Aiden Stroud was eighteen, captain of the football team, senior class president, a shoo-in for prom king, and a friend of the boy who killed him.

No one likes to talk about that last bit. It muddies the waters, makes people uncomfortable. How could the good boy, the victim we insist on raising to a pedestal of perfection, have been friends with the troubled young man who killed nine people? I don’t have the answer to that, but by all accounts, they’d been friends since preschool. Maybe not inseparable, the way Sarah and I were, but close enough that, if you dig back far enough into the archives of social media, you find photos from a party a few months before, where Aiden, dressed in a football jersey, has his arm slung around the shoulders of his eventual killer.

I’ve seen that photo dozens of times during my internet spirals. I’ve stared at it for hours, wondering what happened. Had something changed, had they fought? Had he even known Aiden would be in that classroom? According to Denny, Aiden had only come in the room at the end of class to bring Brenna a book she’d left in his locker. He wasn’t supposed to be there.

I have to stop myself from wondering, because it never gets me anywhere.

But this isn’t about him. Or, it’s not supposed to be. It’s about Aiden. But I don’t think it’s possible to really talk about who Aiden was, outside of his bland, generic obituary in the local paper, without mentioning that connection.

I knew Aiden the way everyone did. As one of the most popular, outgoing guys in school. To me, he was mostly just Brenna DuVal’s jock boyfriend. But he was in Ashley’s grade, so I wanted her perspective. Obviously things are complicated between us, so I had Miles text her and ask about him.

MILES: You knew Aiden, right?

ASHLEY: Aiden Stroud? Yeah. Of course. Why?

MILES: Lee’s thing.

ASHLEY: Oh.

MILES: So anything you wanna say about him?

ASHLEY: I guess. Let me think.

MILES: Okay.

ASHLEY: We made out at church camp once.

MILES: Ha.

ASHLEY: Seriously. Before I started seeing Logan. He and Brenna were on one of their breaks. He used way too much tongue for church camp.

MILES: I didn’t know he went to your church.

ASHLEY: Only for a year, I think. When his parents split up, he and his mom moved across town. He started going to Hillcreek Christian. I’m sure he made out with some girls there, too, though. He and Brenna broke up a lot. And Aiden always found someone to kiss.

MILES: That’s definitely not the story I was expecting.

ASHLEY: I’m making him sound awful. LOL. He wasn’t gross or anything. Just flirty. He was also super sweet. He was the guy anyone could call if they needed a ride home from a party. Even if he wasn’t there, he’d come pick you up just so you didn’t drive drunk. I never had to call him, but a few of my friends did.

MILES: So he never drank?

ASHLEY: Not that I know of. He told me once he lost a cousin in a drunk driving accident, which was why he always volunteered to drive people home.

MILES: Makes sense.

ASHLEY: Actually, the last time I hung out with Aiden was at a party. Right before Christmas. I never drank either because I was too scared of getting in trouble. So we were just sitting on the couch, and he let me blubber to him for an hour about all of my relationship drama with Logan at the time. I’m sure he was annoyed and bored, but he didn’t act like it. He told me he was sure Logan and I would work things out. That he knew, somehow, we’d end up together. He was right, I guess.

MILES: Seems like he was a good guy.

ASHLEY: He was. Aside from the too-much-tongue at church camp.

MILES: We all have flaws.

ASHLEY: The weird thing to think about is the end of that memory. After we talked about Logan,            came over to us. He was drunk, and Aiden drove him home. Ironic, huh? Aiden cared about keeping him safe but …

MILES: Yeah.