“Oh, were you expecting me to act like I didn’t just overhear everything?” I wondered out loud, a cold chill cascading down my spine. “Because that’s not going to happen.”
“Listen I don’t know what you think you heard but—” Fabian began but I immediately cut him off. I was not the girl that I was when I first arrived at St Katherine's, I would not allow myself to be spoken over and disregarded.
“Don’t do that, it’s beneath you. I heard everything, every single word. Quite frankly more than I wanted to.” I admitted walking in between them and taking a seat at my desk and folding my arms. “I want to know everything.”
“Armani no you don’t.” Keomi sighed, placing her fingers against her temples in frustration. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, what you got yourself into by hanging out with us all in the first place.”
“I know what I heard, and this time I want to know the full story, with no hidden connotations, I want you to be honest with me,” I asked them and they gave each other a panicked look.
“Fine. As long as you promise to be understanding at the very least?” Fabian proposed.
“I don’t owe you anything because I highly doubt I’m going to be taking your side on any of this,” I warned.
“Do you want the long story or a short explanation?” Keomi asked me placing her hands on her hips.
“Tell it to me short and clear.” I directed.
“I had feelings for a girl named Elle a few years ago but she didn’t feel the same, shocker. Anyways, she was using me to get to Kennedy and I found out and I was really angry and upset. One day at camp, I found out about River and Jace having a….well whatever it was they had. I promised Jace that I wouldn’t say a word, because like I’d said, it was none of my business. But then I saw Elle’s group bullying one of their friends, and accidentally pushing her off the side of the rocks, she broke her leg. Jace knew that I was there, and wanted me to give a statement to the police but I wasn’t willing to risk getting involved. He started to question my morality in the situation and threatened to go to the police himself, but in turn, I got nervous and threatened to tell everyone about him and River. Then…well then Jace kinda started to spiral and I think that maybe that was my fault.” Fabian explained and I placed my hand over my heart to make sure my heart was still there, still beating. I couldn’t imagine what Jace probably had to go through, knowing everything that was on the line.
“Maybe?” Keomi speculated sarcastically. “It was.”
“Oh yeah? Well, you knew about them too, you could’ve talked to him and prevented everything—”
“Wait!” I paused, “How on earth would you have been able to change his fate?”
“Um…well, uh, sometimes we think that maybe Jace crashed the car on purpose.” Keomi hesitated.
“W-what do you mean?” I muttered.
“I think, he may have felt like the pressure of it all was too much and he wanted to end it,” Fabian suggested and I felt the tears begin to pool in my eyes, they then tumbled down my cheek and I wiped them away quickly.
“That’s…that’s insane.” I gasped.
“But not impossible,” Keomi added taking a deep breath and sitting on the edge of her bed. “People crack under pressure all the time.”
“That’s…awful, oh my God.” I thought to myself. “But wait, that doesn’t explain how Keomi knew?”
“We were…together at the time.” Keomi blushed. “He told me about it and wanted me to talk to Jace.”
“You dated Keomi?” I gasped in shock.
“We never technically dated but yes…we were together in many ways.” Fabian hinted and Keomi smacked his arm.
“Shut up, like seriously.” She asked of him.
“She wanted the whole truth Keomi, why spare her all the dirty details?” Fabian spat.
“Why…did you hide all of this?” I asked.
“Because some things are better left unsaid, better left hidden and digging them up always does more harm than good,” Keomi told me. “You were still new here, you didn’t need to know…everything.”
“This is so messed up.” I concluded, “River, he deserves to know.”
“No!” Fabian protested, grabbing hold of my arm. “He’s going to take it out of context, he’s going to blame us for everything.”
“Wow.” I sighed, shaking my head in disappointment. “You never did learn to grow a pair, did you Fabes? All this proves to me is that you don’t know your own friend at all.”
“Armani, wait!” Keomi called out. “Are you…angry with us?”
