IX
Inexplicable
~~~

Raven uncomfortably perches on the roof of her house, breaking out of her groggy daze into the real world greeted by another Californian sunset. She's a little discombobulated as she doesn't quite remember how she got up here. She's not afraid though. Not in the slightest.

Excitement suddenly overwhelms her when she sees Dick's car pull up in front of her house with Vic's right behind. A sliver of a smile slips in between her cheeks.

She watches Dick, Kori, and Jinx get out of his car, and Vic and Wally get out of Vic's. Vic and Wally instantly begin yelling at each other about what seems to be a continued argument from the car loud enough that Raven can clearly hear it from her little crouch on the roof.

"For the millionth time, Wally! I didn't steal your damn creme puffs!"

"There were like seven left in that bag, I look five minutes later, and there's one! ONE!"

"That doesn't mean I took 'em!"

"You were the last one who had the bag!"

"How do you know you didn't just eat them and then totally zoned out?"

"Pfft! I'd never have forgotten eating seven creme puffs," says Wally the braggart.

"Yeah, you would." Jinx butts in.

"Hey, Jinx, this is an A and B argument. C your way out." Wally replies flippantly.

Jinx rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, right over left: "Who are you supposed to be? Some middle-aged mom?"

"Sounds like something my mom would say," Vic remarks.

"Hey! Don't mutter while you're talking to me!" Wally insists.

"What–? Man, now you're not even making any sense."

"What did you say just then?"

"I said that you sound like my crazy black mom." Vic now crosses his arms and somehow he's smugger than Jinx usually is.

"NOOO. Your mom is insane, dude!"

"Then shut up. Because you're starting to sound crazy." Vic caps it all off with a witty grin.

"Grr. At least I don't live with that crazy woman." He grumbles.

"What?"

"Uh, friends?" Kori points at Raven sitting, now content and comfortable, on the roof.

"What the–??"

"Raven! Why are you up there?!" Vic yells. Wally and Jinx just start to laugh. "What the hell are y'all doin'?" He looks over at them in confusion.

"Are you ok?!" Dick calls.

She nods.

"Can you...uh...get down?" She looks around her, then leans over a bit to her right and notices the skylight on the far side of the roof towards the back. She answers Dick with nods once again.

"Sheesh... at least she can get down." He turns his attention to the two cackling hyenas after watching Raven disappear behind the peak of the roof. "Would you two shut up! What's so funny anyway? She could've slipped off or something!"

"How...many times...do you see Raven do something stupid?" Jinx says as she tries to calm herself.

"Not often."

"Exactly!!" Wally laughs even louder. Dick rolls his eyes and heads towards the door, taking Kori's hand. Wally and Jinx eventually follow them hand in hand as well, and Vic is carrying his bags and some of the others' bags while grumbling about being single.

Raven is already standing in the door and to their surprise, she's got a dress on.

"What's with the dress, Rave?" Vic asks. She shrugs and lets them in.

The dress isn't particularly girly. It's a simple black one that ends just above her knees and has sleeves with flared ends.

"Change." She states vaguely. Dick internally groans.

Time to decode her again.

She motions her head to the packed up food on the kitchen counter once she welcomes everyone into her house and then says lightly, "I went to dinner."

Jinx laughs, "You went to dinner before seven o'clock?"

"It was probably with some old people." Wally points out. Raven nods to him in confirmation and Wally laughs aloud.

"Something is definitely wrong. We get here and you're sitting on the freaking roof, then we come in and you're wearing a dress, and now you've said enough words to make a proper sentence." Vic says and suspiciously leans in, "Who are you and what have you done with Raven Roth?"

She playfully pushes him away and heads upstairs.

"Well someone seems happy," Vic states once she's out of earshot. "Wonder what's put her in a good mood?"

"Perhaps it is because she spoke with Kai as I asked her to!" Kori exclaims.

"Huh?"

"Ugh. Kori is trying to get Raven to move on from Gar by talking with Kai. I keep telling her it's too soon but she's not gonna listen." Dick answers Jinx whilst Kori stands with a wide, naïve grin on her face.

"He did say yesterday that he doesn't like Raven like that." Wally reminds.

"Yeah, but where have we heard that before?"

All of them concur, "We all know how that went." Jinx adds.

"I wonder why she didn't invite Kai to this." Dick think aloud.

A bunch of pillows and blankets come tumbling down the stairs interrupting his thoughts, as well as an air pump and a deflated blow up mattress.

She comes back down the stairs, "Vic," she hands him the pump and the mattress. She takes Dick's bag and places it in a corner of the room, indicating where everyone should place their belongings.

As Vic goes to blow up the bed, the two couples sit on her couch, still getting used to her new house being that none of them have been there more than once since she moved.

Raven watches over all her friends like a mother and, since none of them are looking, she sneaks in a caring smile. She is in a good mood. Why? Again, like how she got up onto the roof, she doesn't really know.

She's just happy.

It's odd. She knows what she's got to tell them today isn't particularly positive, but then again, it's not particularly negative either. So what's she worried about? Just have a good time with her friends. That's all she needs.

"So, why'd you invite us all here Raven?" Jinx asks after Vic is done blowing up the air mattress.

Raven turns to her quickly with an extremely puzzled face.

"Oh, don't give me that look. We haven't had a sleepover in years. There's gotta be some other reason."

Raven looks slightly hurt by this as it seems as the rest of her friends are agreeing with her since they've not countered her claim yet.

But quickly accepting defeat, she goes and digs through her backpack, and after pulling out at least three or four folders, she finds her phone.

She places it on the table and on the screen is a voice recording labeled "Detective Irwin's Explanation."

"Who's Detective Irwin?" Kori asks.

Raven drops her left shoulder back to look at her innocent friend. She had completely forgotten that she hadn't told any of them who she actually talked to or what she really did when she went to the police station. They simply trusted her blindly that she was making progress.

This will be, maybe, the second time she's updated her friends?

Even if no progress was made, she didn't think to tell them that nothing had happened.

She feels bad now. She would've been extremely angry if she were in their shoes.

"A detective working on Gar's case." She replies.

They're...not even complaining about it...

"How many are there?"

"Two."

"What do you think they do while you're not there?" Wally asks offhandedly.

She shrugs, "Working..." she takes an educated guess.

"Domino is so stubborn, and Ike is even worse." Dick begins, "But Gar was probably the worst. He'd probably be giving them hell just to make them let him go." He thinks aloud.

"Don't say 'was.'" She says in a weak tone. Everyone pauses looks her way. "He's not dead."

The others check Dick who looks a little embarrassed. He didn't even mean to put it like that.

"Did they find him?" Kori asks longingly.

"N-no..." Her voice becomes more scarce. "Not yet."

Vic sighs, "Rave," he begins gently and carefully, "You do realize that he could be dead, right?"

"Vic!!" Kori shouts in protest. But Dick places his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. When she looks up, he shakes his head.

Raven sighs, starts to childishly fiddle with the sleeves of her dress, then nods.

"But until they find the body there's no proof." Her chest begins to burn. She chokes it back and reaches down to the table to play the recording. "Listen."

<Five days ago, we found out from Mr. Ivy, Domino Ivy and Ike Ivy's father, that Domino actually spoke to Garfield earlier on the day of his disappearance. Ike's father was very cooperative with this information and gave it up willingly. He informed us that we could go back to his house and try to find Domino's cell phone and try and trace the call. We will also attempt to search for Garfield's phone as well.

We were also told by a teen boy that he saw a mysterious figure in the forest behind the devastated Roth residence and pursued her. When they exited the forest, she noticed him and dashed off. After investigating, we've determined that this was Domino returning to the crime scene for some reason. More investigation will be done, but those cell phones are currently our only lead.>

"What are those faces for?" Jinx asks the three boys. Their faces appear to be an interesting mix of shock and precognition.

"That 'teen boy' was Kai," Wally replies.

"Kai found Domino?!" Jinx screams. "Does he even know about any of this?"

Raven shakes her head, "I don't want him to know. Nobody tells him."

Oof. Little too late, Raven. Dick thinks.

"So he literally found this bitch in the forest and followed her? What does he have a death wish?"

"No, J, he's just got a really bad case of curiosity-itis," Vic explains.

"Like I said, a death wish."

"Domino spoke with Gar..." Kori begins to ponder aloud. "I wonder what they conversed about..."

Raven shrugs and grabs her phone.

"That's why they've got to find the phones." Dick states.

"I'm sure finding Gar's phone won't be too hard. Rita and Steve probably have it."

Raven shakes her head, "Mom checked."

"Really?" Raven nods to Jinx.

"I hope it didn't get burned in the fire," Vic mentions.

Raven, again, shakes her head left and right.

"How do you know?" Kori asks.

She goes upstairs again and comes back down in a minute. Then she places Gar's phone on the coffee table!

"You've had it?!"

"I...held onto it..." She stares at the phone and a tear streaks down her face. However, it doesn't get past her nose before she vigorously wipes it away with her sleeve. Nobody noticed.

She turns on her heels to get a water bottle.

"Did you remember you had it?" Kori asks. Raven shakes her head.

"Yesterday..."

"What's that mean?"

"'Not until yesterday.'" Kori clarifies for Vic.

"How'd you figure that out?" Dick asks her.

Kori shrugs, "It gets easier to figure it out. Just think of what she would normally say I suppose."

"But– Ugh nevermind." She switches from the micro-conversation to the main one. "Let's just give it to the police."

"No..." she replies to Jinx. "Trouble..."

"What?"

"C'mon, Raven, explain yourself please," Dick says, sounding slightly ticked now. "Don't you talk with those detectives? You don't make them guess like this do you?"

"Dude, don't be inconsiderate," Vic warns. "Let her go at her own pace."

"I'm sick of having to translate her! Why'd you stop talking normally, Raven? We never got a reason! You just shut up and shut us out!"

"Must you really ask, Dick? She is distraught over you-know-who! Is that not obvious?" Kori says, afraid to say his name in front of her despite it being said multiple times earlier.

"Yeah, I get that, but she spends whole afternoons in the police station. There's no way she does all that without speaking." He redirects his attention to Raven, "It's not like you've ever been mute. Why did you stop talking to us?" He sounds softer now. Less upset and annoyed and more disappointed and sad.

Guilt begins to bud within her. Not knowing what to do, she grabs the hem of her dress and clenches it tight.

"Dick, stop. All you're doing is stressing her hour. Besides, she's saying more than usual now. Isn't that something to at least be positive about?" Jinx points out.

Raven grabs Gar's phone off the table and holds it tight in her hands. She pulls some of her hair behind her ear and starts messing around with it. Her eyes are cast down and locked in. Even when she looks up, she avoids people's faces.

"I–" She squeaks. "I'm trying..." She manages to pull the words out of her throat and throw them at her friends. "But I can't..." Pity settles upon her friends, and on Dick, Raven's fully bloomed guilt.

She tugs at her sleeves and then sucks in her lips, eyes, and head aimed directly at the ground in front of her with her hair beginning to slide forward from her shoulders.

"Raven?" Jinx walks over to her and bends down to her level. She catches a glimpse of Raven's face before she rips it out of her friend's sight, and in the attempt, a tear or two  slip from her cheeks and onto the floor

The flower blooms beyond the limit by the minute, and Dick's guilt continues to grow with every passing second.

"Great job, Dick. Now she's crying." Jinx finally informs. Dick makes a face and doesn't move.

"Friend Raven, calm down...breathe."

Raven listens to her and immediately begins to show everyone how fast her breathing is as she tries to slow it, letting all the air escape from her mouth instead of her nose.

Soon, her breaths simplify, bringing them to normal and healthy patterns. Now she's standing upright with a flat face; Different from earlier. It was soft before, but now it's her monotonous, emotionless face that everyone is used to seeing.

"Sorry, Raven, I didn't mean to give you an anxiety attack..."

Raven stares at Dick emptily.

"Since when does she get anxiety attacks?" Wally asks. "Or am I just that clueless?"

"Yeah, when did that start?" Jinx chimes in.

"It doesn't happen often," Dick replies. "She's got a weird thing with crowd attention on her."

"But her most recent ones, we've got no clue what triggers them. It's been like a bunch of things, not just one." As Vic explains, Raven begins to walk away towards the stairs.

She goes up, then comes back with only her phone in her hand — not Gar's — then goes over to her friends.

"Monopoly or UNO?"

~~~

Hey guys! Hope you're enjoying my book so far! Don't forget to use the Q & A chapter to ask questions! Or here. Here works too. In hindsight that was kind of a dumb idea.

Eh, oh well.

~Rae

Word Count: 2534