Meet Me After Class

Chapter 5: Hiding In Plain Sight

He ran his hand through his dark mess of a hair. "You're right. But I'm telling you, if you go to the police now, they'd ask you more questions, and a few words won't even warrant filing a formal report."

As I gave it much thought, he was right. "And what do you think I should do? Go get more evidence?" I asked as if I was already considering it.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "You've been through this before. Remember Mrs. Gomez's nephew? Rico?" His easygoing smile was back. "Don't make the same mistake again."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I couldn't believe he would bring that up.

How could I forget about Rico? He swore he'd make me pay for nearly giving his old aunt a heart attack. But it wasn't my fault. When I saw bruises on his arms and legs, I genuinely thought she was abusing him. Despite being thirteen at the time, I did what seemed like the most adult thing and reported it.

In my defense, how the hell would I know that Rico was involved in some silly brotherhood that beat each other out. Talk about Fight Club.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and got grounded for a month. I wasn't too bothered since Penny and Adam still visited, and they were pretty much the only people I hung around with. But my parents were furious.

I let out a heavy sigh and briefly closed my eyes. Adam was right, and I couldn't afford to make any mistakes now. "Okay, let's go and gather more evidence."

He chuckled and grabbed a box of freshly delivered books from the floor. "You don't need my help. And, I'm also busy." He glanced at the box in his arms.

I shot him a glare. He wasn't refusing because he was busy; he was refusing to go with me because he was convinced Mr. Scott was another Rico, another embarrassing mistake waiting to happen.

Well, too bad for him because I knew I was right this time. And if there's anything that would happen to me, it would be all on him.

Without wasting any more energy to convince him to go with me to get more evidence, I headed for the door.

"Good luck, detective."

"Whatever! You know where to dig in case I'd go missing!" I spat, slamming the door shut and taking off, growing angrier at him for letting me do this on my own.

Half an hour later...

After being redirected to her voicemail twice, I finally got hold of Penny, wasted no time, and told her exactly what I had told Adam as I anxiously paced back and forth in my room, hoping for a different reaction from her.

"Are you sure?" she asked, although at least she sounded more convinced. "And now you want to go over to his place to get more evidence?"

"Yes!" I almost yelled. I chewed on my lower lip since I was scared and restless at the same time. I wanted to prove Adam wrong so badly that I was willing to go over to Mr. Scott's all by myself and get a piece of freaking evidence to shove it up his ass.

"So, your plan is to look for the body, take a picture, and show it to the police?" Penny asked again.

"Yes! Yes!"

"Do you even know where he lives?"

Okay, maybe I should have researched that information first. "No."

I heard her sigh from the other line, followed by a yawn. "He lives on 34 Clover Drive."

"How did you know this?" I wondered. Penny was many things, but she was never a creepy stalker.

"I overheard it. I don't know who first got hold of that information, but everyone knows about it now."

Everyone except me. Apparently.