cupped his face with his hands. "I'm so sorry, I ruined our friendship."

I'm sorry I killed your mother. "It's fine."

~~~~

"Alex....why did you do it?" I looked at him with sad, pleading eyes.

"I...I don't know" he cried.

Alex stood over my body. He had just stabbed me in my chest with no words said.

"Alex" obviously hurt, my voice broke as I said his name.

He swiftly sat down next to me and grabbed me, his arms holding my back. "Tess! Tess!" He shouted.

~~~~

I checked the digital clock. The time was four thirty two. I felt like balling my eyes out. My mind fooled me into thinking that Alex, my best friend would cause me so much pain. I could still feel the knife lodged into my chest cavity.

I grabbed out my phone.

"No. Way" I nearly dropped it. There were about twenty pictures of me sleeping, some in Derrick's house, and some in the old house! One was taken the same day Alex slept over at my house. All of the pictures that I had taken of the letter couldn't be found, not even in my recently deleted pictures, so I went to my email. No luck there either.

A random app appeared on my phone. Hoping, no praying that it wasn't what I thought it was, I opened it up out of curiousity.

Hey, Tess

Don't Tess-t me (haha, get it? ;))

If you want a hint at my identity, I'll give you it in the form of a poem. I come without explanation, and I leave without hesitation. I'm everywhere but nowhere in your eyes. I follow you, but you're not aware because of my disguise.
  We're getting closer to having fun. As for what I want...I simply can't tell you it just yet. Where's the fun in that? Entertain me, Tess. Keep running from me, keep hiding, it only makes me want it more.

Check your suitcase for a special surprise ;)— XoXX XXXX

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Don't mock my poetry skills.

   It pains me to have to go back and edit😭😭😭. I honestly CANNOT because it makes me want to enclose myself in a box and ship myself to Moscow, Russia, where boxes ship you instead.