Tuesday morning and the girls sat at their usual table. Quinn ate an apple as she read a book, Harley was talking to Izzy and Stratus about looking into the murder.

Neveah didn’t quite feel right. She couldn’t understand how Quinn and Harley were so normal after yesterday. So she just stayed silent and finished her homework.

“Well, only Quinn knows Brandon,” Izzy said.

“Yeah Quinn, you have to tell us what you saw that night before we can do anything,” Harley said.

“After school, come to my house. I’ll tell you everything I know.” Quinn turned the page in her book.

“Um, about yesterday.” Stratus tried.

“What about it?” Quinn shut her book and gave Stratus her full undivided attention.

“About what I said…”

“What you said?” Quinn took a bite of her apple.

“I’m sorry okay, you don’t have to be an asshole.”

“You know a really good friend would kiss it better.” She teased.

Stratus’s face lit up red and Izzy and Harley giggled.

“Get off it.” Stratus huffed.

Quinn smirked before opening her book again. Neveah looked up from the corner of her eye to Quinn, Quinn was looking at her over the edge of her book with a raised eyebrow. Neveah narrowed her eyes and went back to her homework. Quinn rolled her eyes.

Stratus gave a confused look between the two of them.

“Did something happen?” Izzy asked outright.

“Nope,” Quinn said.

Harley kept her mouth shut and eyed Neveah.

“Are you sure?” Stratus asked.

“I don’t know am I sure Neveah?” Quinn asked.

“Nothing happened.” She said.

“There you have it, nothing happened.”

“Okay…” Stratus dragged the word out.

“Oh, I uh have to return a library book, Come with me Neveah?” Harley asked.

“Sure.” Neveah got up robotically.

Quinn snorted in amusement at her awkwardness. Harley grabbed Neveah’s wrist and dragged her away from the table.

“Just be normal! Don’t make it weird.” Harley hissed at her as soon as they were out of earshot.

“I am being normal.” She defended herself.

“Are not! It was just for fun, no big deal. No one has to know.”

“Okay, it’s just hard. That was my first kiss.” Neveah admitted.

“What!” Harley shouted so loud the whole cafeteria turned to look at them.

“Shh!” Neveah hissed and dragged her away.

“Why didn’t you say anything, what about Parker, the guy you dated last year?”

“We never kissed, he was always so shy. It’s why I broke up with him.”

“Holy hell, Neveah so not cool! Quinn just stole your first kiss!”

“I know! Which is why I am being weird. Quinn, the girl I try every day not to hate, kissed me! And maybe I liked it?” She shrugged.

“Oh my god! This is like major! Are you,” she paused to look around to make sure no one was listening, “Gay?” she whispered.

“No, I don’t know. I’m confused. Maybe? It felt weird okay. I was like into it, until I saw Quinn’s face. She looked like dead inside or something. It’s a major turn off when the kisser doesn’t even look like they are enjoying it!” she hissed.

“Well no duh! Quinn is dead inside. Hello! She basically said so last night. She doesn’t like you like that, that was just a game to her.”

“Well I don’t like her either, trust me. But I just, I don’t know. I can’t be normal. I just feel off. I don’t like it.”

“Maybe your sexually confused, it’s because you’re so uptight.” Harley nodded to herself as they walked towards the library.

“I am not uptight.” She snapped.

“Are too.”

“Ugh! Just don’t tell Quinn. I don’t want her to be an extra asshole around me.”

“Trust me no way am I dropping that bomb, Stratus will kill you.”

“Well, what am I going to do? How am I going to just be normal?”

“Easy, fake it till you make it. That’s what I do.” Harley shrugged.

“I can’t.”

“Well think about all the times you’ve wanted to strangle Quinn. That should help.”

“That should be easy.” Neveah snorted to herself in amusement.

“See, that’s all you got to do. Just forget the whole thing ever happened.”

“What whole thing?” Mason came up behind them.

He was tall and extremely fit. He wore tight shirts that showed off his six-pack underneath. He was everyone’s dreamboat boy. Bleach blond hair, dark blue eyes, a face of a god. Any girl who was anyone wanted a piece of him, and he knew it.

“Hey!” Harley ran into his arms.

“Hey to you too.” He smiled. It was almost like the light dinged off his teeth like in the cartoons.

“Still on for our date?” she asked.

“Of course, I saw you and wanted to invite you and your friends to my party this weekend. It’s a costume party with Halloween around the corner and everything. You two coming? I could use a date.”

“Are you asking me to be your date for the party?” Harley smiled at him.

“Yeah, I’d love to have you on my arm.”

“Okay. I’ll be there, and so will my friends.”

“We will?” Neveah said.

Harley shot her a look.

“I mean we will, yeah. We’ll be there.”

“Great, see you later for our study date.” He winked before walking off.

“God he’s so hot. I just want emm.” Harley made a grunting noise.

“Please keep that to yourself.” Neveah snorted in amusement.

“Uptight.” Harley sang.

Neveah rolled her eyes and the two walked off to class as the bell rang.

At lunch, the girls sat around their table and Harley filled them in on the party.

“You shouldn’t sign us up for stuff.” Quinn frowned.

“Come on you like parties remember, plus think of all the pictures you can take.”

“Hmm, alright you’ve convinced me.” Quinn shrugged.

“Stratus?”

“Of course I’m in, hello it’s a party.” She smiled.

“Yes! Izzy?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Alright then it’s official we are going to a party this weekend. What should our costumes be?”

They all quickly broke into ideas all except Neveah who found herself awkwardly and silently staring at Quinn’s black painted lips. They were so perfectly shaped. So kissable…

“Uh, earth to Neveah, any input?” Stratus asked.

“Huh?”

Harley shot her a look that said be normal!

She looked to Quinn who was smirking at her in amusement. She caught her staring.

‘Ugh look at her cocky look!’ Neveah thought about strangling her.

“Sure, what are the ideas.” Neveah jumped into the conversation.

“Wizard of Oz theme, Superhero theme, or pop stars theme.”

“Hmm, it’s up to you.”

“I vote wizard of Oz.” Quinn shrugged.

“Sounds good to me.” Izzy agreed.

“Then Wizard of Oz it is, I call Glinda the good,” Stratus said.

“I’ll be the Wicked Witch,” Quinn smirked.

“Paper rock scissors for Dorothy?” Harley said to Izzy and Neveah.

They nodded. Izzy won. Harley agreed to be the scarecrow. Neveah agreed to be the tin man of course, with a sexy feminine twist no way was she wearing a garbage can to the party. They continued to chat about what they were going to wear and how their costumes were going to look until the bell rang.

After school, the girls met up at Quinn’s house.

“I can’t stay too long, my mom will kill me,” Neveah said.

“Same,” Izzy said.

“Well, I guess I’ll get to it, not much to tell really. I went over like usual. We chatted about books that we were reading. Brandon was sneaking out to go to a convention with his friend. I caught him when I was going to the bathroom. Told me not to tell, yata, yata. I went back to Alice, we laughed about Brandon and his dorkiness I told her I had to go because I wanted to get the cabin ready and that was it. Still alive when I left, still breathing. Not dead.”

“Okay, but did Alice say anything to you like what she was going to do after you left?”

“Nope, nothing special she just said she was going to finish reading the book. I told her I would stop by the next day to talk about it some more.”

“That doesn’t help at all.”

“Well, I told you it wouldn’t. there is nothing to look in to, no leads. Which is why we should leave it to the cops.”

“Well, we should still talk to Brandon just to be sure.”

“No way, guys a wreck. His sister just died. Give him space.”

“Quinn come on, you’re not helping.” Stratus frowned.

“Fine, I’ll talk to Brandon, alone. If we all approach, he’s going to feel attacked. I’ll tell you what he says afterward.”

“Fine.” Stratus sighed.

“So who needs a ride home?” Quinn asked, being as she and Izzy were the only ones with cars.

“I can take Stratus since it’s on the way,” Izzy said.

“Alright you two are coming with me,” Quinn said in a cop imitation.

They drove away in opposite directions. Quinn dropped Harley off first before driving one block down.

“So, we gonna talk about the fact that you’ve been acting weird all day?” Quinn turned to Neveah in the car.

“Yeah, so what?”

“So, what did you and Harley talk about this morning?”

“Nothing.”

“You sure?” Quinn smirked at her.

“I don’t like you like that!”

“I never said you did.”

“Whatever.” Neveah moved to get out of the car.

Quinn locked the doors.

“I felt the way you were into it. You liked it didn’t you? You’ve been staring at my lips all day.” She teased.

“Get over yourself.”

“We can kiss some more, now that we aren’t high.” She offered.

“No way, I know you like Stratus. And I don’t like you.”

“It’s just for fun.”

“I don’t do just for fun we can’t---” Quinn leaned over and kissed her, cutting off her words.

Neveah’s eyes went wide and she moved to push Quinn off, but Quinn grabbed her hands and pinned them to the window.

“Lighten up, relax,” Quinn said as she pulled back.

Neveah took a shaky breath before being the one to initiate the kiss. Quinn let go of her hands and ran her hands up her thighs. The two made out in the car.

“Come inside,” Neveah said.

“What about your sisters?”

“They will leave us alone.”

Quinn smirked and turned the car off. She headed inside and waved hi to her sisters before the two went into the room and shut and locked the door. Quinn pushed Neveah down on the bed and trailed kisses up her neck.

“Not as uptight as I thought.” Quinn purred.

“Shut up.” Neveah stifled a moan.

“You like girls?” Quinn asked.

“I- I don’t know. I’m confused.”

“Well take your confusion out on me.” Quinn kissed her.

“I don’t like you.” Neveah pushed her off.

“I don’t particularly like you either but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun.”

“Why are you doing this? Why kiss me and Harley if you like Stratus?”

“Good question, it’s called who gives a damn. I do what feels good.”

“That’s not a good way to live.”

“Coming from you right now, that’s rich.”

“Ugh! You're so---”

“Charming?” Quinn teased.

“More like annoying.”

“Just kiss me already.”

They smashed their lips together. Neveah shuddered as Quinn ran her hands up her shirt. Neveah was getting into it, despite her better judgment she opened her eyes. Quinn’s eyes were closed and her face seemed relaxed but it was clear she wasn’t feeling anything from this. Neveah pushed her off.

“What?” she said breathlessly.

“What is this to you? Why are you doing this?”

“Who cares?” Quinn grunted in frustration.

“Do you feel anything at all?”

“I feel horny,” Quinn smirked.

“Are you okay?” Neveah sat up pushing Quinn all the way off her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean like are you okay, with the stuff you were saying yesterday about wanting to die, and this. I mean like, do you need someone to talk to or something?”

Quinn sighed and stood to leave.

“Hey, you didn’t answer the question.”

“If I wanted someone to talk to, I’d get a therapist.” She rolled her eyes and unlocked the door.

“Quinn wait, I’m serious. You can talk to me.”

“Ha, yeah right. Maybe get that stick out of your ass first. Just text me if you ever want to fool around.”

Neveah watched Quinn leave.

“You got black lipstick again.” Her sister pointed out.

“Just shut up will ya,” Neveah grumbled walking to the bathroom to wash it off.

When Quinn got home Brandon was waiting for her on her front porch. She sighed and braced herself for the confrontation.

“Hey.” She said casually getting out of the car.

His brown eyes were red from the obvious tears he had been shedding. His shaggy brown hair was all messed up and unbrushed. His glasses hung low on his nose. His skin looked pale compared to its usual honey golden tone. He even looked thinner than he already was, which was scary since he was already as thin as a stick.

“Hey.” His voice cracked.

“How are you?”

“Cut the crap. Why didn’t you come to bail me out? You saw me leave, why didn’t you tell the police?”

“Brandon, I didn’t even know the police wanted to talk to me until yesterday, by then it was already too late.” She lied.

“Well, why haven’t you talked to them about Alice? Told them about how you two were messing around that night?”

“What’s to tell?” she shrugged.

“I saw you kissing her! I saw you two all the time always messing around, don’t you think the police should know about that? I mean they are trying to find out if Alice had some secret boyfriend. I told them about you.”

“You did what!?” Quinn stepped closer to him.

“You were the last one with her, they know that.”

“She was alive when I left. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Then why won’t you talk to them!”

“Because what can I say? Oh yeah, Alice and I made out then I left, she was alive I swear officer. Yeah, right I’ll be in handcuffs so fast my head will spin.”

“They already know! I told them, it only makes you look worse by not coming forward.”

“God damn it!” Quinn kicked the door.

“Did you kill my sister?” he asked her outright.

“No!”

“Then go to the police right now and tell them everything. Tell them about the videos, tell them about the pictures. Show them the video you took, I saw you filming.”

“Did you tell them about that too?”

“Yes.”

“Brandon! What the hell? No wonder why they think I killed her.”

“I thought we were friends, you said you liked me. You said you thought we were cool and underrated. But you left me in there to rot, what else was I supposed to do?”

“How about keeping your damn mouth shut!”

“You killed her, just admit it!”

“I didn’t kill anyone!”

“Liar!”

Quinn narrowed her eyes on him before slamming him against the door and reaching under his shirt. She pulled out the wire he was wearing and threw it on the floor. She stomped on it several times until it was broken.

She turned back to Brandon with an ice-cold glare.

“If I was the killer that’s a pretty dumb move don’t you think?”

He swallowed and took a step back.

“I didn’t kill anyone. Now get the hell away from me.” she pushed him away from the door and walked into her house, slamming the door shut behind her.

Her phone rang. It was Stratus.

“Hey.” She answered sounding normal.

“Did you talk to Brandon? What did he say?”

“Uh yeah, he just left. He’s really torn up about the whole thing. Sort of mad at me for not coming to bail him out. I asked him if he saw anything, he said he didn’t.”

“Another dead end.” She sighed.

“Yep, I’m telling you it’s no use. But I think I’m gonna talk to the cops. Get me off their suspect list. It’s the right thing to do, to help the case along.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, besides I didn’t do it, so I have nothing to worry about right?”

“Right. well, good luck. Tell me how it goes.”

“Yeah, I will.” Then she hung up.

‘Fuck! Fucking Brandon! Damn him!’ Quinn thought.

She grabbed her camera, removed the video by transferring it to a different memory card then grabbed her car keys and left for the police station.