x| chapter six
' dinner and confessions. '

jacob walked into his house, the smell of grilled chicken and steamed vegetables filled the air. he walked into the kitchen, sliding his backpack off and setting it on the back of the couch. he walked around and leaned on the counter while his mother cooked by the stove.

"hey mom... i have a question." he slowly spoke, tapping his hand on the counter lightly. he hadn't really ever had a real friend or at least one that was consistent. sure, derek would come over sometimes to play video games, but at this point he didn't consider him a friend anymore. not after everything he'd been saying.

laurie turned around, a small smile on her face as she listened to her son. "sure. what is it?" she raised a brow, continuing to stir something in a pot while listening.

"would you care if i had a new friend come over for dinner?" he quickly asked, knowing she definitely wouldn't care. it was just a matter of letting her know.

laurie soon nodded, of course being welcoming right away. "of course, sweety. what's his name, maybe i know his parents?" she asked, glancing over to the boy. of course she had just assumed it would be a guy friend.

jacob sighed at her question, scratching the back of his neck. "well her name is alice. and no, you don't know her parents." he soon corrected her, knowing she would probably give some reaction to it.

she turned around to face him fully when she heard his explain. "oh?" her eyes widened a bit. she had a small smirk on her face as if the thought of him having a girl over excited her. "i didn't know you were talking to anyone?" she quickly had to do the 'mom' thing and make it uncomfortable.

"mom. she's just a friend." he insisted, instantly putting a hand to his face. the irony of his statement was that they weren't even really friends. but he couldn't exactly just say 'no mom, she is just an acquaintance coming over to talk about murder'. so this would have to do.

his mom nodded, putting her hands up a little in defense. "okay, okay. i was just asking!" she laughed a little bit before going back to cooking.

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alice had considered many times just texting the barber boy and telling him her mother said no. even though that was far from the case, her mother was completely fine with it. she was sort of nervous to go to his home, even if his parents were going to be there.

if her suspicions were correct, he could very well be the person who murdered her neighbor. and that meant she could be spending the evening with a killer. she tried just pushing the thought aside for the time being. he told her he had some answers, so she needed to go and figure them out.

she slowly walked up to their front door, raising her hand to press the doorbell next to it. they lived just around the corner from eachother so it hadn't been a long walk. she could feel the nerves in her stomach beginning to worsen.

soon the door was swinging open, revealing a woman with darker hair. she had a soft smile and seemed welcoming enough. alice assumed this was his mother. "hi! you must be alice."

alice nodded at her statement, biting her bottom lip subtly before opening her mouth to speak. "yeah, jacob asked me to come over." she explained, hoping he had mentioned that to his parents. it was always awkward when people didn't do that and just assumed their parents wouldn't care.

"of course, he let me know earlier." she assured the girl, moving to the side so she could come in the house. "come on in." she nodded, motioning inside. she began walking back to the kitchen, pointing to the stairs as she walked past them. "jacob is up in his room, you can go ahead and meet him up there until dinner." she explained, going back to cooking.

alice nodded as the door shut behind her. she took her shoes off and made her way up the stairs, walking slowly as she went down the hall. his room was luckily first on the left and the door was open so she could see which he was in.

jacob was sitting in his bean bag chair on the floor, scrolling through his phone. he glanced up when he heard footsteps, seeing it was alice. "oh, i didn't think you would actually show up." he admitted, putting his phone down. "you can shut he door behind you."

alice nodded, closing the door as she stepped into his room. it was pretty basic and sort of messy, but it seemed a little strange. he didn't have many things on the walls besides one movie poster plastered in the corner. she thought most people liked to fill their room with decorations or pictures with friends. but then she thought about it, did he have many friends?

"well you told me you would explain what you know. that's why i came." she replied, standing still by the door. she was sort of nervous for what he might admit to her. what if it was really bad?

jacob nodded, motioning to the bean bag chair next to him. "you can sit, you know?" he spoke with an underlying tone of sarcasm. it made him seem a little more human than just emotionless. she did however take a seat next to him. "you know derek posted more shit about me online." he sighed, picking up his phone again.

alice shrugged, she hadn't seen what else was going on. not since last night or at school. she knew people were continuously making up stuff about the boy though. or maybe it was true, she hadn't known.

he realized she probably wanted him to get to the point. "you think i'm guilty, i know you do." he began, his words coming off the tongue a little slower than before. "and don't try and play it off, i can tell it's true." he spat out once again, this time it was a little bit more aggressive.

alice was sort of taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor. it was strange, to say the least, how easily he read her. she didn't say anything, just stared at him waiting for him to make his next statement. was he guilty? he hadn't denied it yet.

"i'm gonna tell you what happened. you cannot tell anyone about this. and i mean anyone." he slowly continued his thoughts, his eyes widening at the last bit. he was trusting her, mostly because she was the only person who had ever tried talking to him. she seemed genuinely concerned about what happened to ben.

she nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. "alright." she simply responded. though she didn't quite know if it was honest. if he like fessed up to murder right then and there she might have to tell someone about it.

jacob nodded as she agreed to the secretiveness of it all. "i did not kill ben rifkin." he huffed, laying it all on the table.

"i found his body."

his words shocked alice, it wasn't at all what she expected to hear. though, she didn't know what she had truly expected. anything would've been a shock. "you found him?" she raised a brow, shaking her head.

soon enough he explained the whole morning out. he had been walking to school and seen the boy laying in the ditch face down. his backpack was laying on the road. he went down to see if he was sick, grabbing his hood to flip him over. when he saw all the blood he got scared and ran to school. it all seemed pretty believable to the average person.

but not quite to alice, she had more questions.

"jacob there's no way you found ben and went to school like everything was fine." she sighed, not really believing that was all that happened.

he huffed, scratching the back of his neck. "i swear that's what happened. i was freaked, i didn't wanna say anything." he insisted, adjusting his position a bit on the bean bag.

alice took a breath. if jacob was willing to trust her with this information, shouldn't she be able to trust him? yes, his father was an attorney on the case, but he seemed like he had enough to hide from his dad. so maybe he would hide a secret for her too.

"jacob, i saw you. after you found ben. are you sure that's all that happened." she asked the same question once again.

he nodded insisting on her version of the truth. "i swear on my life." he emphasized it even more.

alice nodded taking another deep breath. "alright, then what if i told you something. could you keep a secret?" she asked the boy, his face soon confused too. he nodded though, intrigued as to where the conversation was heading.

"i saw you in the woods, running away from the scene. i found ben that morning too." she quickly spit out, crossing her legs as she adjusted.

jacob was confused, and that was clear on his face. if she had found jacob too, how did that line up with what he had said? it seemed a little more suspicious now. "what do you mean?"

then, alice told her side of the story.

she had been running late to school, since her and her mom got in a fight right before she left. she was quickly walking through the park trails when she saw jacob barber running up from a small ditch and out down the rest of the way to school. she didn't know if he'd seen her, but she saw him. she looked down to where he came from and saw a body, not recognizing it at first. she slowly went down the slope, realizing it was ben when she saw his back pack next to him.

she knew well enough not to touch him, thanks to all the crime shows she used to watch with her dad, so thankfully she didn't. but with blood all over the ground next to him, it was obvious he was dead. and seeing jacob run away from the crime scene, definitely made him seem like the murderer. she hadn't really known what to do, too freaked out to honestly think straight.

due to having knelt down in all the mud next to him, her clothes were dirty. when she got to school she grabbed her clothes from her gym locker and put those on instead, so she herself didn't look guilty. she showed up to first hour thirty minutes late, but blamed it on her mom.

but that's why she had thought it was him.
she saw him with ben's body. it seemed pretty believable.

jacob was stunned by her explanation, even more than she had been with him. he never saw her when he'd run away, if he had he would've said something at school. they both had played it off pretty well. "that's insane." he simply commented.

alice nodded. "i lied to the detectives when they came to our school for questioning. i told them i was with my mom all morning." she explained. she soon realized that had meant she lied to jacobs dad. the same dad who was downstairs right now.

jacob nodded, " i wasn't questioned. my dad told me it was irrelevant anyways since i wasn't friends with him." he shrugged. "but i mean it must've been believable. as far as i know my dad doesn't have any leads." he commented, trying to make her feel better.

soon enough laurie had called up to the two meaning dinner was finally ready. "jake! dinner!"

"but you promise not to tell anyone? and i mean it." alice sighed, rubbing her eyes a little bit. this had been beyond stressful.

"i promise if you promise." he nodded.

"deal." she sighed.

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a/n: here's chapter six! sorry it took so long, i was procrastinating writing it for the longest haha.
i hope it made enough sense! but also omg the tea that was SPILLED
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so i see a new friendship blooming here...
even though it's based on lies oop
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hope you enjoyed!
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don't forget to like and comment!

[next chapter: seven!]
[publishing date: 05/05/20!]
[word count: 2070!]
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