A Mother Would Know (81)

He blows out a breath, stares at his hands. “I should’ve talked to her about it, but instead I decided to get even. This chick at school, Bri, had always been into me, so I went for it.” He pauses a moment before continuing. “But then one day, I think it was like a week or so before the Halloween party, I was in Kendra’s room looking for my favorite A’s hat. She used to take it from me and hide it just to fuck with me, I guess. Anyway, I didn’t find it that day. But I did find the same note that Heather had left in my room.” He squints. “Only not exactly the same note. Like variations of it. As if someone was practicing forging Heather’s handwriting. And practicing writing like a guy. That’s when I knew that Kendra had planted that note.”

I think about the story in Leslie’s journal about the morning she found the word SLUT written in shaving cream on Heather’s car. If Hudson had been at Jared’s that night, it could’ve been Kendra who used Hudson’s shaving cream to write on her car. It would be in line with all she’d done to mess with Heather and Hudson’s relationship.

“Did you confront her?”

“Yeah. Even took the notes as evidence, but she did what she always does. Got angry with me for going into her room. Then she promised to get revenge.”





Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...

I made so many mistakes the night Heather died.

The first was not telling her my sister would be at the party.

Truth is, I didn’t know until a few hours before we left. And by then, I didn’t have the courage to tell Heather. It had been so hard to convince her to go with me. She’d been acting strange. Distant. I knew there was more to it than just her fear of Kendra.

I was starting to think she did know about the kiss with Bri. And I worried she wanted to break up.

I’d had a crush on Heather since we were ten years old. Back then, she saw me as her best friend. The neighbor boy who climbed trees and rode bikes with her. I didn’t make my move until sophomore year.

“I like you,” I’d said tentatively one night while we watched TV. The lights were out. That’s what gave me the courage. Not having to see her face when I said the words.

“’Bout time,” she’d said.

“What?” I turned to her then, and the TV cast a bluish hue on her face, giving the illusion she had frostbite.

Giggling, she threw me a wink. It made my insides feel funny. Fluttery, but in a good way. “I’ve known this for a while.”

My face warmed, my mouth drying out. “You have?”

Nodding, she scooted closer to me, placing a soft hand over mine. “It’s okay, I like you, too.”

After that, we were always together.

Attached at the hip. Two peas in a pod.

That was the way our parents described us, anyway.



* * *



The party was in a field on the outskirts of town. Big, open space, trees and bushes the only thing separating all of our cliques and groups. I’d driven a windy road up a hill and parked in the dirt.

I had hoped we wouldn’t even run into Kendra at the party. She had her own friend group, and most of the time I didn’t even think she liked me. But the minute we arrived, Kendra smiled and waved, calling out our names as if we were BFFs.

“Your sister’s here?” Heather’s body moved closer to mine, her fingertips brushing mine.

I latched on. “I didn’t know she would be,” I lied. Squeezing, I offered a smile. “But she’s got her own friends. Just ignore her.”

Kendra sat in a circle with her friends, holding a can of beer in her hand. It was weird to me, since I never knew my sister to drink. But she was sitting near a boy I’d never seen before, and I thought maybe she was trying to impress him.

I offered Kendra a perfunctory wave and then hurried in the opposite direction. But not before noticing the scowl that passed over her face at my dismissal.

Heather and I went in search of my friends. We found them huddled around a makeshift bonfire, ash and smoke lingering in the air. Browning hooted and came at me with a fist bump. The next couple of hours were a blur of beers, making out with Heather and then joking with the guys. At one point, Heather went off with her girlfriends. She was out of my sight, but I didn’t think much of it.

I was in that warm place after a few beers where my bones were jelly, my head fuzzy, my veins buzzing. Besides, we were at a party with friends. What’s the worst that could happen?





30





“Eventually, I realized that I hadn’t seen Heather in a while, and I went looking for her.” He frowns. “You know where she was found.”

I squeeze his hand. Had Kendra been responsible for Heather’s death, too? “She was already dead?”

He looks back down to the hands he plays with in his lap. Thick fingers lacing and unlacing. “No, she was still alive. She was standing by a tree near the edge of the cliff, crying. When I asked her what was going on, she said that she’d been looking for a place to pee when Kendra found her, asked her why she wasn’t with me. Heather told her I was with my friends, and I guess Kendra said something like, ‘Oh, I thought maybe he was off making out with Bri again.’” His hands fist at his sides, his jaw clenching and popping. “Kendra’d put the whole thing in motion, and now she was turning Heather against me. I was so mad, I kinda lost it for a minute.”