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My room was tidy and clean, I was wearing clothes that were not sweatpants, and I’d even showered. I’d casually told my shell-shocked dad and a very hungover Theo that a friend might be stopping by later. All that was left to do was wait.
Still no Leesha.
I was starting to get a little nervous. What if she didn’t show? I’d put myself out there and it’d be all for nothing. Zainab was expecting me to fail. If Leesha didn’t show, I didn’t think I could take the embarrassment.
At this point, I was hoping Zainab wouldn’t show, either.
‘Stop it,’ George said, watching me twiddle my thumbs.
‘I’m not doing anything.’
‘You are. You’re all twitchy and anxious. It’s like you’re waiting for a date or something.’
‘I am waiting for a date. Kinda. Look, she’s the first “friend” I’ve had over,’ I mumbled pathetically.
‘What? Like, ever?’
‘Well, since my age reached double digits, yeah.’
He gave me a look.
‘Oh, that’s sad.’
‘I know!’
My heart stopped as the doorbell rang. And then picked up again, twice the speed. I ran down the stairs as my dad answered the door. He still hadn’t recovered from the shock.
‘Hi, is Brianna there?’ I heard Zainab say.
My dad looked up at me, confused, and turned back.
‘Yeah. You wanna come in?’
‘That’d be nice.’
He watched her come in, probably expecting her to vanish any second. Just to be on the safe side, he quickly closed the door behind her. He looked her up and down, making a quick judgment. No extra head, a standard amount of limbs.
His confusion deepened.
‘Hey, come on up. We’re just gonna be watching movies and talking about girl things, so-’
‘Sure! Have fun. Um, there are snacks in the kitchen,’ my dad informed us, thinking furiously as he headed back to Theo.
I let Zainab think that my dad was weirder than me, and we headed into my room. I closed the door behind me and took a deep breath.
‘She’s not here yet,’ I told her apologetically.
‘Right.’
‘You wanna sit down?’ I asked, offering her a chair. She perched on the end of it, and I did the same. She made no move to take her jacket off.
Silence.
‘Maybe you should tell her about Izzy?’ George prodded.
‘Oh, good idea!’ I said, startling her. ‘Okay, here’s the thing...’
She remained quiet throughout my whole long-winded and disjointed explanation of a murder that happened over thirty years ago, with seemingly no relevance to anything. It took a few minutes before she was up to speed.
‘Right,’ she said again, eyes widening.
I think she was beginning to regret coming here.
‘I know it’s a lot to take in, and you’re totally free to leave,’ I assured her. She immediately stood up.
‘No, wait! Don’t leave, I need you,’ I panicked. ‘I am not making this up, I promise. Leesha will be here any second, and I’ll be able to prove it then, okay? Honest.’
She dithered, caught between catching her friend’s killer and being away from me. Then, her eyes fell on something on my dresser and she hardened.
‘What are those?’
I didn’t bother looking, I already knew.
‘I’ve gone back to therapy. Tess is making me take pills. Needless to say, they haven’t worked.’
‘I knew this was a mistake,’ she sighed, heading for the door.
‘Zainab, wait! Can you stay until Leesha comes? You were her friend. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think this would help her, right?’
‘Ooh, emotional blackmail. I was wondering when that would make an appearance,’ George whistled.
Hey, it worked. The door stayed closed and she perched back on the chair’s edge.
Our old buddy Silence returned.
‘Do you know what happened the night she was killed?’ I asked, cutting a knife right through that.
‘Don’t you?’
‘Like I told you, I’m pretty sure she lied. She told me she was on a date with some guy, and then her mom... where are you going?’ I asked sharply, as she jumped up again and stomped over to the door.
‘This was definitely a mistake,’ she snapped.
‘Why? What just happened?’ I pleaded, completely taken aback by her sudden 180.
She gave me a look of utter loathing before yanking the door open.
‘Leesha’s gay.’
And as luck would have it, Leesha finally turned up outside my bedroom. Of course, Zainab didn’t see that.
‘Oh my God,’ said her friend, appalled by the scene in front of her.
Okay, Leesha lied about her date. I can deal with that. I recovered quickly enough to catch Zainab before she reached the stairs.
‘Wait! She’s here. She heard you. You just walked right through her.’
‘Of course I did,’ she replied, not even turning a smidge.
‘No, wait! Ask me something. Ask me anything,’ I said. Although, Leesha was in pretty bad shape. I wasn’t even sure if she’d speak to me again. George was attempting to comfort her, but he gave me a helpless shrug.
At least her friend wanted to play ball. Zainab stopped at the top of the stairs and sighed.
‘Alright. Who was my first crush?’
‘Leesha?’ I asked, turning back to her.
She shook her head, hand firmly over her mouth.
‘Leesha, please. She’s here to help you. That’s all she wants. We know that David didn’t kill you. We think it was your mom. I don’t know how Izzy made you do this, but she doesn’t matter. The only way you’re going to move on from this place is if the truth comes out,’ I explained, a little forcefully.
‘She’s right, Leesha. I’ve been here six months. Izzy’s been stuck for four decades. You wanna be like us?’ George asked quietly.
Come on, Leesha. I willed her to do the right thing – for me, anyway. It’d certainly save me a lot of grief in the long run. She took her time, though. I felt like I was going to throw up right there and then in the hallway, and I wasn’t only blaming the pills. Man, stress eats you right up from the inside.
‘Mr. Samuels,’ she finally whispered.
‘Mr. Samuels,’ I relayed to Zainab. She’d been about to take the first step down but she froze. I took that as a good sign.
‘Who is he?’ I asked Leesha. Give me the good deets.
‘Kindergarten teacher. She fell over one day and hurt her knee. He put a Band-Aid on it. It had a picture of a princess on it, so he said that made her a princess, too.’
Calling her a princess? Wow, that is a good first step for any guy.
‘Kindergarten teacher, really? I think I had those same princess Band-Aids. My dad said I was a princess, too,’ I mused. I bet they all say that.
Zainab slowly sat herself down on the floor. I was glad to see that she also stepped away from the staircase. I did not want another lucy on my hands. Especially since Leesha was still talking about Mr. Samuels. It was probably the safest thing for her to talk about.
‘He was bald and middle-aged and had sixteen ferrets as pets?’ I interrupted her, shooting her a weird look. ‘Boy, is he still single?’
Her surely snarky reply was interrupted by a sudden wail of despair.
It was Zainab. She was crying.
Oh, nuts.
I have made tons of people cry in my lifetime. I see it as one of my great skills in life, along with ruining lives and generally being able to piss absolutely anybody off. The thing is, those people deserved it, and I had no interest in comforting them, so I never discovered how to stop the tears.
Um, help?
‘Give her a hug!’ George advised, seeing my predicament.
‘You want a hug?’ I asked her.
‘Don’t ask, just do it!’
And wait for a lawsuit to turn up at my door? No, thanks.
She shook her head vigorously anyway, tears drenching the floor. Alarmed by the noise, my dad bounded up the stairs to look at me standing over a crying woman. He looked resigned, as though he’d known that this was somehow my plan from the beginning.
‘She had a bad breakup,’ I lied.
‘Is that true?’ he asked her gently.
She managed to nod, quickly wiping her eyes a little and breathing deeply.
‘Yeah, it’s true. We’re just going to go talk,’ I managed to hear through more tears. She headed into my room, with Leesha and George quickly behind her.
I smiled at my dad and threw him a thumbs up as I pretended I didn’t hear her loud sobs. See, Dad? I knew how to friend!
He backed away downstairs, leaving me free to follow Zainab and the lucies, knowing that I was not about to enjoy the next couple hours.