The Illusion of Us

Chapter 11

"MJ!" The more Mina tried to drown out the sound of her friend's accusations the louder and rowdier she became. Mina was walking as fast as she could through the halls, but the faster she ran, the louder Noah seemed to grow until the sound of her voice was deafening over the rest of the student's chatter.

"MJ!" Noah practically screamed. "You know I'm right!"

Mina cast her head down, counting the monochromatic gray tiles underneath her sandaled wedges.

She needed to keep walking.

She couldn't turn around.

She couldn't stop.

Still focused on the tiles beneath her feet, she didn't realize there had been a person in her path until she and Noah both had run directly into them.

Luckily, they were both able to stay on their feet this time.

Unluckily, the person she had just run into was the person who her friend was steadily accusing of attempted murder.

"Hey." Khalil said, shrugging his backpack higher upon his shoulders.

His eyes darted anxiously between she and Noah, as if he could somehow read their minds, as if he somehow knew what they had been talking about.

"Hey." Mina mimicked, albeit somewhat more uncomfortably.

Clearing his throat in the silence that followed, Khalil nodded towards Noah's figure who had suddenly glued herself to Mina's side. "Your backpack is open." He told her.

"Thanks." Noah said through gritted teeth, intertwining her arm through Mina's and, with a quick nod towards Khalil's figure, she pulled them both hastily away.

They had barely taken two steps before Noah continued her tirade once more.

"He probably pushed him!" Noah whispered now, though her voice still retained its severity.

Khalil wouldn't do that, Khalil wouldn't hurt anybody.

"Khalil probably pushed Chris off the balcony!"

Mina paused at her friend's words, stopping mid-step, her feet rooted in place now. She forced herself to take one deep breath. Then another. Then another, in an effort to contain her growing anger and frustration with her friend.

She failed.

Grabbing her friend by the arm, rougher than she had been grabbed herself, Mina dug her nails into the skin of her exposed wrist, dragging the pair of them away from the crowd of students still lingering in the hall.

"Ow!" Noah yelled as Mina twisted her arm around, bringing them face to face with one another in the middle of an empty hall.

Her face now mimicked Mina's as she tore her arm away, and it seemed as if they both wanted to kill each other at the moment.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Mina shouted. "You can't yell things like that in the hallway!" She said with a frown. "You can't start rumors like that!"

"It's not a rumor MJ!" Noah argued, angrily caressing the skin of her wrist. "And I think you know that deep down, whether you want to admit it or not."

Mina scoffed, her eyes rolling in utter disbelief at her friend's apparent apathy and egotism.

"Khalil was the last person to talk to Chris before he was found, MJ! The last person!"

Mina was shaking her head fervently now, still trying to desperately drown out Noah's lies and accusations.

Khalil was tall and lanky with sorrowful eyes and anxiety that seemed to constantly pierce his nerves, there was no way he could have hurt anyone even if he tried.