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08 | the truth

December 30th | 7:18 am

Marleen and I decided to drive to my house first before meeting up with Will. When the truck was parked in the driveway, we just sat in silence for a few minutes. We needed those few minutes to absorb and accept everything that had just happened. Alex was dead. And we had just attended her funeral.

I sighed, and then nodded towards the house with my head. Marleen got the gesture, and we both walked inside. It was silent. Stella was still at my grandmother's house and my parents were probably somewhere in the house, worrying about me. Marleen and I changed out of our funeral clothes. I was grateful for the change. I didn't need the reminder that she was gone. But I was about to confront Will, which would be a huge cue for my mind to wander to the fact. Once we were both ready to go, I set off to find my parents. I hadn't been around the house much lately with the trip to the cabin, trip to the hospital, and funeral service. I was suddenly hit with a worry that they wouldn't let me go out, especially if they didn't know exactly where I was going.

I found them talking in the kitchen, most likely about me. I leaned outside the door frame, listening for a few seconds. "It just doesn't make sense," I heard my dad say. "No one else in their family had that problem."

My mom replied with a sigh, "I know."

When I walked in, they stopped talking. "Hello, dear," my mom greeted. "What's up?"

'Oh, you know, just mourning my best friend's death,' I wanted to say. But, of course, I didn't. I came there for a reason, and that reason wasn't to make sarcastic comments about death to my mom. "Marleen and I were going to take a ride around the neighborhood. I just wanted to see if that was okay with you guys."

My mom and dad shared a look, and seemed to come to a silent agreement. I tried to push away the memories of all the times I did that with Alex. We could communicate without even speaking to each other. "Okay," my mom said.

"Okay?" I asked. They weren't going to ask any more questions? Where had my strict parents gone?

"Okay," my dad replied. "Just don't stay out too late." He offered a small smile and I wanted to smile too, but I couldn't, not yet.

"We won't," I said. And then I went back to my room.

"What's the verdict?" Marleen asked as I walked in. She was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I couldn't help but notice the dark circles under her eyes. I wondered if she had nightmares too.

"They said we can go. But not to stay out late, so we better get going soon."

"Alright," she said, jumping off the bed. "Let's go." I stuffed the notes from Alex and the star map into my coat pocket, and then we made our way back outside. I waved at my parents as we passed the kitchen. I found myself wondering what they were talking about before I interrupted, but quickly pushed the matter into the 'Analyze Later' section of my brain. I had other things to worry about.

Marleen drove since she was the one that knew where Will lived. We rode in silence, it seemed like every drive was like this nowadays. I looked out the window, admiring the trees along the road. They were tall and dark and they had a winter look to them. I wondered if it was going to snow any this winter. The trees rushed past in a blur of green and I imagined what they would look like with a white blanket of snow covering them. I easily got distracted by the blurred colors and I didn't even realize how much time was flying by. In what seemed like no time, Marleen parked the truck. We were at the end of a short trail that lead to a house set back into the woods.

"This is it?" I asked, marveling at the surreal aura that was encircling this little cottage.

"This is it," Marleen confirmed. "If Mindy was right, that is."

"Let's go," I said. I started walking up the trail, Marleen following close behind. When we reached the house, I gave one last hesitant glance at Marleen. She nodded in encouragement, and then I knocked on the door. On the other side, I could hear multiple different voices. It sounded like they were arguing over who would answer the door. After a few more seconds of waiting, the door swung open.

It revealed a little boy who looked about the same age as Stella. He had brown hair, but the same blue eyes as Will. This must have been his brother. "Hello," he greeted. "Are you here to talk to my mom?"

I shook my head. "No. We're here for, um, Will? Is he here?"

From inside the house I heard someone ask who was at the door, but the little boy ignored him. "Yes, Will is here," he said. Then he turned towards a set of stairs that were near the door and yelled, "Will! There are people at the door for you!"

Another face appeared in the doorway, but it wasn't Will. It was another boy, who looked like an older version of the one in front of me. "Who are you?" he asked Marleen and I.

"We're friends of Will, from school," Marleen answered.

He looked confused. "Will only had one friend from school. And he just got back from their funeral."

I winced at the mention of Alex's funeral. I was about to make another remark when I heard footsteps on the stairs. Will came down and pushed the other two boys out of the way. "I'll be right back," he said to them, and then shut the door so that he was standing on the step with me and Marleen. "Come on," he said, walking away from the house.

Marleen and I shared a look before following him. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"A place," he replied, sarcastically. I decided not to question further. Marleen looked like she wanted to, but didn't. We followed him into the woods and I got kind of scared. But then we stepped into a clearing. There was a huge rock in the middle, big enough for at least five people to lie on top of. Will sat on the rock and me and Marleen joined him.

"This is a nice place you got here," Marleen said, looking around at the trees.

"I know," he said. "What happened to your hand?" he asked me. "I forgot to ask earlier."

I looked down at the gauze wrapping my left hand and upper arm. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I burned it." Before he could question further, I sprang another question. "Were those two boys your brothers?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "That was two of them, I have five."

My eyes widened. "Five?"

"Yeah," he said. "The little one you saw was Wess, he's four. The other one was Ian, he's seven. Then there's James; who's ten, Cameron; who's fourteen, and Elliot; who's eighteen. But he's not here, he left when he graduated."

"Do they all have brown hair accept you?"

He nodded. "Yep, I'm the black sheep. Anyway, enough about me. I think we have some things we need to discuss."

"How did you know Alex?" Marleen asked. She was never the beat-around-the-bush type. Straight to the point.

"It's a crazy story," he said. "I don't know if you'll believe it."

"Just say it," Marleen said.

Will sighed. I shifted on the rock to face him as he started to recall the story to the both of us. "It was last year. I was headed home from a trip across the bridge, visiting Elliot. There wasn't much traffic, that's how I saw her." He sighed for what seemed like the millionth time. "She was standing on the edge of the bridge."

I didn't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this. But I needed to hear the whole story. "I pulled over, and went over to where she was standing. I didn't want to scare her, I was afraid she would jump. She screamed at me and told me to leave. I didn't though. Eventually, I convinced her to climb back over the railing to the other side. I somehow got her to get in my car, and I just talked the whole time to distract her. I was telling her about how I had just moved to some neighborhood and I was scared to go to my new school. Turns out, she went to that school. She told me about her life. About you two, and her parents, and Naomi." There was that mystery name again, but I didn't interrupt. "She said if I hadn't stopped her," he stopped to take a deep breath and close his eyes, "she would have jumped."

Last year, when she went missing, that must have been when this happened. When she came back talking about her guardian angel, she was referring to Will. I felt like I was going to cry. My best friend had been about to take her life, and I didn't even know she was hurting.

"I drove her back to her house. And I guess things just kind of clicked after that. We would hang out after school, right here," he said, patting the rock we were sitting on. "We just talked. I've been clinically depressed ever since my dad died when I was fourteen, so I understood how she was feeling."

"You're dad died?" Marleen asked.

"Yeah," he said. "We looked just alike. And when he died, I guess it was too hard for anyone to look at me without thinking of him. So, I was ignored by my family. They wouldn't even look at me."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Like I said, I'm the black sheep. No one really cared about me, except Alex. She was the first one to actually get to know me. I talked more to Alex in the first couple hours that I met her than I had talked to most of my brothers my entire life."

"How did she get to the bridge?" I suddenly asked. There was no way she could have walked there.

"She said that she borrowed Naomi's car," Will said.

"Who's Naomi?" Marleen asked.

Will looked shocked. "You seriously don't know who she is?" he asked. Marleen shook her head. Will looked at me, and I shook my head as well.

"Naomi is Alex's sister," he said.

"No," she said. "Alex didn't have a sister."

"Yes, she did. I've met her before," Will said.

Marleen just shook her head in disbelief. And the weird thing was, I believed Will. I believed in every word he said. But I couldn't believe that the girl I had practically known since birth had kept so many secrets from me. I had told her everything about my life. She knew me better than I knew my own self. And I had only known one side of Alex. The side she showed everyone. Except Will, obviously. And I wasn't jealous of Will like I thought I would be. I just felt guilty that Alex had felt so sad and I hadn't even noticed. She tried to take her life, and I didn't even realize that she was sad.

"Where does she live?" I asked Will.

"Who? Naomi?" he asked.

"Yes. Where does she live?"

"She lives in some quaint little town. I forgot the name, something about a pond I believe," he said.

"Can you take me there?" I asked.

"Us," Marleen corrected.

"I think I still have the location saved in my phone. Why do you want to go there?" Will questioned.

"I just want to talk to her," I said.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Will said, sounding skeptical.

"Why?" I asked.

"Naomi is a sociopath," he said.

"What?" I asked, even though I heard him clearly.

"She's a sociopath. She had to spend her childhood in a psychological ward for mentally unstable people."

"But she's out of there now?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"Then I want to meet her."

"Me too," Marleen said.

Will looked at us like we were crazy. But he must have sensed our determination. "Fine," he said, letting out a sigh of defeat. "But it's a long drive." Will looked up at the sky that was slowly getting darker. "Call me tomorrow and we'll work something out."

I looked up at the sky as well. I could see the faint outline of stars starting to appear. I suddenly had the urge to shut my eyes and never open them again. I didn't want to see the stars. It was yet another reminder of who I had lost.

Author's Note:
lots of new information in this chapter... anyway, comment your thoughts and if you enjoyed, would you mind leaving a vote? it would mean a lot :)