Aubrey

May 16, 2023

"I found this really good dress shop like twenty minutes from here" Nova informed me, "so I think I'm gonna drive to Norwood, get Zach, and bring him here instead. I know it's more of a hassle, but then we can also just have him leave the slips in our house."

"Nova" I groaned, "it's like, 7 am. Zach isn't even at school yet. Why are you up right now?"

"I'm an early bird babe, you know this," my wife said with an ear-to-ear grin. "But I'll let you rest."

***

Nick

I had spent all night pacing, thinking, and just stressing about my conversation with Gigi. Even though I have only known her for a day, I think I could trust her. I mean she's cute, she seems smart, and she could read me like a dictionary.

"Just do it" I egged myself as I threw on a shirt to match the sweats that I had already been wearing, and some shoes. I grabbed my keys and dashed to my car as if somebody had been chasing me. My mind was racing and I figured that if I didn't think about it, I wouldn't feel bad for doing it, or, more obviously, stop myself.

I got to the therapy center and walked in, right past the reception desk. "Excuse me!" a little old lady called out, but I kept walking. I got into the elevator, pressed the second floor, and allowed my chest to heave as I tried to avoid my thoughts.

"Go time" I whispered as the elevator doors opened.

I crept my way to Gigi's room, trying to see if I'd hear any voices emanating from there, and I did not.

"Hi!" I forced out as I made this weird pivot move that placed me at the doorway of Gigi's room. She looked at her watch, then back at me. "Nick, you're a night session patient" she informed me, "and I thought we agreed on once-a-week visits?" I nodded, "right."

"But I need to tell you something and if I wait, I'll probably end up refraining from mentioning it. I see you're on lunch, and probably wanna be alone, but I swear I will take only ten minutes if only that. I don't want advice or even an input. I just need somebody that I barely know and don't have to worry will use this against my friends and me, to know."

Gigi looked a little concerned, but took a sip of her coffee and obliged. "Come in. Close the door."

"Okay," I said as I was closing the door. "A few months back, one of my best friends, Lewis, was accused of rape. He ended up being acquitted of said crime because the victim was murdered during his press conference and the girl's family didn't want the trouble of the case going on anymore. He was also cleared of the murder because he obviously didn't kill the girl if she died during his conference."

Gigi nodded, "I remember hearing this story" she confided in me. "Didn't know you were his friend. That must've been a hard time for you guys."

"Yeah," I said, "painful. But it gets worse."

"So whatever, time passes, I think this girl's body was released to family. Like two months or so after her body was given back and she was presumably buried, a box gets mailed to Lewis' dorm. This must've been like, a week ago?" Gigi cupped her hands together. "What was in the box?"

"Cassidy's head." Gigi had been mid-sip as I said that, but she ended up spitting her drink out.

"What?" Gigi asked me, "are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Nick, you know I have to give this information to the police, right?" Gigi asked me. I folded my lips and sighed. "I know," I said, "and they might be mad but I can't hide this anymore."

Lewis

I heard a loud bang on my door, one that damn near gave me PTSD from the time that I had been arrested for alleged rape. "Uh, who is it?"

"The Tallahassee police department," a deep voice said. "Open the door, Mr. Tavares."

"Shit" I groaned, realizing that I'd been procrastinating all week with the head. I shoved the box under the table in the kitchen and ran to the door. "Wassup?"

"We've been given the right by Florida State University to perform a search warrant on this dorm" the officer informed me as he and another cop walked by. "Uh, okay" I let out nervously, "can I ask what happened? Or why there's a warrant."

"A tip told us that you have something capable of incriminating you in this home, earlier today." Confusion came over me as I tried to think of who could've possibly done that. Nobody else in the group knew that I had Cassidy's head still.

"I think I found it!" the other cop said, making his way back to the living room with the box.

"Look," I said, "I'm willing to go down to the station and answer questions. The only bad thing I did was not report it, but I swear I didn't hurt Cassidy."

"We'll see about that" the officer replied. "For now, I'm gonna need you to turn around for me Mr. Tavares. You're under arrest for the murder of Cassidy Daniels." My heart sank to my ass.

Nova

"Alright, I made a separate group without Hailey and explained my reasoning for creating said group to them," Aubrey said as she walked back to where Zach and I were standing. "Have we come to a conclusion on the prom dress yet?" I nodded.

I held up a white column-shaped dress with floral mesh hallow long sleeves and a deep v-cut collar. It was really pretty, though I don't think I could ever pull it off. Aubrey smiled, "she's gonna look good."

The dress itself was like, 300 dollars, which I didn't mind paying at all. As we made our way back to the house, I kept having this weird feeling about something. Nobody in our group barely talked to one another today, and everything just seemed, quiet.

"Why are their cops surrounding our home?" Aubrey asked as we got on our street. "Uh," I let out, "I really hope somebody didn't drop another creepy box."

We couldn't park in the driveway, because a cop car was there, so we parked on the side of the street instead. An officer made his way to our vehicle.

"Are you the owner of this house?" he asked Aubrey, who was driving. She nodded, "me and my wife" she informed the officer. "Why? What's wrong?"

"We were given your address by your friend, Lewis. He gave everybody's addresses. You guys need to go to the station, now." I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Why?"

"Your friend was arrested for the murder of Cassidy Daniels earlier," the officer said. "Based on the evidence we found, it seems that you two, amongst some others, may have been accomplices. With that being said, I'd clear my name if I were you guys."

"Shit," Zach groaned when the officer walked away.

"More than shit" I whispered.

"Deep, shit" Aubrey stated, emphasizing the "deep."

***

Lewis

"What's going on? May asked as she came in with Jason, Aubrey, Nova, and Zach. "Where's Hailey and Nick?" I asked, "they were brought up too."

"Don't tell me you ratted on us" Jason said, "because that's low given your circumstances Lewis."

"I didn't" I answered. "They came to my dorm with some search warrant, and when they found the box, they arrested me on the spot."

"I thought you sent the box back?" May asked, to which I shook my head. "I totally forgot to. I was busy. I'm sorry but I didn't know that somebody was freaking watching me."

"Somebody sends you a box with a person's head, and you don't know that they're watching you," Aubrey said with sarcasm, "that intuition you got there sure is something huh Lewis?" I sighed.

Suddenly, Nick walked in to join us. He didn't seem scared, or eager, or anything really. He clicked his jaw and had his arms folded. "Hello."

"What's up with you?" Nova asked.

"Nun" Nick replied casually, shrugging.

"Have you heard about what's going on?" Jason asked, and Nick nodded. "I knew before y'all did."

"How?" I asked, squinting. Now I was the one folding my arms. Nick shrugged, "just did."

"Nick, did you snitch?" Aubrey asked, "because your demeanor is saying you did."

"Mmmm not directly" Nick admitted, and anger filled me. "You told Rico didn't you?" I asked, "I swear I'm gonna hurt that little bi-"

"It wasn't Rico," Nick said, avoiding eye contact. "I told the therapist that I'd been seeing."

"Why?" The rest of us asked in unison. "You know they gotta report shit like that Nick" Nova informed Nick, "why the hell would you do that?"

"I don't know," Nick said, rubbing his temple. "At the moment, it felt right. I felt like I had been freed of something. Now I realize what kind of trouble we might just be in." I scoffed. "Me," I said, "not we."

Outside, we could hear yelling and resisting. It sounded like someone was being taken out of a car or something, and didn't wanna come inside the building. Nick looked particularly concerned.

"That voice..." he trailed off.

"Okay wait," Aubrey said, "I think I've heard that voice too. Like, real shit."

Moments later a girl came through the door. She was kicking and screaming and seemed as if she didn't want us to see her. Both Aubrey and Nick gasped.

"Who's that?" May asked, now curious.

"That's my therapist," Nick said, "why is she being arrested? Is telling the police a crime?" I shook my head, "no" I said, "it's not."

"I don't know about all that therapist talk," Aubrey said, "but one thing I do know for sure is that she's Rico's sister." Everybody went wide-eyed.

"What?" Jason asked, "How came Nick didn't know that?" We looked over at Nick.

"I never actually met Rico's sister" Nick informed us. "He mentioned her, and told me she was a loser or some shit, but I didn't make an effort to meet her."

"Well I did" Aubrey retorted, "and that's her."

"Juliana Semedo, you are under arrest for impersonation, blackmail, and harassment" an officer announced to Julie as we stood around.

"Rico's last name is Semedo" Nova said. "There's truth in Aubrey's statement."

"Impersonation," Nick said in realization, "she was never a therapist, was she?" We had all seemed to catch on before Nick. As we shook our heads "no" to Nick's question, a cop approached us.

"Good news," the officer said, "really good news. The head you received Mr. Tavares, was nothing more than a very nicely done wax job. It wasn't Cassidy Daniel's real head." I smiled, "thank goodness."

"Secondly," the officer continued, "we examined the whole box and found a message stating that Nova would be next if she didn't back off Aubrey. We assume this package was sent to you and not to Mrs. Milan-Bryant's home because your address has been made public records since the rape allegations." I nodded, "yeah, that makes sense."

"So, that girl over there, is she responsible for this?" The cop nodded. "It was funny actually because she reported it. So she self-incriminated and didn't even realize that she had done that."

"She was pretending to be a therapist who had died last year" the officer informed us. "The therapist was Juliana's old therapist, and the psychiatric center had yet to remove the deceased from the database. So Julie took on the identity of her former therapist, Giselle Alvarado."

"Did you pick her as your therapist Nick?" May asked, and Nick shook his head. "She was assigned."

"The center will most likely be shut down soon" the officer stated, "they failed a lot of other basic inspections in the past as well. I can assure you that Ms. Semedo won't bother you guys again however, we're sending her to a psychiatric ward. After that, she'll be looking at a prison sentence of some sort."

"Was this like, premeditated?" Nick asked the cop. He made a "so and so" face. "She wasn't spying on you guys like how you might think" he stated. "She has mental problems, and even if Nick hadn't requested therapy, she would've still taken on that identity. She wasn't originally out to get Nick, but when she saw that he was coming to the facility, she saw the opportunity in him."

"What made her send the head? Do you know?" I asked, and the officer shrugged. "As I said, she has mental issues. People like that are hard to dissect. They do things and leave you wondering why."

"That's crazy," Jason said, "she scammed her way through a system and not a soul took notice."

"I wanna scam" Nova randomly added, with the cop giving her a questionable look. "I don't care if it's a crime" Nova continued, looking at the cop. "I wanna become a part of the scam family. The scamily."

"Nova," Aubrey said, clearly trying not to laugh. "Rich people don't need to scam."

"Scamily" Nick smiled.

***

Nova

"Wait," I said to Aubrey as we had just entered Orlando, on our way to drop Zach back home and stop by Hailey's place so that we could inform her of tonight, "what was your plan about Connor?"

"Not that it matters now" Aubrey began, "but I was gonna take the place of Hailey, that's all."

"You were just gonna do that without running it by me?" I asked as we pulled up beside Hailey's house, "oh." Aubrey shook her head.

"I was gonna tell you, babe," she said, "I just forgot about the whole thing. I didn't even think to do it let alone tell you." I nodded, "okay," I said, not wanting to start some pointless argument.

"This is Hailey's house" I pointed out, changing the subject. "What about dropping Zach off?"

"Oh, I stay here as of," Zach said, prompting a witty comment out of me. "Just like how I stayed at Aubrey's during senior year," I said with a smile. "You two will be married in no time."

"She's coming" Aubrey observed, referring to Hailey. "Make sure the dress is hidden."

"It is" Zach assured.

"Hey guys" Hailey greeted as as she entered Aubrey's car. "I kind of heard about what happened, May gave me a poorly explained run down but I guess I got the gist of it. That girl we saw that day was behind it Aubrey?" Aubrey nodded in confirmation of Hailey's words. "She sure was," Aubrey said.

"So the head wasn't real, I assume" Hailey went on, prompting a nod out of all of us.

"It was a nicely done wax figure with a stink bomb to add special effects," I told my best friend, "I guess that girl was planning on blackmailing all of us, starting with Lewis. This whole thing is weird."

"At least I won't have to deal with Connor" Hailey replied, "thank goodness."

"And you know what else?" Hailey asked, we all turned to look at her, indicating that she could go on.

"I think the best part about being the youngest in the group, is getting to watch things that I have yet to encounter, play out. It's like free life lessons."

"Trust me on this Hailey" Aubrey said with a smile, "you will never encounter this shit again. And if you do for some odd reason, then you're probably cursed. I see what you're saying though."