- murderer. jacob barber

four.

x| chapter four.
' keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. '

days had gone by since the mini interrogation at school had occurred. alice had figured that if they hadn't said anything by now, she definitely wasn't on their radar. according to ollie, they shouldn't see her as a suspect anyways. she was best friends with the deceased, that should account for some sort of safety bubble, right? she tried not to dwell on it too hard since things were slowly becoming normal (well as normal as that could ever become) again for her. she did NOT wanna ruin that and sulk in it.

when she spoke to ollie after school the day she was interviewed, he made it seem like she was overreacting and didn't seem guilty at all. however, he didn't know that she lied during her interview- or whatever the hell that was. her interview actually chalked up to be a whopping twenty minutes long, while most kid's had a mere five minutes tops. though, she hadn't known that.

there was a lot she didn't know about the interrogation system.

after that day alice began keeping a journal. and no, not to write about her feelings and how dramatic her life was at this point in time. also not to talk about how lonely she was and the fact that the one friend she thought she knew the most was now just gone. and it definitely wasn't to write shitty, sappy poetry either. it was going to be used for making lists. when someone mentions lists the first things that come to mind are possibly; grocery lists? shopping lists? or lists of things to do when you're bored? no, none of that.

she was making a suspects list.

her time was now utterly devoted to finding the lunatic that stabbed her neighbor in the chest. and boy, did she have a list started. there were a lot of random people, people who probably had nothing to do with it at all. in fact most of the people on the list were put there based purely on feelings. like this weird old man that lived on their street. his name was alvin, or maybe alfred? either way he gave alice the creeps.

but then there was the top name on her list. he was someone who was very easy to place there. he wasn't necessarily in her past but he sure was in ben's. she heard his name come up in late night facetime calls frequently when ben was alive. she'd even been there once when ben beat the shit out of him. according to ben he was a total basket case and complete weirdo.

jacob barber.

though alice had never actually had a conversation with the boy, she believed every word ben had told her. he did seem rather creepy anyways, so there was no way that ben could be lying about it. and that is why he was on the top of the list. he was creepy, but he also hated ben. he must've. anyone would hate the kid that was more popular, that was common sense. alice figured maybe he had done it out of jealousy. either way, she was totally disgusted by the boy.

however, she devised a plan. it was simple, considering most people apparently thought he was a killer too. there were dozens of rumors spreading like wildfire around the high school about the boy. even posts on instagram devoted to claiming he was guilty. honestly, everyone else made it too easy for her. but what was the plan you may ask? it stemmed from a quote she had heard once in her freshman year of literature.

'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.'

and that was exactly what she planned on doing.

_________________

opening her locker, alice hummed while glancing down the hallway. lunch had just gotten done, but she'd eaten in oliver's car with him instead of in the cafeteria. all the kids in the cafeteria gossiping just gave her bad vibes. she was now grabbing books for her last hour of the day, but also was beginning her slight little plan.