Adventures of a Graveyard Girl (10 page)

"Yes, you can," I said adamantly. "They're going to find out."

"No," Ariel said flatly.

I sighed, feeling exasperated. Ariel wasn't going to listen to me. There was nothing I could do. I had to take a different tactic.

"Well did you see anything?" I asked.

"No," Ariel said.

"Ariel, come on," I tried again.

"What? I didn't see anything," Ariel's voice cracked on the last word.

"Ariel. Please. Help me. Did you see anything?" I pleaded. "I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm just looking for a lead."

Ariel hesitated, "Fine. I was in the bathroom with Madison before she died. We went in together to fix our make-up. She was having hair issues that wouldn't resolve themselves and it was taking her forever. I was done and I wanted to get back out to Troy and dance, so I left her in there. I did pass Casey on my way out. We actually stopped to talk outside the bathroom. I didn't have blood on me or anything, I swear. I didn't kill her. Casey will tell you. Troy will tell you that too. I didn't do it."

"How long did you stop to talk to Casey?" I asked, as I felt the ball of dread in my stomach start growing. Ariel had been at the scene of the crime within minutes of the murder, maybe seconds. That wasn't good.

Ariel shrugged, "A few minutes. I mean, we were telling each other how great we looked and bragging about our dates. Casey was trying to one up me, but there was no way she was going to one up me going to the dance with a college guy. You know?"

"Could anyone have walked past you guys and into the bathroom while you were talking?" I asked.

Ariel shrugged, "I didn't notice anyone, but my back was to the bathroom. Casey would probably have been the one to notice that. So, maybe, but I didn't notice. I mean, we were talking so..."

"Did you hear anything?" I asked. "When you were talking to Casey? Like a struggle? Anything?"

"No," Ariel said. "Nothing."

"So, you were literally the last person to see Madison alive besides the murderer?" I asked. This looked so bad.

Ariel turned pale, "Yes. But, the thing is, I think there might have been someone else in one of the stalls. I wasn't thinking about it at the time. It was just Madison and I talking at the bathroom sink when I left, but I'd almost swear there was someone in a stall. I think."

"That's huge! Can you remember any detail? Like their shoes? You can usually see shoes under the stall. Did you see them?" I asked, thinking rapidly.

Ariel was freaking out, realizing that maybe she had seen something of the killer and what that meant. Ariel didn't hear my question or didn't want to answer it and just said, "What if they heard me talking? What if that person knows who I am and decides to murder me too because they think I saw them? I can't talk about it. Nobody can know."

I grabbed Ariel by the arms and looked at her in all seriousness, "Ariel, what did you see?"

Ariel's eyes were worried, but she whispered, "I saw red Chuck Taylor high tops with black and white striped laces. I remember thinking that some weird girl had to be in the bathroom wearing chucks to the Homecoming Dance. That's the only reason I noticed. I thought it might be you actually, but..."

I frowned at Ariel, "And, you're sure it was a girl? Could it have been a guy?"

Ariel looked at me, like she hadn't even considered the gender change, "Maybe it could have been a guy. I mean, I wasn't thinking in that direction. I just thought it was some punk rock girl or something. I guess it could have been a guy, if his pants were high. I don't remember legs. I just saw the red of the chucks. The stalls are kind of low, though, so I could have just missed the legs. I don't know."

I took this in. This was a huge clue. I looked down at my own black Chuck Taylors. Thank goodness I stuck to the classic color of black in this case and I actually hadn't worn mine to the dance. I had gone all out and worn heels, even though they made me feel rickety.

If only Ariel could have told me about the legs. I knew what she meant about the school bathroom stalls, though. They were low. Like, you could easily look over them low if you wanted to because the teachers needed to be able to look into the stalls if they, say, smelled something that wasn't legal emanating from a stall and to discourage making out in one. The doors thus, were oddly low to the ground. Like it mattered if people could see your feet if they could already see a lot more if they looked over the bathroom stall wall.

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" Ariel was pleading with me.

"I won't," I said, although I wasn't sure it would matter if the gossip had already started spreading that Ariel was the last one to see Madison alive.

The bell rang, startling both of us. Ariel and I looked at each other in panic and bolted in opposite directions for our classes.

I was in no mood to pay attention to teachers for the rest of the day. First off, Ethan and apologizing to him was totally on my mind. And, then, interjecting into those thoughts were their polar opposites. I kept going over the details and suspects in Madison's murder and over Ariel's confession at seeing the potential killer's shoes.

I had taken no notes in any of my classes since lunch, so I was glad when the bell rang. I hoped the teachers hadn't said anything too important and that most of it wouldn't be on any tests. If it was, I'd be failing that test and my grades were already probably going to take a hit if I didn't finish all the make-up work I had to get done. The teachers were relentless, even though I had a valid excuse, like being in the hospital. They didn't care. Homework was homework and the general gist was, in the real world you'd have to get the work done, blah, blah, blah.

Speaking of the real world, I was heading straight from school to my job at Palos Video Store. I hadn't been back since I had been shot there. My boss, Anne, had ended up in the hospital too, but she had completely recovered. Luckily, there hadn't been much damage to the store in the shooting and after the police crime scene tape came down, it opened right back up like nothing had ever happened. Anne couldn't even afford for it to close for a day with the current competition of Netflix, Red Box, Blockbuster, etc. cutting into her DVD and Blu-ray rental profits. Almost as a blessing, business spiked after the incident. Ethan told me that the parking lot was packed every afternoon when he drove by it on the way to visit me at the hospital. It was all the free press and curiosity seekers reminding people that the store was still there. I guess that's what people meant when they said the phrase - a blessing in disguise. It was a good thing. I liked my job at Palos Video Store. I wanted to keep it at least through high school, so it had to stay open.

I walked in right on time. I had been a little flakey a couple weeks before and I wanted to impress upon Anne my commitment to doing my job. She was in the back watching a movie when I got there. I hadn't seen her since the whole shooting debacle and things felt a bit awkward.

"Hey," I managed. It was a normal thing to say to your boss, right? I just wanted things to be normal, at work, at the very least.

"Hey," Anne said, looking up from her movie,
Before Sunrise.
She mostly stayed in the back and supervised the employees unless we got really busy and then she ran up front to help. It was the perk of owning the place and everyone thought she was a cool boss so it didn't matter, "You okay?"

"Yeah," I nodded, feeling a cold sweat come on. I couldn't help but feel that Anne ending up in the hospital was half my fault. I had led a killer straight to us. "You?"

Anne nodded, "Took a few days, but much better."

"Good," I said and not knowing what to say commented on the movie she was watching, "Ethan Hawke is cute."

Of course, just saying the name Ethan made me think of my Ethan. My heart hurt. It couldn't be over between us. It had barely just started.

Anne nodded, not noticing that my head was already not in the conversation, "This movie is one of my comfort food movies. You just watch them talk about life for two hours. It's great."

I smiled, "Yeah... I should go up front."

I left Anne to watch her movie. I had my own things to think about and talk over in my head or better yet, avoid thinking about. I walked over to the counter and set down my bag. I felt like getting out my ereader and reading for fun to try and push out the Ethan thoughts, but I had too big of a mound of homework to finish to even consider that. I pulled out my Chemistry book and a worksheet I had to complete. I vaguely wished Kyle had let me copy his. I was all about learning, but I had a billion worksheets to make up. It was going to take me forever. I sighed and started on the first question.

It took me almost the entire night to finish the one worksheet. I could never afford to miss school again. I still had current homework from other classes to finish when I got home, not to mention my murder investigation work. I wondered if I should call Ethan. He hadn't tried to call me or anything. Not that I blamed him. I was the one that had messed up. It had been hours and I still couldn't think of a way to apologize. What was wrong with me? Why was I avoiding this? I couldn't wait much longer or Ethan might think I wasn't sorry. Did he already think that? I looked at my phone. I only had about thirty minutes until the store closed.

I'd call Ethan as soon as I got into my car after work. I couldn't let him think that I wasn't sorry. I just... No, I had to do it. Ethan was important to me. I had to say I was sorry to him and then I could expound on it and make it a huge apology as I went along. I wasn't beneath groveling. I had totally disregarded my promise to him. The fight was completely my fault. Yet, there was a small part of me that felt like looking into this mystery was something that I had to do. I pushed that away. No, my promise to Ethan should have been more important.

Just as I was thinking that I couldn't wait for work to be over so I could get all this Ethan thinking off my brain, I heard someone walk into the store. I froze and had a weird deja vu flashback. Ethan had walked into the store. It was just like the first time he walked into my life. I felt giddy and nervous and I didn't know what to do.

"I'm so sorry," I gushed and walked around the corner of the cashier counter toward him, not caring if Anne heard my blithering apology to Ethan.

Ethan walked toward me, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have made you promise. It wasn't fair of me to do that. I..."

Then suddenly we were kissing in the middle of the store. It was like a romantic movie moment in any of those great movies like
Titanic
or
Gone With the Wind
or
Pride and Prejudice
or
Sixteen Candles
. It was just me and Ethan and the kissing.

I heard Anne clear her throat and I jumped away from Ethan, guiltily.

"I'm so sorry, Anne," I said, feeling my cheeks burning bright red. This was so unlike me to make out with a guy at work. Oh, who was I kidding? This was really the first opportunity I had to do that and I totally went for it. I just couldn't believe I had done it at work. I had such good intentions when I got there to do nothing scandalous or flaky, but so much for good intentions.

Anne looked between us and frowned trying not to crack a smile, "Just wait until your shift is over."

I nodded and whispered to Ethan, "See you in twenty."

Ethan grinned and walked out of the store. I went back to the counter and packed up my things. Homework was over for the night. All I could think about was kissing Ethan. After about a minute, my thoughts returned back to normal. Was our fight over? Who won? Was it okay if I continued investigating the murder? Or, by kissing Ethan had I told him my promise to not investigate was back on? I was really confused. Was this a we need to talk moment? Because I kind of dreaded saying those words to Ethan.

Anne told me to leave about five minutes early. I was done with all the usual close up tasks and pacing, waiting for Anne to pack up and leave the store with me, like was the norm for closing. I think I was getting too antsy for Anne to take. I grabbed my bag and forced myself not to run out of the store. Ethan didn't need to know how eager slash nervous I was, after all. It was important that I act totally normal.

I walked out of the store and saw Ethan's car parked on the street, a little ways down. I left my car in the parking lot and walked to his and knocked on his window. He unlocked his doors and I got into the car, feeling suddenly first date nervous.

"Hey," I said automatically and then felt stupid.

Ethan smiled and leaned in toward me. Then we were kissing again. I could totally get used to this making up after an argument thing. It was totally amazing and awesome and great. I'd even give up Wired's peanut butter banana milkshakes if it meant this could last longer. And, then suddenly I was pulling away from Ethan. What was wrong with me?

"Um," I managed, my brain trying to assemble its thoughts into a cohesive statement, "Where do we stand on the whole investigating Madison's murder issue?"

Ethan looked at me blankly like he didn't understand what I was saying at first. Wow, did me kissing him have that effect on him too? I felt a giddy happiness in my stomach, but it quickly disappeared as I started worrying about why Ethan wasn't answering my question.