Who could've done it? Who hated my family enough to kill them?
I tapped my pencil on my notebook as I thought hard. I'd been picking my brain, trying to remember anything that could possibly lead to the person that killed my parents and aunt. I thought if I wrote my ideas down on paper and visually saw my thoughts, I'd be able to connect things and think differently, but so far I had almost nothing.
Our neighbor Ryan Brown and his son Henry were the only suspects I had.
Mr. Brown wanted me to record music for him, and date his son, but I said no to both. I wasn't going to record my music for a stranger and I definitely wasn't going to date his son. I'd heard that Henry did drugs and ran with the wrong crowd, so I didn't want to get involved in that.
Mr. Brown was furious that I said no, and I got scared and told my parents about him.
They immediately went over to the Brown's house to confront him, even though I begged them not to, and when they came back they told me I had nothing to worry about. He wouldn't bother me again.
I never saw him or his son after that. They must've moved away.
Six months later my parents were killed.
I couldn't know for sure if those two events were connected, but that was the best lead I had at the moment.
Now that I was thinking about anyone that might want to hurt my parents, I realized that I didn't know them very well. I never knew what was going on in their lives.
Sure I knew what they did for a living, Dad was a pianist and mom and artist, but I never understood why they were always gone out of town on business trips.
They wouldn't have to be gone all the time if they were just an artist and pianist. I always knew in the back of my mind that they were hiding something from me, but I never wanted to admit it.
What if their secret was the reason they were dead?
If I wanted answers I needed to go home. Luckily it was Christmas break in two weeks.
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
"Hey girlie." Sky greeted when she walked through the door.
"I thought you'd never get back." I cried dramatically as I stood up to give her a hug.
Jess and Sky were finally back, late Sunday night, from their family filled weekend. Now everything could go back to normal, I hoped.
"How was your weekend?" Sky asked as she unpacked her bag.
"Boring, very boring." I lied. I felt bad for not telling her the truth, but I didn't want to talk about what happened. Even the fun Matt, Drew, and I had playing football. I'd rather just block out the whole two days.
"Same girl. We just watched movies the whole time." Sky replied.
I laid down on my bed and looked at the ceiling as I tried hard not to think about anything. I've had a constant headache since I got the news about aunt Maria, probably because my mind has been working overtime trying to figure out what really happened.
"I told Jess I'd meet her in the den, wanna come?" Sky spoke up, thankfully pulling me out of my thoughts before they went downhill. I needed to stop thinking.
I shrugged, "Sure."
We walked to the den in silence, and I enjoyed the peace while I could because the minute we walked through the doors it would be anything but quiet.
"Sky, Cora, over here." Jess called out, waving us over to the couches.
As I got closer I noticed three other people with her; Matt, Cody, and Drew. Cody was sitting right beside Jess, his arm around her, and to my surprise she was barely blushing. What has happened between them that I didn't know about?
Sky sat on the empty chair when we got to them, leaving me stuck sitting between Drew and Matt.
"Fancy seeing you here." Matt said in an english accent as I flopped down beside him.
I rolled my eyes at his goofiness.
"Hey Corey." Drew said quietly so only I could hear.
"Andrew." I shot back, again quiet enough so only he could hear.
"Don't call me that." He mumbled.
"Don't call me Corey." I retorted, giving him a little smirk, we both knew I just won that. He wouldn't call me Corey again.
After that little exchange I tuned back in to my surroundings and learnt that Sky had a secret boyfriend back home, Jess and Cody were going on a date over the Christmas break, and Matt's arm was resting across my shoulders. I didn't really care that his arm was around me, we were best friends so it wasn't a big deal. Right?
"Hey so wanna go training after school tomorrow?" Matt asked, turning to face me.
"Training?" What was he talking about.
He dramatically gasped in shock and put a hand over his heart, "You wound me. Don't you remember? I'm coach Matty!"
Oh, right. "Oh course I remember! And sure, we can train after school." I told him, giving him an apologetic smile afterwards.
"This should be good." Drew said under his breath, and I gave him my scariest glare in return. I wasn't unfit to the point where it was embarrassing.
"Hey Matt, can I tag along for your coaching?" Drew asked, obviously not phased by the death stare I gave him.
"Uh sure, I guess." Matt replied, shooting a confused look Drew's way.
Drew replied it to with a shrug.
Why was Matt confused about one of his best friends wanting to hang out with him? I mean sure Drew and I didn't like each other but the three of us had fun playing football, so Matt didnt have a reason to be confused.
"If you think any harder your head is going to explode." Drew suddenly whispered, his mouth just inches from my ear, scaring the living daylights out of me.
A shiver of disgust ran down my spine as I felt his breath on me for just a second before he moved his face away.
I never wanted to be that close to him again.
"Hello? Cora? Are you listening?" Jess called, snapping me back to reality.
"Oh sorry, what?" I muttered sheepishly. I had absolutely no idea what we were talking about thanks to the demon beside me.
"What are you doing over the winter break?" She asked.
"I'm going home I think." I replied hesitantly. I didn't have a way of getting home, and no one would be at my house, but I need answers.
"Oh cool, you're visiting your aunt, right?" Sky asked, causing me to freeze for a second.
"Yeah, I haven't seen her in a long time." I lied for the hundredth time this weekend. I hated lying to everyone but I just couldn't talk about what happened, and the best way to avoid that was to not say anything about it.
After that the conversation changed and I zoned out again. But that didn't last long because I felt the curious stare of Drew burning a hole in the side of my head.
"What?" I snapped as I turned to look at him.
"Why did you lie?" He asked quietly. Even though he was a jerk he was smart enough to make sure no one overheard him say that.
"I don't know, I just don't want everyone worrying about me and trying to talk about it with me. It's better if they don't know." I explained.
"How are you getting home during the break?"
Why was he interrogating me?
"I don't know, I'll figure it out later." I replied, waving my hand dismissively.
"Alright." Was all he said, thankfully. I really didn't want to talk about any of this.
"I'm gonna go, it's getting late and I'm pretty tired." I told the group as I stood up to leave.
We all exchanged goodbyes quickly and I let out a sigh of relief once I was in the hallway.
I didn't want to go straight back to my room since I spent the majority of the weekend in there, so I decided to go to the music room. Piano always made me feel a little bit better.
As I sat at the piano bench I saw a flash of my dad at his piano. He was always sat at the piano when he was home, sometimes he'd even have supper there. Remembering him brought a smile to my face, but my heart ached.
I took a minute to clear my head from everyone and everything, and then closed my eyes and placed my fingers on the keys.
'River Flows in You′ filled the room as I played the song. It would always be one of my favourite songs, and it was the first difficult song my dad taught me.
As my fingers glided over they keys memories of mom and dad filled my mind.
The time dad tried cooking and got flour everywhere.
When mom painted a black rose but it ended up looking like an oil blob.
The sadness I felt whenever they'd leave for a business trip, and the happiness I'd feel when they came back home.
I played song after song as I went through the memories of my parents.
I didn't even realize I was crying until one of my fingers slipped on a key that was wet from my tears.
I missed them so much, and the thought of someone intentionally killing them was the scariest thought I'd ever had.
I had no family left now. What was I supposed to do?
"Dammit Cora." A deep voice suddenly said, and then a pair of arms were lifting me up and placing me on the floor.
I turned and looked at the culprit and it was Drew, sitting on the floor with me, his arms wrapped around me. Why was he always the one to see me like this? Couldn't I just cry without an audience?
Drew carefully guided my head so it was resting against his chest, and I was just too overwhelmed to fight it.
We sat there for who knows how long, with me crying into Drew's chest, and him gently running his hand through my hair.
Why was he being so nice to me? Why did he become a completely different person when I was sad?
Eventually I stopped crying, and we just sat in silence for a while. It wasn't awkward, or terrible, it was actually really nice.
"Are you okay?" Drew whispered, still running his hand through my hair.
I shook my head, "No."
"That's okay." He told me.
And he was right, it was okay to not always be happy and positive. I'd been through so much and I had the right to be sad.
"As much as I'd like to stay here like this all night, your friends are going to be looking for you." Drew muttered, but didn't make any effort to move.
"I guess you're right." I agreed, but also didn't move.
After a minute, Drew got up and put out a hand to help me up, which I accepted. If he was always like this, I might've really like him. Too bad that wasn't the case.
"I'll walk you back to your dorm." Drew offered, or more like stated.
We walked in silence back to my dorm, and I realized that we really only liked each other's company when we weren't talking.
"There you go, arrived safe and sound at your destination." Drew joked, flashing me the ghost of a smile.
"Thanks." I replied, giving him a smile of my own as I reached out for the doorknob.
"I'm going to ask you if you're okay every day, until you are." He informed me just as I was about to open the door, and then walked away before I could say anything.
Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.