"He gave them to Jason." I look at Trystan. "Those pills can cause sudden death in someone with a heart condition." I pause. "Did Braden know?"
"Who gave you that video?" Trystan asks, not answering my question.
"I don't know. Someone sent it to me. Did Braden know Jason had a heart condition or not?"
"Everyone on the team knew but nobody knew how serious it was."
"Jason never should've taken those pills. Do you know if he'd taken them before?"
"No, but by your theory if he had he would've died before the game that night."
"We have to show this to the police."
"Are you fucking insane? We're not showing that to the police."
"Your brother gave pills to a guy knowing they could kill him and you don't think we should tell anyone?"
"Jason didn't have to take those pills. It was his choice."
"What if Braden didn't tell him what they were?"
"It's still his choice. He could've said no."
"You really think that would've happened? You know how hard it is to say no to Braden. The football team's doing a third practice today because they're all too afraid to tell him no. Dante's twice Braden's size and even he won't tell him no." I hold up my phone. "You saw the video. Braden's up in Jason's face, shoving pills at him. He wasn't asking him to take them. He was forcing him to."
"I'm not listening to this. Braden didn't kill him so just shut the hell up." Trystan gets out of the car, slamming the door shut.
I wait until he's in the house, then run down to Jackson's place.
"I have to show you something," I say when he opens the door.
"No hello kiss?"
"Sorry." I reach up and kiss him, then go inside to the living room. "Someone sent me this video. You have to watch it."
I get the video going and hand Jackson my phone.
"What do you think?" I ask when it's done.
"Where did you get that?" he asks.
"Someone sent me a text. I don't know who. What should I do? Braden gave Jason those pills, hoping they'd kill him. That's murder. I have to tell the police."
"A court wouldn't call it murder. Maybe manslaughter but even then, he'd still probably get off on just a drug charge."
"But he pressured Jason into taking them."
"A lot of people pressure other people to take drugs. That's not murder."
"It is when you know it could kill someone."
"Any drug could cause death. A court would blame Jason, saying he should've known better."
"Okay, yeah, but you agree with me, right? That Braden did it intentionally?"
"Of course he did. He wanted to be the best player. Lead the team. He had to get rid of Jason in order to do that."
"And he doesn't get punished for it? He just gets to walk free?"
