Steve drove me, Max, and Robin home after school today. The phone was ringing when we walked in, and Steve picked it up.
"Yello?" He asked, tossing his coat on the couch. He nodded. "Yeah, it's Steve. Yeah, I'll tell her. Thanks." He smiled, hanging up the phone. "Daisy."
"Yeah?" I asked, staring at the food in the cupboards. I selected a packet of crackers, glancing at Steve.
"Kieth called, said he's got people lined up to work all week at the arcade." He grabbed a cracker from me. "So, you're free for break."
"Oh." I nodded. "Cool."
"You gonna come to the game with me tonight then?"
"No, I'd rather not third wheel."
"Fine." He muttered. "Me and Robin will have a great time without you."
"Fine. I'll just go hang out with Max."
He nodded. "Bring her a soda or something."
"'Kay," I muttered, flopping on the couch. The tv was left open to channel 12, one we got in the trailer park. Back to the Future just came out on channels, and had been playing on repeat for about a week now.
"What should we do for dinner?" He asked.
"I dunno, order a pizza or something."
A new pizza shop just opened downtown, called Surfer Boy Pizza. Apparently, they're a chain from California. I don't know why there's one here, but there is. And it's super popular, it put the old one out of business.
"Why don't you?"
He scoffed, changing the subject. "I brought home a few movies if you want. They're in my bag."
"Which ones?"
"Uh, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Sixteen Candles, and the Breakfast Club. Robin said you'd probably like the first one." He held up three tapes from his backpack. "Wanna see if you can cheer up Max?"
I took the first two tapes, leaving Steve with the Breakfast Club. Walking to Max's, I noticed the sky getting darker. The moon was peeking over the trees already. I brought her a soda, and we watched Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. It got pitch black, like usual, and Steve brought over the rest of a pizza he'd ordered. It had been pepperoni, but he picked it all off the pieces he left us. Thanks, Steve.
We watched Sixteen Candles after that, both agreeing it was a little dumb. I went home, walking down the gravel road in the dark. Max met with the neighbor's dog again, feeding it whatever was in her fridge.
Eddie decided to pull up right then, in his van. Out climbed him and Chrissy. Of course, it was Chrissy. Either they were hooking up, or she was buying drugs. Who knows.
Steve came back with a girl around nine-thirty, probably thinking I was still at Max's. I was not. And I could hear everything, and I did not like it.
Funny enough, once the girl left, Eddie started screeching over in his trailer about something too. I just could not get a break. I had my lamp next to my bed on, which started flickering. The tv playing outside sounded like it was going haywire too. The Breakfast Club kept glitching in and out, like the channels when the power goes out. But it wasn't a channel, it was a tape. So why was it messed up?
By the time I got up to investigate, the lights in the entire trailer were flickering.
"What's going on?" Steve asked, messing with the tv antenna.
"Fucking power again." I smacked his hands away from the antenna, messing with the dials on the side, and the VHS player.
"That's not gonna fix anything." He said.
"Yeah?" I whacked the side of it, hitting it with a loud thud. The tape began playing normally again, and the sound filled the room.
I slept through the sirens but woke up when the phone rang. Hurrying to get it before the call ended, I grabbed it off the hook and dropped it on the floor.
"Daisy?!" Steve asked. "Hello?"
"Hello?" I muttered, holding the phone in one hand.
"Oh, good. Okay." He sighed. "You see Eddie's?"
"No?" I frowned. "Munson? What about him?"
"Look outside, and get ready to be on the news." He replied. "I just needed to call and check in, they said there was a body found in his trailer-"
"A body?" I asked, checking the kitchen window. There wasn't a great view of Eddie's from there. But I did see a ton of bright yellow caution tape, six police cars, and two ambulances. "Shit, I gotta go."
"No, wait-"
I hung the phone up, pulling on a pair of pants before stepping outside.
Half the neighborhood was out as well, watching the news trucks pull in. The new chief was putting up caution tape all over the front of Eddie and Wayne's trailer. A few were chatting near the door, and two were climbing in the trailer.
Steve was already at work, and the air was crisp. I shivered in my oversize t-shirt and baggy jeans. I didn't have shoes on, just my socks on the dirty ground.
Max was outside too, right up by the police tape. She leaned around an officer, presumably trying to see inside. If I was chilly, she must've been freezing in her t-shirt dress.
"What are you doing?!" An officer asked. She turned around, jumping slightly. "You shouldn't be here. Get back inside."
She glanced back at Eddies, the police tape just fifteen feet from where I was standing. Max locked eyes and nodded, running back to her house. I walked around the trailer next to mine a bit, trying to see inside. I couldn't see much from my-
The phone rang inside. I sprinted inside, answering it immediately.
"Harrington's, what do you want?" I asked.
"Daisy-" Max muttered. "Daisy we need to go."
"What?" I tucked the phone on my shoulder, watching through the kitchen window.
"Look, I saw who it was." She continued, shuffling with something in the background. "Get dressed and meet me at my place with your board, got it?"
"Uh, yeah?" I asked. "Who is it? What happened?"
"Can't talk, just hurry." She said, hanging up.
I followed her instructions, changing out of my sleeping shirt and into a tank top. I put one of Steve's sweaters on top, a faded blue color, and very warm. I put my jacket on top, emptying my backpack of school things and carrying it to Max's with my skateboard.
She was waiting on her porch, tapping her foot loudly with her bike leaned against her lap. She had her backpack on, ready to leave.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" I asked.
"I'll tell you on the way!" She said, rushing to the road. They had already set up a table by the side, where an officer was sitting, a pen and paper in hand.
"Hey, where are you two going?" He asked, holding out a hand.
"Friends house," Max said.
"Who are you? Are you both residents here? Sisters?" He continued, tapping the pen on the clipboard.
Max answered while I watched a few workers roll a stretcher under the police tape. There was a black body bag on top, clearly containing something, but it looked like an odd shape, and not the way a laying down person looks.
"You're Max Mayfield and Daisy Harrington?" He repeated.
"Yes," Max said.
"Alright, be safe." He muttered. "Curfews at dark, got it?"
"Thanks." I nodded, rushing after Max to the road. She hopped on her bike immediately, barely giving me time to catch up. "Wait, Max, what happened?"
She slowed a bit. "It was Chrissy Cunningham."