Traces of Delilah

Nineteen

That's when it clicked in Delilah's head. There was only one person who could have been petty enough to tell Julia. The very person who was still pissed and out for blood—enough blood to want to sabotage Delilah. Silvia was there when Oliver and Delilah were talking. She overheard everything.

"Screw you! I didn't sleep with him! And I don't owe an explanation to you for anything I do with anyone. That's not your business. Just know, you're wrong. You think you know everything, but you fucking don't!" I scowled.

During this entire ordeal between them, something had been bothering me. 

I knew Oliver liked Delilah. I knew Thomas was in love with Delilah. But Jace? He was the last person on my mind that I thought would have liked her too. They hadn't seemed all that close. It was weird. She had three people crushing on her at once. I wondered if there were any more, I didn't know about.

"Thomas puts up with your shit all the time. If he wanted to cheat, he would have done so already. And it probably wouldn't have been with me!" My hands were shaking as I glared into Julia's eyes. Her smirk dropped from her face. There was an emotionless expression. One I couldn't quite make out.

Delilah was tempted to hit her. I could feel it. But something was stopping her from doing so.

What I'd learned from Delilah's memories was Delilah had always been a passive person. She avoided drama and only came out of character when she was so mad, she couldn't control herself. 

If she'd have hit Julia, there was one of two ways that situation could have gone. Julia could have run back crying to Thomas about how Delilah had attacked her, then things would have gotten ugly. Or Julia would have beaten her to a bloody pulp and left her where she was.

"I'm giving you one last warning, Delilah. Stay the hell away from Thomas. I won't say it again. Next time, I won't be so nice. Don't tempt my friends to blow up your phone again. Maybe this time you'll actually take their advice and disappear." Her threat caused a lump to form in my throat.

The words friends and blow up your phone had been what was running through Delilah's head. As she thought about it, I could see every single harassment message she'd gotten over the past month flashing through my mind.

Well shit. Damnit, I knew it. It had been Julia all-along.

She may not have sent the messages herself but she was behind them. My gut was right per usual. That'd explain why the numbers appeared unknown. Even if Julia was the one sending them, there was no way Delilah could have had stored Julia's number stored in her phone.

Before Delilah could respond, Julia had already scooped up her heels. She slipped them on one after the other, then strutted back out where she came from. Now, she was gone yet Delilah's head was still spinning. I saw the tears blurring my vision. They pricked my eyes until I found the strength to wipe them away.

"Fuck my life," was what it sounded like I muttered. Was I laughing? That wasn't normal laughter. It was the kind of soft maniacal laughter someone would make when they knew they weren't okay.

I slipped my trembling hands into my pocket, retrieving my phone. The date was April 15th, 2019. It was displayed in the top right corner of the screen. Shit, was this all within a span of forty-eight hours? Maybe even less. Her and Oliver had just hung out the day before! I remembered the date on his phone. This girl just couldn't catch a break.

I couldn't help but notice Delilah hadn't saved many contacts in her phone. She had scrolled through all of them a total of three times, only passing a few familiar names. There was Thomas, Camille, Makayla, Nyla, Mateo, and Oliver. Everyone else was either family or acquaintances.

My thumb hovered over Thomas' name and my sniffles blocked out the noises around me. I was so close to pressing his caller ID. To pressing the button that would have initiated the call. Instead, I removed my thumb and clicked out of his contact. I did the same for the next few names she thought of getting in contact with. 

But the results were the same.

She wanted to call someone. Anyone. She hadn't known who though. So, she refused to call anyone. It was the same thing I'd done when I thought my life was going to end in the lighthouse. Except I ended up calling Skylar.

An image of my father had gone through my head multiple times. I should have told him. But my father had enough on his plate to worry about. The lighthouse situation would have sent him over the edge. 

I imagined his feet guiding him out the door and into his brand-new red Chevrolet Tahoe, with a shotgun in the backseat, as soon as the words reached his ears. I'd always been daddy's little girl who he wanted to keep out of harm's way.

I wasn't sure if Delilah had been taking Julia's threat to heart or if she hadn't wanted to disturb any of her friends. It seemed like a fifty-fifty thing. Even if she had chosen someone to confide in, there was always that fear of what was to come after. 

Because Julia wasn't going to disappear easily. Not without a restraining order or throwing her ass behind bars. It hadn't seemed like Delilah wanted to do either of those things though. 

She'd been keeping the harassment from her friends and her family. I remembered how quick she hid her phone from her mother the first time I saw the messages. The tears on her face had cleared up so fast.

I guess I could understand why she'd done that. Her mother seemed like the type of woman that would want to move them out of Baskerville as soon as she found out. And if she couldn't move, she'd have probably demanded legal action be taken. Delilah seemed to have been trying to avoid that. But it felt like there was something else.

Was it wrong of me to assume Delilah was scared of losing the only people she had? It seemed obvious. Delilah hadn't kept many people close to her. Then, there was also the only guy she cared about more than anyone else. I couldn't think of any other reason she'd have hid this.

I often wondered where it all began. The moment she started ignoring everyone, including Thomas. Maybe this was it, after all. All of this fucked-up drama was going to give me whiplash one of these days. I could've also been onto something, really. If my assumption was true, then this could have been the reason, she started ignoring everyone. Maybe there was more. A chunk of a reason, bigger than just this. 

Was Delilah hurt enough to block everyone out? She could've been. Shit, her death was a few days from now too. Jace had mentioned she wasn't on speaking terms with Thomas a few days before the day her and her family were found dead. Andrew had mentioned the same exact thing. I remembered that much.

I guess, if I were to be technical, I was only going off the memories she showed and the dates, but if they were right, it made sense with Delilah's timeline. . . To think everything was starting to come together. I was so close; I could feel the truth creeping up on me. 

I had been itching to understand what kind of messed-up shit this bracelet was leading me to. I thought I'd have to search for more answers on my own too. But the memories weren't quite done yet. This had only been the start.