With a flashlight tucked into my pocket, we journeyed back to the library under the glimmer of stars. When we arrived, we crossed the vacant faculty parking lot and ducked under cordon tape. The rear-side of the school had evaded the worst, but the gymnasium constituted a mass of rubble and steel beams.

The fire exit to the library was open, swinging from a loose hinge. At the entrance, I paused, and like the chicken-shit I was, gestured Cindy inside first. Wide-eyed and misguided, she proceeded with all the innocence of a canary-in-a-coal mine.

A darkness enveloped us. I switched the flashlight on; dust motes floated in the shaft of light that extended outwards. Sat centrally were a group of four study desks, a series of bookshelves pillared either side.

My heart jumped as my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out, I squinted as the harsh light hit my eyes. Emma was calling.

I swiped and answered. "What do you want?"

"Detective Scott came back." Emma's voice distorted as the phone reception crackled. He's downstairs right now. You're in deep shit, Nick. Where are you?"

I'm going to have to lie. But all the lies were suffocating, bearing down on my shoulders as if I was supporting the girders of the entire world.

"There's no time to explain. I'll be home as soon as I can." My nerves somersaulted in my belly. "Can I ask you something?"

A muffled voice sounded in the background. "Coming, Mom! I'm in the bathroom." Emma shrieked. "Be quick. This is already the longest bathroom break in existence."

"Did Daniel ever ask you to... Er... take any pictures?"

"Do I look like I pout for school quad selfies?"

"I mean... nudes." My cheeks flamed red, and I wasn't sure who I was more embarrassed for.

The line went silent.

"You've been in my fucking room. Trespassing little shit-head!"

"Emma!" I interrupted. "You weren't the only one."

The line went silent again, and she expelled a long sigh. "You'll ruin everything. We almost had him."

Emma made a strange noise, foreign to her. The last time I had seen Emma cry was on her thirteenth birthday. Eighth grader Jeremy Rogers announced to the playground that Emma wasn't like other girls; a tom-boy because she was less 'developed' than girls her age. He then snatched her beloved copy of Little Women and tossed it down a storm drain.

Emma stared at Jeremy and appeared to feel nothing at first. Then she bulldozed Jeremy to the ground and pummeled his face. Then, in a rare moment of internal reflection, she jumped back in shock.

She cried later that day, but not over the book. A sudden fear had gripped her; our parents might ground her, no longer allowing her to spend Labor Day weekend with Rosie and her parents.

Emma never shed a single tear in public since. I half expected her to hang up, but she stayed on the line. I was accustomed to Emma's anger being expelled by harsh words or sarcasm. But this was anger that people couldn't see - it's accompanied only by silence.

"She needs you to ask," Cindy prompted. "She needs to share her secret. I know more than most that no good comes from harboring them."

In the silence, I knew she needed me to ask if she were okay. "If there's something bothering you, I want you to know you can tell me."

"Zachary duped Rosie into sending him a picture." She sniffed. "Then he threatened to scandalize her on social media if she didn't do something for him. Said he'd made copies. We only ever found one. The boys' locker room stinks. You lot are foul. I kept the evidence safe. Like I keep her safe, always—she's such a dear girl to me, Nick."

The sincerity I heard in her voice was a first. For the only time in my life, I saw their friendship as more than platonic. An image flashed in my mind's eye of a blush pink heart circling the letters D.G. It never represented Daniel, but a pet name for Rosie. Emma adored Rosie. Two beings in one ecosystem. She had as long as I could remember. She had always kept those she loved safe. All except for me.

"That wasn't you in the picture, it was Rosie?" Blinded by my rage against Daniel, I had seen only what I had wanted to see, but the truth had been in front of me the whole time.

'You gotta swear you won't tell anyone! I had to earn his trust, try to retrieve all the photos. They should be returned to their rightful owners, not a bunch of sex-starved jocks, intent on using them for bribery. And... I'm doing it for you."

I blinked in rapid succession. "For me?" I questioned.

"Do you think I don't hear what he calls you? Do you not think I know how that makes you feel? What gives him the right to treat people that way? Nothing. Not a damn thing!"

I was speechless.

Cindy battled herself to prevent the first tear from cascading down her face and lost. I imagined in this precise moment, both Emma's and Cindy's eyes mirrored the same betrayed pain.

Cindy wiped a sleeve under her eyes. "Tell her she's the bravest, strongest woman you know. Tell her she has your support."

I swallowed hard. "You are so much braver than I'll ever be. If this matters to you, it matters to me."

Emma sniffled again. "You think I'm brave?"

Cindy was right, Emma was brave. Standing up for an injustice that the very fabric of her being wouldn't allow to exist in her world. We may be related, but Emma did life so much better than I did. I could only consider myself in terms of things I wasn't.

I wasn't brave.

I wasn't a socially-gifted.

I was nothing like Emma.

Emma wasn't afraid to speak truth to power. It was pathetic really, how different we were. But maybe being different was okay?

"Legendary," I finally said. "Please cover for me until I get home. All this stuff with Cindy, the pictures, it's all linked to Daniel. I'm positive. Both me and Simon agree. But this isn't time to be around him. And for the first time in my life, I'm asking you to help me."

"I'll give you one day only, Nick. This is too important to sit on. Don't be too long." Emma disconnected the call without another word, and I slipped my phone back into my pocket.

"The police are at home, aren't they?" Cindy looked worried.

I exhaled quietly, turning my attention to the empty lot outside, and scanned it. "Quicker we can clear this up the better. I don't know how long we have."

We ventured further into the library. The light from the flashlight skimmed over desks and bookcases.

"Do you remember anything yet, Nick?" Cindy stood shivering; but the blood now pumped so fast around my body to let me feel any chill in the night air.

"No, not yet." But something was out of place; an invisible hole in the room that my body told me to avoid. It was huge, the way I expect the universe would feel if I stood on the edge of it looking in.

"Remember that day," Cindy said. "Walk me through it; what entrance you used, where you sat, who you saw." The floor creaked as Cindy came to stand by my side.

I nodded. My eyes closed, mentally retracing my steps; last period, my locker and finally the library. Then I stepped into the void I'd been so reluctant to enter.

When my eyes opened again, I pointed to a corner desk over by the biology section. "I sat there. I'm sure of it."

Cindy pointed to an isolated desk on the opposite side.

"I think I sat here." She crossed the room and ran a hand over an oak table filled with notches and carved declarations of bygone students.

An inaudible sound echoed in my mind.

"My books feel off..." Cindy said.

A spark went off in my head. "I picked them up for you? Did I pick them up for you?"

She was silent until her head nodded, slowly at first and then more urgent. "You did, Nick."

"What next?" she said. "Come on, Nick. It's just you and me now."

"I'm trying," I snapped back. But I can't remember what happened next.

"I don't know." I dragged a hand through my hair and sighed. "Why don't I remember anymore than that?"

I shouldn't have come. I turned in a circle. What do I do? I'll go back home and come clean to my parents, Detective Scott. No one has to know I came here.

"Nick," Cindy urged. "It's safe to remember now."

A gust of wind fluttered through the pages of half-opened books.

Then it hit me.

"Derek happened," I said. "That's the only logical thing. The school would have closed the library, sent the students home."

"What else, Nick," she pressed.

Something danced back and forth in my head and the sweetness of cherries watered my mouth. Cindy's face fell and a darkness I couldn't fathom crossed it. Her teeth chattered again and her breath became visible.

"I remember cherries."