"Reyna, I told you your father was going to be early tonight," my mother lectures me in the kitchen. Aero got here at exactly 3:00, and now I have to explain to my mom why I'm having five people over today.
"Mom, our friends are missing. I think we all just want a little extra comfort," I explain, playing the "oh I need help" card. "If you want, we can all eat dinner at the table."
"You think I can make that much food?" she questions.
"Of course!" I cheer. "You're Super Mom." Now, I play the "you're the best now let me get my way" card.
She sighs and peers around the bend and into the dining room, where Aero and my dad chat up a storm and share some hardy laughs. I'm actually a little surprised. Not only does Dad hate guests at home when he's early, but he's pretty stoic and lifeless. Thank you, Dad, for being the reason why Della can question if I have a personality.
Mom chuckles. "Well, he is a looker."
"Mom," I stress. "We're just friends. We met at Destiny's party...Destiny, who is one of the two friends missing in my life."
She gives off a resigning sigh. "Alright, they can all still come. Is everyone on their way?"
I shake my head. "Aero insisted on being here an hour early."
"Interesting," my mom sounds. "Well, I better get cooking."
Exiting the kitchen, I say hi to my dad and Aero. It's a little weird having him here. I've never had a guy at my house besides Hanzo and Makai – but I've also never had a thing for them. Aero is cute...really cute...okay, he's hot and so far, he seems really nice. As I lead him to my room, past the suicide room and the other guest rooms, I feel like everything is too small and too dirty for him. Everything about my house and my life seems too childish and trifling for him. But I know that even if I lived in the Taj Mahal, I would still feel like it wasn't enough.
"I like your house," Aero says, probably sensing my anxiousness, being as he's so perceptive. "It's cosy."
"It would be a lot cosier if your mom didn't rent out five other rooms to strangers," I retort, entering my room.
"What do you mean?" Aero questions, taking in the surroundings of my bedroom. There's white carpet, a desk and mirror, beige walls, a TV and entertainment stand, and a large window. My closet isn't too big, and I keep the doors shut because it's a cluttered mess.
"The other rooms in this hall get rented out."
"Is that why you locked the door?" he asks, nodding towards the door.
"Oh, yeah," I admit, feeling foolish. "It's a habit, sorry."
"It's alright. I was getting nervous for a second," he jokes with uneasy laughter. Aero stands awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Standing by my door, I notice how tall he is. I can stand on my toes and touch the top of the doorframe. Aero could just reach right up and grab it. I estimate him to be about six-foot.
"You can take your shoes off," I tell him as I take out the crime notebook I wrote in, during CCC. After he takes off his boat shoes, he takes the chair from my desk and brings it across from where I sit crisscross on my bed. "So I wrote down everything about the events..."
I try not to look at my backpack that sits on my desk, filled with pictures from the suicide investigation. "What is it?" Aero asks.
"What did you want to tell me?" I inquire, deflecting the question by acting as I was thinking about what he said in the hall.
Aero take a heavy sigh and leans forward in my chair, hands clasped. "Remember people in the mixed DNA?"
"Yeah," I confirm. "Destiny Prior, the twins who died ages ago, and Enzo King."
"Do you know my last name?" he questions. I would've laughed, but he just looks so serious and sad.
"I'm guessing it's King..."
He gives me a nod and begins to talk. "Enzo King the Deputy is my half-brother, and...he's not exactly normal..."
Aero explained parts of his childhood and the details about the darkness of Enzo. I wonder how Aero turned out so positive. He has such a pure demeanour that I would've never guessed about the darkness Enzo inflicted on his little brother. But now that he told me...there are ways I see the effects. I see the anger and pain that flashes in his eyes at the mention of Enzo's name, and I see the way he clenches his jaw that feathers as he tells me details of the relationship between the two.
"That's...it's a lot," I manage to say. "I mean, it's definitely suspicious."
Aero snorts. "Yeah."
"I feel bad. I mean, it's a hard topic to follow up with," I explain. "So I guess I'll tell you a few things, too."
Aero lights up with curiosity. "Like what?"
"Let me show you." I get up and enter the hallway. I step outside of "the room." I open the door and Aero steps in while I wait in the doorframe. "Where you're standing is where they found the body." Eerily, Aero backs up and steps beside me, looking down at me as I push back my strands of hair. "I was really young; eight years old. A man checked in with almost nothing but the clothes on his back. He stayed in this room for one night."
"He committed suicide..." Aero pieces together. "And he was just down the hall while you were just...sleeping." Aero's expression looks like a sad puppy who might whimper at any point. "I'm sorry."
"Out of all the ways to do it...he took the painful way out. He tied a belt around his neck and the other end around that bedpost," I nod to the correct one. "You can see where it weathered down. He ran and struggled to kill himself as if he wanted the pain."
Aero wraps an arm around my shoulders and guides us back into the hallway, shutting the door silently.
"Later," I continue my story, "we learned that his family had recently died. No one ever stayed in that room again. Or so I thought."
"You thought?" he asks, taking a step back.
"The morning after Destiny's party, the door was cracked." I reach into my pocket and pull out the first thank you note. "This was on the bed."
Aero scoffs with disgust. "This is sick. Whoever did this is disgusting."
"That isn't all..." I lead him back to my room and dump the contents of my backpack on my bed. All the pictures spill out and the note falls on top. "These were in my locker. You already read that note."
"No, I didn't," he protests. Aero nods to a different note on the bed. "I read that one. This one must be new."
My heart drops to my stomach as I pluck it from the pile and read it out loud. "Having a get-together without me? I'm hurt."
"Should we report this?" Aero asks. He clearly wants to, but he's looking to me for permission, considering that it's my life and not his.
I shake my head. "This has to be connected to the party. These could be clues as to where Makai is.
"Rey," Aero says, scooting closer to me. "Some creep is inside your house. Some creep is getting in your locker. Some creep is planting notes in your backpack. You're going to get hurt."
Evenly, I look him in his blue eyes. "Makai could be getting hurt right now, and if these notes can help me find him, then I'll take the risk."
For a moment, Aero just looks at me, studying my face as if waiting for me to agree with him that I shouldn't do this. But that hope of his isn't coming. "Alright," he says with a nod. "Then I'll help you."
I furrow my brows in confusion and shove hairs behind my ear. "I thought you already were."
"Now I'm really helping. How much are the rooms to rent?"
"You're joking."
"Not at all," he says, running a hand through his hair that looks extra soft today. "I hate my home, anyways. I've got some money saved up, so I might as well use it for a cause." "I don't understand," I admit.
"It's simple," Aero assures. "I pay your mom to let me stay here for a few nights."
I snort. "I know how rent works, Aero. What I don't understand is why you're doing all this and we just met."
Aero shrugs. "You're not the only one who wants all of this to make sense. If someone is breaking in here, there's a better chance of us figuring out who is if there's an extra person around."
"Thanks...like, a lot," I gratify. "How do you think they know I'm having people over? And the fact that the second note said 'spice things up' can't be a coincidence."
Aero opens his mouth in shock and takes my notebook. Furiously, he scrawls one word on the paper that makes me lose all security – even in my own room. Flipping the paper around, I read what he wrote.
BUGS