eleven
the assembly from hell
FIRST PERSON
WE FIGURED OUT THE real truth about Elisia's parents and were sitting on her bed trying to guess who we think Monkey Man is.
"My guess is Brandon; he's a dick," Rowan suggested.
"Me too. He got aggressive with me the other day and then I got a note in my locker saying to not trust all," I confessed once more. "It's just weird."
"Then what if that means something," Rowan offered an idea to my suspicion.
"Yeah, what if Brandon is Monkey Man and is trying to help you figure it out?" Hailey added.
"Who knows," is all I said. "I don't see why he would want us to know if he was."
Hailey nodded in understanding before she straightened her posture in thought. "What about Jake?"
"No," Rowan defended almost immediately until she caught herself. "I don't really know," stuttering a bit.
"It's not Jake," Elisia confirmed. "He slept on the couch for a year so I could have a room."
"Everyone's a suspect," Hailey reminded her.
"What about your sister, Brie?" Elisia asked.
"Are you serious?" Rowan asked in disbelief.
And that's when they all started arguing.
"I'm with Ro on this one; I don't think it's Brie," Hailey tried to mediate the conversation.
"You said everyone's a suspect," Elisia repeated her words that made her argument valid.
"What about Ash then?" Rowan asked.
"You don't know him," Elisia shut her theory down.
"He seems kinda like a loser," Rowan instigated.
"Rowan," I stated sternly.
"Do you know what its like to live on the street?" Elisia asked, becoming upset by her accusation.
Rowan took a second before whispering in guilt, "no."
"Don't talk about him," Elisia warned her. "You wanna put me on the list too, Rowan?"
She didn't get any time to respond as her phone started to ring again. "It's my dad. Now I really have to go."
"Well, this has been fun," Hailey declared sarcastically.
"You're still staying at my house right?" Rowan asked Hailey, pausing to get her answer.
"You're gonna have to face your dad on your own. I can't," Hailey told her.
♡
I was a little nervous for today but when I saw Rowan and Hailey waiting for me, I felt better. It was nice to know I wasn't alone in all this paranoia and worrying.
"Hey guys," I greeted.
The assembly was about to start. Simultaneously as I approached them, Hailey got a notification. It immediately caused Rowan and I to tense.
"Who is it?" Rowan asked.
"It's just Sean," Hailey answered. "I went to his house last night."
I couldn't believe her words. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, especially since he's best friends with Brandon who could be you know who," Rowan said, not completely getting why I'm upset but still tried on her account nonetheless.
"Next thing you're gonna tell us is that Sean could be Monkey Man," Hailey argued, bringing me into the sentence but I was still mad over her seeing him.
"I'm with him every second, I know it's not him," I defended. "And I'd like not to know whether or not you see him. I don't appreciate it."
Hailey just pursed her lips, knowing I was right.
"He could be, anybody could be," Rowan said. "Jake. Brie."
"Are you kidding me?" Hailey asked in disbelief. "I am so sick of being scared. I needed a night off."
I still couldn't comprehend it. "Yeah, with my cousin who is still dating your best friend."
Hailey glared at me but wasn't able to say much in order to defend herself because Rowan interrupted.
"Well, when you got a night off— I figured out how to stop this assembly," she told us, but mainly Hailey.
"I'm just saying, it was a really big night for me and I wanted to talk about it to my friends," Hailey said looking at us both; it honestly made me even more mad.
"No offense Cynthia, but isn't Sean a little douchy for you, Hailey?" Rowan made sure to target me with the apology but I honestly couldn't agree more.
"None taken," I said.
"I have to go," she said to the both of us.
Even though I was disgusted by her actions (cheating is a sensitive subject for me), I decided to follow after her. I knew she wanted a normal conversation for once and was obviously bothered by being targeted.
"Hailey! Wait up!" I hollered, calling her name.
She stopped for me, probably expecting to be reprimanded some more. I knew it was better not to but I needed to get my point across.
"Listen, I'm sorry about my attitude but I don't really favor listening to you talk about Sean," I explained to her, before sighing. "My family was ruined because of cheating so I just hate knowing you're doing the same to Nicki. It's not a big deal, I know, but it's just something that I think about when you talk about him."
Hailey nodded. "I get it, and I'm sorry...I didn't know."
"It's fine," I shook my head. At least she understands where I'm coming from and knows to not make the same mistake again for my sake.
We walked in together and—speaking of the devil—we pondered on Nicki and Sean looking like they were having a argument. She glanced at me noticeably but I decided to not acknowledge it, continuing to find a seat while she trailed right behind me.
Then Nicki sat with us.
"Hey, Cynthia," she smiled. I just waved.
They started to have a conversation so I just ignored it and focused on the assembly.
"Cynthia, you wanna come to my party?" Nicki asked me out of the blue, handing me a green flyer. "Brandon made them. I'm sure you're familiar with him."
"Why do you say that?" I furrowed my brows while accepting the paper in total confusion.
"Because he told me about how you guys kissed," she whispered toward me. "He won't stop talking about you," she then gestured her head behind me.
I turned around and noticed Sean was talking to him but he was focused on me. I faced away from him before he would think I was trying to insinuate something and turned to Hailey for some comfort.
She gave me a soft smile, reassuring me before we both turned to face the front. A video started to play. It was talking about strict parents, until it showed a video of Hailey putting pills in her mom's drink.
I grabbed her hand. I turned around and saw Brandon and Sean looking at her. Then I got a message on my phone; it was from Monkey Man.
M0NK3YM4NNN:
you and Rowan... who's next?
My face paled at the message, gripping onto Hailey a little too tightly. "We need to get out of here."
We all got up and left.