Note:

Hello! I hope you are safe and well.

Thank you for reading and voting on my books! I appreciate it so much! And I love reading the comments. I may not be able to reply to all of them but I enjoy reading your opinions and comments. You guys make the book entertaining! Thank you all 💜

I also wanna thank wattpad for nightmode because now I won't go blind while writing!

CHAPTER EIGHT

I sit before my mother on the dinner table. This time, unfortunately, Brianna isn't here to help me.

Mom places a plate full of spaghetti in front of me but I don't move. I hear her sigh and then, plop, a spoonful of sauce is smacked onto the spaghetti, a meatball rolling to the edge of the plate, my reflexes kick in and I pick up my fork, and stop the meatball from falling off.

"Oh, so you're not a zombie version of my daughter." Mom laughs as she digs right into her dinner.

I'm not in the mood to laugh though, not after everything that happened that day. I mentally curse at Brianna, who's still out with Chris. I thought she'd be back in time for dinner but I guess not and I won't be surprised if she gets away with being out late, since all of mom's attention is on me.

I feel my mother's heated stare on me and I slowly drag my fork to the center of the plate and begin twirling it between my fingers. Even as the aroma hits my nose, I can't bring myself to eat.

"How many more days will you keep this up?" Mom sounds calm and I wonder why she would ask me that. "You need to eat, you need to take care of yourself."

"I'm fine." My voice sounds hoarse and I reach for a glass of water.

"I was thinking, after the funeral, when all of this dies down, I'll move you into your apartment in New York. The sooner you get out of here, the better."

"Summer just started, I want to leave when the rest of my friends do! Who knows where we'll end up." A shiver runs down my spine at the thought of Mandy.

"With the way you're behaving, you'll only get into more trouble with that boy. I won't let you throw your life away over him!" She shouts, making me sink into my seat.

Brianna has been acting as a referee since the past few days and without her, there's no escaping.

"Mom, can you please just give it a rest?"

"Give what a rest? You got framed because of that boyfriend of yours and an entire family is out to get us, and on top of all that, the rumors! I can't show my face anywhere because of the press!"

I sigh as she repeats all of this for the millionth time. "What more can I do than to feel ashamed? Keeping me inside won't change anything! You took away my phone and laptop, I feel like a prisoner in my own house!"

Mom clicks her tongue and gives me a disappointed look. "I want you to take this time and reflect on the choices you've made so far. You were arrested as a suspect for murder, how is that even possible? How did you get into this mess?"

I sigh audibly, pushing away my plate of cold spaghetti. The dim lights resembled that of the investigation room I was in a few days ago and mom was trying to pry for answers just like that Detective did.

"It was a misunderstanding."

"You tell yourself those lies." Mom voice drops an octave. "I don't know what you're hiding from me Blake, but I will get to the bottom of this, and I'll make sure that boy ends up where he belongs, behind bars."

She doesn't wait for a reply. She simply gets up, walks away. Leaving me alone.

I have mad her a mad a lot of times, but this is new for me and I can't hide the shock on my face. I wish I could tell her, but it will only create more problems. Trace is gone for good, but there are still people who care for him and will take his place. I can't let mom get into any of that!

I can't let her do anything to Bellamy either. I sit for a while, thinking about what I can do but nothing comes to my mind. I give up when a tiny housefly buzzes in my face. I flick it away and tend to the food in front of me.

I go to my room once I'm done cleaning and switch into a tank top and pajama shorts. I crank open the window and sit on the sill, staring outside. A breeze hits my shoulders and I take a deep breath, relaxing my shoulders and resting my head against the side of the window frame. It's an uncomfortable position, but when am I not in one?

My thoughts go back to the times when things were better. Bellamy found ways to climb up to my window and spend hours with me without anyone knowing. A smile creeps onto my face and I wonder if maybe, he'll come today.

I haven't since him since we were at the station, and that was five days ago. I passed out and woke up in the hospital. I thought he would be there for me but he wasn't. I thought he would come to see me at my house but he didn't. I thought he would find a way to talk to me, but it felt like he wasn't trying. At all.

I groan in frustration and walk away from my window. He won't come, I tell myself.

I look around my room for my phone until I realize that mom's confiscated all my gadgets. Great, now I can't even check the time.

I walk into Brianna's room and switch on the lights, I cringe at the sudden brightness and blink rapidly until my eyes have adjusted to all the unnecessary lighting.

I forget what I came for as I observe the web of fairy lights. I wipe my eye that waters from the brightness and walk over to a section of a wall that's covered with photographs. The first thing that catches my eye is a photo of me and Brianna, dressed for our firdt day of senior year. The photo is printed larger than the rest and I break into a smile.

My eyes scan the other pictures, some of us, some with our other friends taken on various occasions like sleepovers or at the skate park but what peaks my interest are older photos of her. I look through the photos, and instantly recognize a skinny blonde girl who has linked her arm with Brianna's in almost every single photo. There are a ton of selfies of them smiling and pulling funny faces.

My body tenses as I think of what happened to Mandy. I take a step back and sink to the ground. Up until now, I haven't been thinking about what it's like for anyone else. I've been so consumed in my own drama that I didn't think about what's going on around me.

Mandy and I never got along, but I still feel hurt over her death. She didn't deserve what happened to her, and proved that anyone with Trace wasn't safe.

Bellamy revealed to me that she wanted my money, that she thought it was hers because of her dad but it didn't make sense. If her dad and mine were friends, I would have known. I'm sure Trace manipulated her into believing all of this. He was too good with his words.

As I wipe away a few tears, my eyes land on a paper that's peaking out from under the dresser that's placed along the section of the wall that's covered in photographs. I reach for it and furrow my brows when I see the photo.

There are three children in the photograph, all smiling brightly into the camera. I easily identify the girl on the right as Brianna and after looking at all those photos of Mandy, I'm certain it's her but I can't put my finger on the older boy standing next to them. He has messy brown hair and dark eyes but I don't know who he is. It can't be one our friends because the boy looks older than Brianna and Mandy.

As I try to identify the boy, I scream startles me and I practically jump into the air, whipping my head towards the door.

"Jesus, Blake!" Brianna pants, clutching a hand to her chest. "You scared me."

I shake my head at her. "Why would you be scared, I had all the lights on?"

She waves her hand at me dismissively and throws her purse on the bed as she kicks her heels off. I watch as her shoulders slump and her head hangs low. Her movements become slower and slower as if all of her energy is being drained. I hear hear her yawn as she drags herself to her closet.

I return my focus to the boy in photo and I pout in annoyance when I can't put a name on him. I decide to ask Brianna but when she turns towards me once she's changed into her pajamas, worry takes over me.

Her eyes are puffy and red, just like the tip of her nose. It's only like that when she cries. I rush over to her and grab her arms lightly.

"What happened?" The worst scenario comes to my mind. "Did Chris do something to you?"

She instantly shakes her head and tries to pry my hands away from her. "He didn't do anything."

"Then what happened, was it because of me?"

She shakes her head again and tries to laugh, but she ends up choking. I run to my room, filling the glass I have on my bed side table with water and speed walk over to her.

She gulps the water down as I sit on her bed, directly in front of her. "Bri, you have to tell me what happened."

"It's nothing." She says. I raise my eyebrow at her, not believing her at all. "I was just missing Mandy, if it weren't for my obsession with being cheer captain, we wouldn't have fought at all. Maybe if I were a better friend, I would've known something was wrong and I could have helped her, or stop whatever happened."

I wrap my arms around my sister and pat her head gently as she cries. "It's not your fault, we don't even know what happened. You can't blame yourself." I say with a shaky voice.

There's no way I can tell Brianna that Mandy was out for all the money dad left me behind, not when I didn't know the whole truth, not ever.

Brianna moves away and wipes her eyes. "You don't get it Blake, she was my best friend since childhood. I knew her long before I knew Eliza or Chris or any of our other friends."

"Bri-"

"Throughout middle school to high school, Mandy asked me about you. She always encouraged me to reach out to you but I was too afraid to. We even made a plan to visit you in summer but we had a fight and then Dad passed away and everything changed after that."

"I thought you didn't really tell anyone about me?" I frown as I process everything.

"Mom didn't want to talk about the divorce or how dad took you. She wouldn't let me talk to either of you and it was too much for me. I confided in Mandy." She sighs and runs head through her light blonde hair, "I can't believe she's gone."

Could there be something more to this? There has to be something that Bellamy and I were missing.

Mom said that Mandy's family is pressuring the police into arresting me again, they think I did it, but maybe if I talked to them, they would realize the truth and if we worked together, we could find out what really happened.

I don't know what to say to Brianna so I rub her back while she regains herself. I want to comfort her but I can't find the right words to say.

She smiles at me softly before yawning. I get off the bed and walk to the get. "Get some sleep, goodnight night."

She mumbles good night and I switch off the lights of her room, closing the door behind me. I sigh and walk to my room.

I stare out the window for just a moment before shutting it close. I retreat to my bed, finding it the least bit comfortable.

When I wake up all of a sudden, I'm not surprised by the darkness. Waking up several times at night had become a habit for me.

I stretch my arms and reach for the glass of water sitting on the bedside table and groan when it's not there.

"Right, I gave to Brianna." I mumble to myself. I push my hair away from my face and tie it up in a bun. After putting on my glasses, I ditch my flip flops and tip toe my way to the kitchen.

When I reach the landing of the stairs I notice a dim light coming from the lounge, I shrug but stop when I hear my mom arguing.

Was she fighting with someone?

"What do you mean you can't do anything about it?" She sneers. "My daughter went to offer her condolences and they harassed her in return! How dare they kick her out and tell her that Blake had something to do with their daughters death!"

I freeze as I reach the corner. No wonder Brianna was so upset when she came home, she must've went to Mandy's house. That explains why mom hasn't let me out of the house in days.

"What?" She says after a few minutes. "School records have nothing to do with this. Everyone gets into fights, that doesn't mean they have intentions to kill."

I bite my lip as I peak from the corner. Mom's pacing about the room, frantically gesturing with her free hand with the other is tightly gripping her phone that's pressed to her ear. I step back, to stay hidden.

"The forensics report was enough. I hired you so you could solve all of this." I lean against the wall as she speaks to, who I guess is, the attorney.

"Alright, but I want you to look into her friend, Bellamy."

I step out of hiding and stand in front of mom, who has her back towards me. "M-"

"His father has been in and out of jail multiple times and the last time I heard about him, he escaped. I have a feeling he has something to do with this, like father like son. Find anything you can, I won't let him drag my daughter down with him."

My mouth feels dryer than ever and I fall back into the shadow, stumbling into the kitchen.

Bellamy admitted to being involved in a gang but that's all he told me. Even when he said he told me everything, he didnt.

The beating organ in my chest hurts again, and I wonder just how much pain my heart can resist.

Did he do all of this for me or because he was on a mission given to him by his father?

Who was I kidding, it wasn't for me, he would've tried to contact me if he cared.

I can't stop myself from sobbing and just before I'm about to sink to the ground, I feel my mother's arms wrapping around me, pulling me up into her embrace. I hug her tightly, regretting every mean thing I said and did to her for the boy who I thought loved me.

"I'm sorry, mom. I'm so sorry." There's so much I'm sorry for but I can hardly say anything as my head feels heavy and my sobs get louder.

The only thing reassuring thing was that my mom was there for me, patting my head and cooing me as I wept.