x| chapter four.
' keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. '

days had gone by since the mini interrogation at school had occurred. alice had figured that if they hadn't said anything by now, she definitely wasn't on their radar. according to ollie, they shouldn't see her as a suspect anyways. she was best friends with the deceased, that should account for some sort of safety bubble, right? she tried not to dwell on it too hard since things were slowly becoming normal (well as normal as that could ever become) again for her. she did NOT wanna ruin that and sulk in it.

when she spoke to ollie after school the day she was interviewed, he made it seem like she was overreacting and didn't seem guilty at all. however, he didn't know that she lied during her interview- or whatever the hell that was. her interview actually chalked up to be a whopping twenty minutes long, while most kid's had a mere five minutes tops. though, she hadn't known that.

there was a lot she didn't know about the interrogation system.

after that day alice began keeping a journal. and no, not to write about her feelings and how dramatic her life was at this point in time. also not to talk about how lonely she was and the fact that the one friend she thought she knew the most was now just gone. and it definitely wasn't to write shitty, sappy poetry either. it was going to be used for making lists. when someone mentions lists the first things that come to mind are possibly; grocery lists? shopping lists? or lists of things to do when you're bored? no, none of that.

she was making a suspects list.

her time was now utterly devoted to finding the lunatic that stabbed her neighbor in the chest. and boy, did she have a list started. there were a lot of random people, people who probably had nothing to do with it at all. in fact most of the people on the list were put there based purely on feelings. like this weird old man that lived on their street. his name was alvin, or maybe alfred? either way he gave alice the creeps.

but then there was the top name on her list. he was someone who was very easy to place there. he wasn't necessarily in her past but he sure was in ben's. she heard his name come up in late night facetime calls frequently when ben was alive. she'd even been there once when ben beat the shit out of him. according to ben he was a total basket case and complete weirdo.

jacob barber.

though alice had never actually had a conversation with the boy, she believed every word ben had told her. he did seem rather creepy anyways, so there was no way that ben could be lying about it. and that is why he was on the top of the list. he was creepy, but he also hated ben. he must've. anyone would hate the kid that was more popular, that was common sense. alice figured maybe he had done it out of jealousy. either way, she was totally disgusted by the boy.

however, she devised a plan. it was simple, considering most people apparently thought he was a killer too. there were dozens of rumors spreading like wildfire around the high school about the boy. even posts on instagram devoted to claiming he was guilty. honestly, everyone else made it too easy for her. but what was the plan you may ask? it stemmed from a quote she had heard once in her freshman year of literature.

'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.'

and that was exactly what she planned on doing.

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opening her locker, alice hummed while glancing down the hallway. lunch had just gotten done, but she'd eaten in oliver's car with him instead of in the cafeteria. all the kids in the cafeteria gossiping just gave her bad vibes. she was now grabbing books for her last hour of the day, but also was beginning her slight little plan.

she looked down the hallway for one more moment until it was perfect timing. soon enough jacob barber came walking past her and just as he did she stepped out into the hall a bit more, closing her locker. it looked natural and totally an accident, but it was far from it. she'd ran straight into him, dropping her books on the ground, him stumbling back a bit.

"shit, sorry." he mumbled under his breath, after regaining balance for himself. he then realized who he'd ran into, which was much more severe than he'd thought before. he just had to run into the snob that was best friends with ben rifkin.

"oh, totally my bad-" alice shook her head, bending down to grab her books she had 'accidentally' dropped. she glanced up at the boy, who looked a little uncomfortable. "don't worry about it." she mentioned, standing back up straight. she was a little annoyed that he hadn't tried to help her pick up her books.

jacob nodded, sort of weirded out by the whole situation. he planned to just continue walking and act like nothing had happened, but then she continued talking.

"hey, i'm sorry about all the stuff people are saying about you. that must be tough." she shrugged, actually trying to look sincere. it was working for the most part.

jacob shrugged, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. "if you're talking about derek's post, i saw." he sighed, thinking back to it. it was a dumb comment, he didn't think it mattered that much.

"well that..." she nodded, but then looked at the ground a little bit. "but then all of the other stuff too. there's some pretty bad rumors." her voice sort of slowed at the word 'bad' as if to emphasize it. it wasn't like she was lying though, the people at her school were sort of ruthless with the kind of stuff they were saying.

jacob's eyebrows sort of raised at her mention of there being other stuff. he hadn't really heard much else about it all, or himself. "rumors?" he replied, his head tilting a bit just like a dog's would if they were confused. it was quite amusing.

alice nodded, "you don't know?" it was a simple statement, but it probably brought a lot of worry and fear into him. that was just what she needed. "well i could tell you, but i'll be late for class." she sighed, motioning down the hall.

he frowned at her words, as if she could just leave him hanging like that. also, how was he supposed to know there were rumors about him? he didn't exactly have loads of friends that could back him up on it. "well you live over by cold spring park, right? on the other side?"

alice was shocked by how easily he took the bait. but she was also shocked by how easily he could just mention the park. as if someone wasn't just murdered there less than a week prior. "i do. but you know that because...?"

he sighed, slightly annoyed with her tone. she was acting as if he was a stalker, when he definitely wasn't trying to be. "i live over there too. i've seen you walking to school." he replied, trying not to act like a creep but it could've come off that way. "look, do you wanna walk with me after school? then you can tell me all about these... rumors." he sighed, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

she smirked as soon as the words left his lips. it was like he was a puppet with how easily she played him. he fell right into her little trap. "deal. meet me by the side doors after class." she commented, then immediately turned to walk away. she walked down the halls and to class without even looking back at him. this was going to be one interesting walk. she couldn't believe she actually carried a conversation that long with jacob barber.

but you know what they say about enemies...

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a/n: and here is chapter four!
i don't really like this one and it's kind of a filler, but here it is aha
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the next chapter is sooooo much better and has a lot of drama so GET READY!
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also thank you all so so much for 100 reads! i know it doesn't seem like much but i thought this was gonna flop so hard and no one would read it so i'm really grateful! <3
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hope you enjoyed!
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don't forget to vote and comment!

[next chapter: five!]
[publishing date: 04/30/20]
[word count: 1463!]
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