Attractive Little Assholes

[Chris]

Attractive Little Assholes

#1

Prologue

The day had just ended, and the sky was displaying its darkness with a few stars beginning to twinkle. A young man was walking up a cliff where a lighthouse sat at the very top, but it wasn't just one young man. Four others were following him to the lighthouse. They stopped at the entrance while the man in front, Andre Pierce, started to fidget with the door leading into the lighthouse.

"Are you sure we'll be able to get in?" The question came from Nicholas Benedetti, who sounded bored and a little irritated. He kept his stare on Andre, who was still messing with the lock on the door.

"I really, really don't think we should be doing this..." Emmett Collins expressed his concern, which only made Andre irritated. Emmett flinched when his friend dropped the lock from his hand, which made a loud thump on the door of the lighthouse, and glared at Emmett. "Never mind..." Emmett managed to squeak out as Andre turned back to what he was doing.

"I got in just last week, so it's all good. Just give me a few minutes." Andre informed the group.

Because it was the end of the school year, Andre wanted to "surprise" his friends with something fun to do, and what better fun than to break into a lighthouse. Of all places. A third member of the group, Jacob Martinez, placed the two six packs of beers he was holding on the ground so he could rest his arms. "Anyone else have the eerie feeling that we'll, oh I dunno, get caught by the cops?"

Andre just rolled his eyes at Jake's words of concern, but he didn't say anything. Finally, he was able to break the lock and open the door. With a grin of success, he turned to his four best friends and gestured for them to go in. "See, I told you I'd get us in." After he pulled it open, he waved his hand to tell his friends to get in. After they walked through the threshold, Andre stared out at open space around him before he entered the lighthouse himself and shut the door with a heavy slam.

While the inside was small, Andre convinced his friends that it was the best fit for them. The group climbed to the top and Nicholas set the beers on the ledge next to the big light that had been shut off. Warren Murphy, the fifth and final member of the group set four bottles of vodka next to the beers and turned to look outside in the blackness of the night. "Hope nobody catches us up here."

Andre rolled his eyes as he grabbed a bottle of beer and popped the cap off with his shirt. "You guys worry too much. C'mon, we're here to have some fun you guys." He looked over at Emmett, eyes fierce, and handed the open beer towards him. "How about it, Emmett?"

Emmett couldn't help the little smile that crossed his lips and took the beer from Andre. When he realized Andre wasn't taking his eyes off of him, he took a quick swig of the beer and almost winced as the beer fell through his throat and into his stomach. Andre smirked and nodded his head, making Emmett feel pretty proud of himself.

After Emmett seemed to calm his nerves, the others around him and Andre seemed to have calmed theirs too and soon the group was passing around the bottles of vodka, laughing and having a good time. The guys talked about all the hottest girls at their school, what their plans were for the upcoming school year, sports, and whatever else high school boys talked about these days. Andre, Nick, Jake, Emmett and Warren were having the time of their lives. In fact, they were having such a fun and drunken time that they didn't realize it was going to turn into one of the most horrible nights ever.

Later that night, Warren was opening his eyes, freaking out because at first he didn't know where he was. Realizing he was still in the lighthouse, he calmed himself and looked around. He saw his friends sleeping on the floor all spread out, except for Andre. Confused, Warren got up from the floor and sneaked his way down the winding steps. As he made his way to the entrance, Warren felt a chill run down his spine. Oh God, he thought in horror, is this where a psycho killer was going to jump out and kill me? The young man shook the thoughts from his head and made his way to the door. He took the knob of the door in his hand when someone appeared beside him. "What are you doing?"

Warren nearly jumped out of his skin when Andre spoke. He let out a soft laugh and sighed a breath of relief. "You scared me, man. I thought you were..." he paused so he could take another breath of air while Andre looked at him irritable.

"I was just outside having a cigarette." Andre walked back into the lighthouse, stopping at the stairs leading up to their friends. "Come on, let's go. The breeze is gonna wake everyone else up."

Warren had finished closing the door and walked past Andre to go up the steps when Andre looked back at the door, his left eye fidgeting. After a moment, Andre shook his head and followed Warren back up the steps.

That was the last time Warren would be seeing and speaking to Andre because the next morning, Andre was nowhere to be found. The others disposed of all the alcohol bottles and made their way back to their homes. Days had passed, followed by the weeks, followed by the months. Nobody had heard or seen from Andre since.

The Pierce family was frantic as hell, Andre's parents started a massive manhunt for their son. To the police, he was considered missing. Nicholas, Jacob, Emmett and Warren were all questioned by the police, with their parents present of course. Nobody knew where Andre had gone or what had been done to him. The four boys stuck close to each other during their Junior year, but without Andre around, the boys began to drift. In fact, it was like Andre was the group's glue that stuck them together. Nicholas had gone off and joined the football team since he thought it would look good for college, Jacob had joined some writing club and focused heavily on his English class, Emmett managed to keep himself sane by engrossing himself with helping charities and other things, while Warren had just left. He convinced his parents that he needed to do something new and experience new things. So the Murphy family up and left the country to go to Ireland.

An entire year had past, and now Senior Year was right in front of the boys. It was their final year to get in good with the right people and attend the right colleges. Unfortunately, the boys had no idea things were about to turn upside down, especially their lives.

[Chris]

Chapter 1

The plane had finally landed at the airport and Warren was just ready to go back. He didn't know what made his parents want to leave Ireland, but he was pissed... no, he was beyond livid that he had to go back to the States. His parents explained that they felt that it was only "fair" and "right" that Warren finished his Senior year at the school he started his Freshman year. That didn't make sense to Warren at all. He wanted to be back in Ireland, taking tours of old castles, exploring ancient sites, eating Irish foods.... God, he wished he didn't have to board this stupid flight. But it was too late, and he knew it.

"Warren, don't forget your carry-on. Your father wants to be at the house as soon as possible, okay?" Warren glanced over at his mom, grumbling a response. He was so pissed at his mom and dad he wished he could just ignore them completely. He looked down at the ground in front of him and saw his backpack sitting on the ground. Picking it up, Warren unzipped it and took out a picture. It was of him and an Irish girl he met sometime during his trip to Ireland. The two instantly liked each other and fell in love, but since he had to go back to Connecticut, he had to leave his girlfriend behind. That was one of the main reasons he hated his parents right now.

Warren reluctantly followed his parents off the plane, his head feeling like mush and his stomach nauseated to its highest degree. 'Why couldn't I just stay in Ireland?' That was the current thought that kept going over and over in his head. The cool air in the airport hit him and that was when Warren knew everything he had in Ireland was gone. This was officially his life again in boring old Connecticut.

"Hey," he suddenly said as he looked to the little shops to his left, "would it be alright if I got something to eat? I haven't eaten in awhile..." He didn't wait to hear a response from either of his parents and headed right towards a Subway. Once in line, Warren noticed he was standing behind an older couple. They were holding hands and looking kinda cute, which only made Warren grit his teeth and roll his eyes. There was nothing he wanted more than to be with the girl he fell in love with overseas... By the time it was his turn to order, Warren still didn't know what he wanted so he just quickly chose the meatball marinara sub with pepperjack cheese, wheat bread, lettuce and tomato. He was waiting for the employee to build his sandwich when he heard a ringing noise coming from his pocket. Taking out his Samsung Galaxy, Warren unlocked the screen and hit the Text icon.

WELCOME HOME.

Warren looked confused since he didn't know who had sent this text. There wasn't any number, just the word UNKNOWN at the top of the screen. Shrugging to himself, Warren typed in a reply saying thanks and asking who the person sending the text was. By now his sandwich was complete so he thanked the employee, paid for the meal and sat down at a table. He knew his parents wanted to get home, but a few minutes of waiting wouldn't be totally bad.

After he sat down, Warren unwrapped the sandwich and took the first bite. He moaned at the taste and smiled as he swallowed it. Hearing his phone again, Warren took it out and unlocked the screen. "One New Text" was alerted. When he hit the icon for the second time, he raised his eyebrow at what he was seeing.

It was a picture of a Meatball Marinara sub with all its nutritional information on it. Below were the words,

"Hope you're having a good lunch. Wonder what your Irish bombshell is having for dinner now. -A"

What the hell? Warren gave off a look of confusion and immediately looked around to see if anyone was watching him. He felt a small shiver run down his spine and wondered if this was a prank. Maybe some little kid had a tracking device and got his number. Yeah that was probably it. Typing in a reply, he stated,

"Nice trick. Go back to your mommy and daddy now you f**k**g miscreant."

After he hit Send, Warren decided to just ditch the place right there. Gathering his food, he headed off in search of his parents who were now at the baggage claim trying to find their luggage. He stepped up to his mother's side noting how irritated she looked.

"We're still waiting on our things," she stated when he realized her son was with them now, "your suitcases came quick though. They're over by your father." After she pointed towards Warren's father's location, she stepped up to the rotating belt searching for more of their things.

Currently, Mr. Murphy was on the phone with someone. Careful observation told Warren that it was the realtor talking to his father about their house. Warren rolled his eyes at his father, always having to know what the hell is going on. "So everything is set? Good! We should be there in about an hour or two. Thank you so much, Linda." After Mr. Murphy was finished with the conversation, he hung up and looked over at his son.

"Everything good, buddy? Don't wanna forget anything, do we?" He smiled at Warren who just gave his father a thumbs up.

Warren wanted to tune out his parents so after they got everything from the airport, he inserted his earbuds into his phone and blasted his music in his ears. The ride home was uneventful, which Warren was actually kinda grateful for. As the family drove closer and closer to their home, Warren started to have many flashbacks of this place. His first day of high school, school plays, hanging out with his friends. Then they passed the house. No, not their new house, the Pierce house.

Warren felt many emotions rush through him just now as well as many questions. Did the Pierce family still live there? He had heard that they had moved, or was that just a rumor? Feeling his leg begin to shake, he took out his phone and tried to get onto the cellular network. He was about to type in the name Andre Pierce, but then he stopped. Maybe he should just leave well enough alone... Sure, Andre had been his friend, but a whole year had passed. Maybe it was time to just let himself as well as Mr. and Mrs. Pierce move on.

Actually, yeah. That was exactly what he was going to do! From this day on, Warren Murphy was going to forget everything that happened two years ago. That was the old Warren and this as going to be a new and fresh Warren. A new year.

Still, he wondered what the others were up to right now. He didn't have too much time to dwell on them though because the car had stopped at the new home and Warren noticed moving trucks at the side of the house.

"Well Warren, let's do this..." Warren got out of the car and headed up the sidewalk leading up to his new home. He would definitely need some time to get use to his new surroundings in his old hometown.

[Chris]

Chapter 2

Jacob Martinez was working furiously to finish the Summer extra credit English assignment, and by extra credit that meant ten to twenty pages on the subject of Morality. If he wasn't writing the paper, then he was busy discussing the paper with his friends from the high school English club. Sitting beside him was Brad Warner, a fellow member and best friend to Jacob. They had been sitting with their laptops at the Library for what felt like the entire damn day, but it didn't bother him. If it was one hundred percent up to him, Jake would probably stay here the entire day.

"How many pages are you at?" That was Brad's third or fourth time asking, but Jacob didn't mind. He actually thought it was pretty amusing. He had just gotten done with the next full page so he was fast to save the document.

"Seventeen, three more pages to go." Jacob proudly told his friend who actually looked pale and like he was going to throw up.

"Seven... seventeen?" Brad blinked a few times and drastically looked over his own work. He was only one his fourteenth page so he had a lot to do if he was going to catch up with Jake's progress.

"Dude, relax," Jacob chuckled at his friend's frantic looking expression. He nudged Brad's arm before going back to his own work. "We still have plenty of time to complete the assignment."

"Plenty of..." Brad covered his face with his hands making Jake think he was about to scream bloody murder. "You have plenty of time, I most certainly do not!"

As Jacob smirked, Brad looked over and punched him in the arm. Jake glared at Brad, but he started laughing. He knew that Brad knew he was just messing around.

Jacob began packing his things when he asked Brad if he wanted to go and get something to eat. Shaking his head, Brad saved what he had on his document.

"No, can't. I'm meeting up with Angel later tonight. She wants to talk to me about something, dude. That sh!t is never good." Brad looked downcast as he spoke and truth was he was worried. He really hoped she didn't want to break up with him.

Jacob packed his laptop in his bag then proceeded to pat Brad's shoulder. "There, there, I'm sure everything is going to be just fine."

"It'd better. I can't imagine my life without her, bro." Brad sighed and packed his own things up. Once he got up from the table, he looked down at Jacob who was still seated in his chair. "Talk to you later. Don't forget, we need to discuss when our first meeting is gonna be." Jacob nodded his head and watched as Brad walked off. He laughed silently as he found his friend's nerves amusing.

"Well, that means I'm free for awhile. What to do, what to do." Jacob got up from the table, swinging his backpack over his shoulder. Since he was really hungry, he thought that maybe he could go one of the cafe's in town. He was actually in the mood for some coffee, so that would be a major plus. Jake waved at the Librarian working at the desk, who waved back. He assumed the woman was just waving back, but he stopped when she called out to him. Turning around, he looked at her and walked towards the desk. "I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" He asked with a confused expression on his features.

"No," the woman stated immediately, waving her hands in dismissal, "but you have a message. At least I think you do. Are you Jacob Martinez?" She asked with a curious tone.

After he confirmed his identity, the Librarian handed Jacob the piece of paper she was given.

"Thank you... do you know who delivered this message, miss?"

The Librarian merely shook her head, "No, I'm afraid I don't. It was here waiting for you, but the Librarian before me pointed you out and asked to give it to you when you were going to leave."

Jacob looked down at the piece of paper and just shrugged. He began to open the note when he thanked the Librarian and started to walk away from the desk. Inside the piece of paper, words were neatly written over the surface.

"Second floor, fifth aisle from the left. You'll know what I'm talking about."

Jacob stared at the note for several moments, but all he was was confused. Very confused. What the hell did this note mean? He looked up from the note and looked for a staircase that lead up to the second floor. Jacob had to go to the other side of the Library just to find the stairs leading up. Okay, so according to the note, he had to find the fifth aisle from the left? Whatever the f**k that meant. The young man shook his head and started counting the aisles. Once he found what he assumed to be the correct one, he entered it and began to look through the shelves. Jacob was quick to realize that whoever wrote the note lead him to the Mystery Genre aisle. Why? That he didn't know, but whatever. He'd play along for now.

Since he didn't know what he was looking for, Jacob just started taking books off their shelves and looked at them. He picked up one of the Sherlock Holmes books when his cell phone began to vibrate. Holding the book with his armpit for support, Jacob took out his phone and tapped the Home button which brought his phone to life. On the screen read the very weird text.

UNKNOWN

3:35 PM

"You're getting warmer."

Slowly, Jacob placed the book back on the shelf and walked a few feet forward and started to grab another book when he noticed the person was typing again...

UNKNOWN

3:36 PM

"Keep going, you're almost there."

Jacob stopped what he was doing and began to look around to see who the hell was sending him these texts. Unfortunately, he didn't see anyone who seemed to be suspicious. The people he could see was either engrossed in their own books or doing something on their laptops. Continuing forward, Jacob looked over at the shelf to the right when his eyes twinkled. He snatched a book from the shelf and looked at the cover. He was going to open and read the front page when his phone started to buzz again. Looking down at the phone, he saw the new text:

UNKNOWN

3:38 PM

"Page 205."

Jacob opened the book and when he found what the anonymous texter was trying to tell him about, Jacob's heart began to beat faster and faster. Wait a minute, isn't this...? Jacob began to read what was on the page when a flashback started to emerge in his head.

Flashback

2 Years Ago

"I don't get it. Why can't we just copy this down and use it?" Andre flipped through the pages of the book he and Jacob were doing an essay on. He rolled his eyes and tossed the book to the side, making Jacob shake his head.

"Because man, that'd be plagiarizing and we could get in major trouble for that." Jacob took the book and opened it back up where Andre left off.

"Whatever, it's not like anyone would even notice. Can't we just, I dunno, mix the words up or something?" He asked which only made Jacob roll his eyes, something Andre did not like.

"That is still plagiarizing, man." Jacob went back to his essay while Andre was giving him an irritable look.

"Fine, be that way. Don't come crying to me when you get kicked out of your English club." Andre grabbed the book and began to write his essay.

Jacob looked over at Andre with a confused look on his face. What did Andre mean by that? "I won't get kicked out. I know what I'm doing."

Andre barked a laugh and raised his eyebrows, "If that's what keeps you up at night, Jakey-Boo." Suddenly, Andre's lips turned and twisted. "You do know, don't you?"

Jacob looked at Andre again with an even more confused look on his face now. "What are you talking about?"

"Dude," Andre sat up straight and looked at his friend with his eyes wide, "this essay counts as a huge part of our quarter grade. If you don't get a good grade on this, you can get kicked out."

Jacob's eyes widened and he stood up straight. He was kidding, right? This was just a joke. The English Literature club was everything to Jacob. He was even on his way to becoming the President! "I can't get kicked out of this... my future for college is riding on this club, Andre."

Andre bit his lip lightly and just shrugged as if he were uninterested. "Then you better get a damn good grade on the essay, otherwise it'll just bite you in the ass."

That was the first and only time Jacob had ever cheated to get what he wanted. It wasn't even something he wanted, it was something he needed to keep. Lucky for him as well as Andre, the two had actually gotten good grades on their papers and Jacob was ultimately safe from being kicked out of the club. That is, if he was even in jeopardy of being kicked out in the first place. Jacob read over the chapter and looked at the book as a whole. His eyes landed on the bottom corner from inside the cover and he saw the initials "A.P." on it. Wait, this wasn't Andre's book was it? If it was, how the hell did it end up in the Library? Andre couldn't have donated it, could he? He hated the place! His phone began to buzz again, indicating he had another text message.

"Hey Jakey-Boo, wouldn't it be such a shame if news of the essay you plagiarized got around the entire school board? You'd be kicked out of the English Literature club for SURE! -A"

What. The. Hell? Jacob's face began to feel hot and his body began to shake. How could anyone have known he did something like this? The only person who knew he had copied the essay was Andre, so did that mean that Andre was... alive? He thought it could be possible, but if it was Andre sending him the text, couldn't he get in trouble since he did the same thing? No, of course he wouldn't, Andre had been missing for a long time. There would be no consequences for Andre, but Jake on the other hand? His entire life would be ruined. Jacob placed the book back on the shelf and bolted the f**k out of the library. He really needed that coffee now!

[Chris]

Chapter 3

Nicholas Benedetti was currently sitting at home in front of his laptop cruising FaceBook. Previously he had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend, Danielle Delarosa, and they had set up a date for that Saturday night. Everything was going well for Nicholas, and that is how he liked it. Beside his laptop was his iPhone 7 which was lighting up with life, and when he looked at the screen he smiled. It was a text from Danielle.

"Can't wait for Saturday. I love you so much!"

Nick picked up his phone and quickly texted back, telling Danielle he loved her too. After he sent it, he got up from the chair he was in and placed the phone back on the desk. His stomach rumbled so he wondered if there was anything in the kitchen to eat.

Down in the kitchen, Nicholas's mother, Darla, was looking down at a cook book reading a recipe. When Nick saw her, he raised an eyebrow. "Going to cook something?"

Mrs. Benedetti looked up from the book and gave her son a smile. Walking around the counter, she made her way towards the fridge and opened it. "I figured your father would want something to eat when he got back from work." She took out the gallon of milk and some butter. "You're probably hungry too, right?"

Nicholas leaned against the counter and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. He shrugged his shoulders as he took a bite from the apple. "I was thinking about getting something later with Tyler and Craig."

Mrs. Benedetti frowned, her eyes glued to the recipe she was reading. This was something that had become normal in the Benedetti household. Nicholas would come home, find his mother cooking something special for his father, Nick would make some excuse to go out just so he could avoid the family dinner. At first, his father, Richard, became angry at his son for doing it, but as of lately? He just ignored Nicholas.

Nicholas had tried to impress his father on countless occasions. At first it was small things, but then as time went on he went for bigger things to do to impress Richard. One of them being football. He thought that if he joined the team and became captain, his father would be the proudest man on earth. At first it seemed to work, but then after awhile, things just got back to where they use to be.

And it f**k**g sucked.

"Nicholas, you need a proper and better diet. If you keep up with this, it wouldn't be good for you health." Darla sighed to herself before walking over to one of the kitchen cabinets and she got out a large pan. Nicholas had just stood there, gritting his teeth. He knew his mother meant well, he really did, but he hated how she ignored the big picture.

"Mom, I'll be fine. You don't always have to worry about me, okay?" He took another bite of the apple and made a "This is so delicious" sound. "See, I'm eating an apple. It keeps the doctor away, right?"

Darla glared at her son and pointed her index finger at him, "Don't be smart with me, young man. Now go upstairs and clean yourself up. Tonight, you're having dinner with your father and me."

Nicholas stopped and stared at his mother. He could feel the anger boiling inside of him, wanting to come out. Turning away, Nicholas threw the apple he was eating away with force and marched up to his room in a rage.

He slammed the door and walked over to his bed and sat on it. One, two, three... He inhaled deeply before continuing to count. Four, five, six... He exhaled, inhaled again... Seven, eight, nine... By now he was calmer and more focused. He hated when his mother tried to force family time on him. Honestly, he didn't even know why his mother even bothered to continue at all.

Nicholas got up from the bed just as his phone started to go off. Thinking it was Danielle, which he really hoped it was, he took the phone and unlocked it, pressing the text message icon instantly. But the sender wasn't Danielle, in fact he didn't know who it was at all...

"Poor little Nicky, family time is suppose to help you get closer to your Daddy, not force you apart."

Nick looked to see whose number it was, but instead of seeing a phone number, he just saw the word UNKNOWN in its place. Hitting the reply button with his thumb, he punched in a reply and hit send.

"Who the f**k is this?"

He looked out his window as if there would be someone looking up at him, but there wasn't. Nicholas was starting to feel pissed so he chose to ignore it and get it out of his head, but when he felt his phone go off again, he let out a low growl.

"Don't worry, Moonshine, your Daddy issues are safe with me. -A"

Nicholas blinked a couple times and tried to decipher the message he was reading. Who the f**k was this? And Moonshine... The only person who called him that ever was his now deceased friend, Andre Pierce. He looked over the text again and again, then suddenly a thought came to him. This had to be a prank. One of his friends were just pranking him, and it was just a coincidence that they said something about him having issues with his dad. Yep, that had to be it. Maybe it was Tyler or Craig or f**k maybe even Zach, but Zach wasn't the type of person who'd do this. Tyler and Craig, sure, but now Zach. So, Nick decided to reply to the anonymous texter again.

"Nice try, Ty. You better shut the f**k up or I'll beat your face in next time I see you."

After the text was sent, he decided to double check so he went into his contacts and dialed up Tyler Cooke. The phone rang a couple times, but Tyler answered in his own fashion. He was confused as hell though when Nicholas brought up the anonymous texts. "Uh, no man. I never sent you a text like that, I wouldn't even know how to..."

"If you're lying to me, I swear to God I will kick your ass... but if you didn't send it to me, then who did?" Nick asked in a curious tone with a hint of anger.

"I dunno man, maybe it was Zach or hell maybe it was Bren. You know how he likes to pull stupid sh!t."

After Nick and Tyler got off the phone, Nick called Brendan Chandler. Unfortunately for Nicholas, he received the same answer from Brendan that he did with Tyler. He didn't send the anonymous text either. Okay, so if his friends didn't send him the text message, then who did?

Before Nicholas could dwell on his anonymous texter further, there was a slam of a car door outside. Nicholas groaned softly and knew it was his father home from work. God f**k**g dammit...

Nicholas had gotten downstairs just as his father was coming through the door. The two did not meet eye contact, and Nicholas had just barely managed to get past his father and into the living room. Now, he just needed to get out of this damn house. Once his father was out of sight, Nicholas sneaked his way to the front door when he heard his father's voice from the kitchen.

"Why isn't anything ready now?" He asked his wife. Nicholas just closed his eyes because he knew what was about to come.

"You're home early, sweetie. I was just getting everything started. Dinner should be ready in a couple hours."

Nicholas was holding his breath as he waited for what was going to end up happening next. His heart began to beat faster, then it happened. He heard his mother scream in pain and knew his father had just hit her. "I wanted something to f**k**g eat the moment I got home! What the f**k were you doing all day, anyway? Worthless!"

The anger inside Nicholas began to boil again, his breathing becoming heavy. He headed over into the kitchen when he saw his father rummaging through the fridge, probably looking for a beer. His mother was standing over the stove, her body shaking while she stirred something in one of the pats she had on the stove top. Nicholas looked back over at his father who had a beer in his hand, looking right at his son.

"Got a problem? You know how I feel when you f**k**g look at me like that." He looked at his son, face full of rage. Richard growled and walked past his son, shoving him into the kitchen counter. Nicholas and his mother locked eyes with each other, and he knew she was asking him to stay home and eat with her and his father.

Nicholas sighed and walked up to his mother, "Do you need help with anything?"

Darla inhaled deeply while she nodded simultaneously. "If you could..." she paused to cleared her throat, and closed her eyes, "If you could set the table please and keep an eye on some of the food, that'd be grateful." She gave her son a small smile, excused herself and walked out of the kitchen.

Nicholas stood in the kitchen, his head hanging down. He thought when everything started to become a nightmare in his life. It actually started about a month or two before Andre had disappeared. It began small with a drink or two here and there, then the drinking became heavy. Richard started doing poorly at work, got himself a demotion and a pay cut so Darla had to pick up the pace. Nicholas offered to get a side job, but Darla would not allow him to do it. She just wanted him to focus on his school work and football. Unfortunately, Nicholas had began to do poorly at academics, but it never got to the point where he had to be kicked out of sports.

Flashback, 2 years ago

Andre was laying on his stomach on top of Nick's bed reading a Playboy magazine he got from one of the upper classmen at the high school. He was about to turn the page when there was a crash from downstairs. Nick had just opened the door to the bedroom and closed it when he came in. "What the hell was that?"

Nick looked over at Andre, but he wasn't smiling. He walked over to his desk and grabbed his cell phone. "Nothing. Just my..." He didn't finish the sentence because he heard footsteps coming up to the second floor. He hurried over to the door and locked it, before letting out a shaky breath.

Andre had bolted up from the bed and now he was at Nick's side by the door. He and Nick shared a look together when there was pounding on the door. "Nicholas, where the hell are you?" The doorknob began to shake, which made Andre and Nick step back. "Why the f**k is this door locked?!"

"Dude," Andre whispered to Nick, his eyes wide. "What the hell is up your dads ass tonight?"

"Is someone in there with you? What the f**k did I tell you about having friends over, Nicholas?!" Richard pounded and pounded on the door, the two boys were still as a statue.

As the pounding continued, Nicholas covered his face with his hands and mumbled something about how he wished this could all just stop. Andre made his way over to the window and opened it, punching the screen of the window out. "C'mon dude, we have to get out of here." Andre had swung his legs over the ledge.

Nicholas looked over at Andre, "Dude, I can't just leave my Mom here! What if something happens to..." He stopped when Andre pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to dial. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?!" Andre asked hurriedly, then focused his attention on the call. "Yeah, I'd like to report a domestic dispute please?" He noticed Nick giving him a freaked out expression, but he just ignored his friend. "6572 Shepard King Rd. Please hurry, I'm worried for these people's safety." Before the operator could ask anymore questions, Andre hung up and pocketed his phone. "Look, I'm worried about your mom too, but you can either come with me or stay here and face..." He looked towards the door before he went on, "That."

Before Nicholas could answer, he realized the pounding had stopped now. He looked between the door and Andre. His expression screamed for help, and he didn't know what the hell he was suppose to do. "Andre, I can't leave my Mom..."

"Well, you can thank me later. The cops should be here in ten." He gave Nicholas one last look before he jumped out the window and ditched Nick.

The cops had shown up and demanded that they enter the house. Richard tried to fight it at first, using his charm to convince the cops it was all a misunderstanding, but they were smarter than that. Richard was brought down to the station along with Darla and were questioned about the dispute. Darla had denied the accusations coming from Andre. The police had detained Richard since they could tell he was drunk, but he was free to go in the morning.

When Nicholas thought back to that day, he realized Andre probably had saved both himself and Nicholas, but it only made things worse for the future. The drinking became worse and even after Andre's disappearance and Nick's obvious worries for his friend, Richard never lightened up. Now, Nick had to watch his back whenever he was around his father, he had to word everything carefully, etc.

Sighing heavily, Nick sat at his desk and moved his mouse pad around giving his laptop life. Thinking about Andre made him think about his other friends too. No not Tyler or Craig or Brenden, he was thinking about his other friends. He wondered how Jacob was doing with his English club duties, he was thinking about Warren hitting on Irish girls at the bars drinking whatever the hell kind of alcohol they had in Ireland... It was legal to drink there at eighteen, right? He knew it was something like that. Then he wondered what Emmett was up to with his charities. He actually had read in the paper about how Emmett helped raise enough money or something or another. He had the intentions of sending an email to him, but thought it was just weird. The group had split up during their Junior year and they went to explore different paths.

Still, Emmett Collins was an inspiration, even to Nicholas. Nick actually chuckled to himself when he remembered how innocent and giddy Emmett always was. While it irritated the f**k out of Andre, it always made Nicholas laugh. Emmett was the one person of the group you could count on to never make the wrong move.

Boy, how things change

[Chris]

Chapter 4

"We're almost there, I can feel it!" Emmett Collins was practically bouncing in his chair while he was counting up the money he and his boyfriend had raised for one of their charities. During the year his and his old friends separated, Emmett had been helping different charities. Usually he helped the ones involved with children and animals. That's where he met Keith Weston, his current boyfriend.

Keith lived alone in a one bedroom apartment, had no pets, and held a job at a hotel as a receptionist. Oh, and he was thirty eight years old. Something Emmett's parents would probably not approve of. He didn't care though, because Emmett loved and cared about Keith a lot. Besides, it wasn't like he was super old... he was just twenty years older than Emmett.

Keith chuckled at the excited teen and rubbed his back soothingly, "I'm sure we made it, Love. We... or should I say, you, worked your ass off to get to the goal." He leaned over and planted a kiss on Emmett's cheek, which made the teenager blush.

"No, you're right." Emmett said as he looked over to Keith, "We worked our asses off." He gave Keith a small smile before the couple continued to count the money they had raised.

When it was all tallied up, the couple concluded that they raised over five thousand dollars, which made Emmett feel like he was on cloud nine. He and Keith celebrated with a kiss and Keith promised to take Emmett out to have a celebratory dinner, which Emmett knew was going to be outside the city.

Ever since he and Keith became a couple, Emmett was paranoid about being seen around town. Lucky for him, Keith completely understood and he made it where he would take Emmett places where nobody would know either of them. It was a lot of fun for Emmett and he appreciated Keith trying to work on their relationship. It felt nice.

"We just have to stop by my place before we go. I want to make sure I'm all cleaned up before going out." Keith smiled as Emmett nodded and the two made sure they had everything they needed before heading off.

As Keith drove back to his apartment, Emmett was on a proud rant. He couldn't wait to give the money to the charity they were raising the money for. Keith allowed Emmett to rant since he thought it was pretty damn adorable. He'd do absolutely anything for Emmett.

The moment Keith pulled into the apartment parking lot and parked the car, Emmett jumped out and rushed to the building. Keith merely smirked and rolled his eyes. God, his boyfriend couldn't get anymore damn cute. The older man followed Emmett, unlocked the door and the couple headed up to the apartment.

Emmett immediately made himself comfortable on the couch and closed his eyes. This was the one place he knew he could always stay and be safe. His own little safe haven. He heard the shower turn on and smiled softly to himself. He started to imagine Keith's hot, naked body in the shower, water all over him, being soaped up. Emmett bit his lower lip and slowly smirked. Believe it or not, Emmett and Keith hadn't had sex... yet. Keith continuously told Emmett he was waiting for the perfect moment to do the deed, and Emmett honestly wasn't bothered by that. He wanted the moment to feel special so if Keith thought the time wasn't right, then it wasn't.

Emmett sat up on the couch so he could grab the remote to the TV, but he was stopped by the ringtone of his phone going off. Thinking it was someone from the charity, he immediately got his phone out and hit the home screen button. He sat there, staring blankly at the phone.

"I'm offended, Emmett."

That was all the text said. It didn't even show a number, just the word UNKNOWN at the top of the screen. He wondered if this was a joke, but if it was, then who sent the text? Emmett just decided to ignore it and just watch TV. There was a documentary on about whales or dolphins or whatever, so he decided what the hell, he could get into it or at least try to.

With his arms crossed, Emmett stared at the TV, but his mind couldn't get off that damn text. What did he even do for anyone to feel offended? He felt himself slowly reach out for his phone. He had to make sure he didn't miss anything. Maybe it was possible to find out who it was. Unfortunately since the text messenger was anonymous, he couldn't call the phone the message came from. But he could text them back, it seemed.

"Sorry, you got the wrong number."

It didn't really make sense how it could be the wrong number since whoever the hell this was said his name in the text, but maybe they were referring to a different Emmett. There had to be a million Emmett's around the world. As he continued to think about who this might be, Keith had come into the living room wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. "I'll be ready in a few minutes. I can't wait to take you out and show you off to everyone." Keith gave Emmett a wink before going back to his bedroom to dress up. The wink made Emmett blush and he loved it when Keith told him he'd be "showing him off" to other people. Just another thing that made him feel special. As his thoughts were dwelling on Keith and their date they would soon be going on, his phone began to go off again.

"Don't worry Emmett, I don't get jealous easily. We only kissed, what... once or twice before I went away? Your secret's safe with me. -A"

Emmett sat on the couch, his eyes wide. This couldn't have been... No. No way. Was this Andre texting him right now? It was possible, wasn't it? Andre wasn't confirmed dead. He was just missing. He's still missing. Emmett re-read the text multiple times, but his eyes kept going towards the second part of the text. The part where it said he and Andre had kissed once or twice. It actually was twice, both initiated by Emmett. But it wasn't entirely Emmett's fault, was it? Andre had lead him on. Or did Emmett lead himself on? Closing his eyes, Emmett thought back to the first time he had ever kissed Andre...

Flashback, Two Years Ago

Emmett and Andre were coming out of the Cafe in town, each holding a cup of coffee. Both of their sets of parents were out and their friends were off doing whatever it was they were doing, so Andre decided to drag Emmett out and do something with him. It was November, a few days before Thanksgiving, and very cold outside.

"I can't believe you talked me into going outside in this f**k**g frigid cold!" Andre glared over at Emmett who was busy smirking and taking a sip of his coffee. Andre wanted to punch Emmett's face so he could stop smirking, but of course he wasn't going to do that.

"Sorry, but I was bored sitting at the house. Plus I like going out with you, it's fun." Emmett turned his head away from Andre, who was now raising his eyebrow.

The two guys walked while they talked about what's been going on at their school, what they were going to do for Christmas Break, and they also talked about their friends Jacob, Nicholas and Warren.

"I want to do something fun soon. Maybe go to the Bahama's. Or go to Italy, I've always wanted to go there." Andre said while Emmett was looking at him intently.

"Well, we could go to Italy for Summer break or something..." Emmett smiled softly and Andre was actually smiling too. Was that a good thing? Maybe Andre was OK with that idea? Emmett's question was answered when the two stopped near the mall and Andre gave Emmett a smirk.

"That'd be cool. We'd have so much fun there. Going on tours, eating cannoli's and zeppole. Or the big cheese, I heard Italy's popular for that." Andre was chuckling at himself and could hear Emmett joining him. Clearing his throat, he turned to Emmett and punched him lightly in the arm. "Can you just imagine the five of us running around Venice? You know it's like the most romantic city in the world?"

He was laughing with his eyes closed when all of a sudden, he felt someone's lips met his own. Andre opened his eyes to see Emmett was actually kissing him! Andre had closed his eyes for a moment, but then they snapped back open and stepped back from Emmett. "What do you think you're doing?"

Emmett's face was beat red and his heart was racing like mad! He couldn't believe he actually got the courage to kiss Andre... Clearing his throat, he turned away from Andre. "I am so... so sorry. I don't know why I did that, Andre." He turned back to his friend, his eyes pleading. "Seriously, I am sorry."

"It's..." Andre stopped speaking and took the chance to clear his throat. He started to walk past Emmett, "Just don't do it again. You might be into guys, but I'm not." That was all Andre had said on the matter, and whenever he and Emmett were near each other, Andre would just pretend like his friend never kissed him, something Emmett was disappointed about.

As Emmett came out of the flashback, he realized that he and Andre really hadn't ever brought the kiss up ever again. Actually, they never talked about the fact that Emmett was gay, too. He was still thinking about Andre when Keith had come back out of the bedroom, and stood in front of Emmett.

"Well, Love? You ready to go out?" Keith asked with a sweet, small smile.

Emmett snapped back to reality and looked up at Keith from the couch. He smiled at his boyfriend lovingly, jumped off the couch and walked into his boyfriend's arms. "Of course I'm ready. Where are we going?"

Keith chuckled as he took Emmett's hand and started to lead him out of the apartment, "That my dear, is a surprise." The two walked out of the apartment and while Keith was locking the door, Emmett was checking his phone again when a new text came on his screen.

"Oh, and one last thing Emmett? Don't do something you'll regret, otherwise everyone will know your new BF is old enough to be your daddy. That'd suck, wouldn't it? Have fun on your date with Daddy! -A"


Emmett almost choked on his own saliva, but covered it up quickly and smiled at Keith. When his boyfriend walked in front of him, Emmett looked around to see if he could see any sign of a living person. Unfortunately, he couldn't so he just tried to forget about the entire thing and followed Keith outside.

[Chris]

Chapter 5

It practically took the rest of the day for the movers to help Warren and his parents place everything in their new house, but finally Warren was able to close himself off in his new bedroom, far away from his parents. Well, not too far because they were just in the living room. His father had set up their TV and cable so they could enjoy watching TV. Warren wasn't in the mood to celebrate family time or whatever it was called. It was almost five and Warren was ready to go out and do something. Unfortunately, he didn't have a car yet, but his parents did have their family car brought to their home. Luckily Warren's parents were lenient on their son so they allowed him to take the car out tonight. There was a small, tiny scent of giddiness to Warren. He wanted to see how much he remembered about the town and what was different. Warren immediately drove towards downtown, and he knew he had to pass the Pierce home. While he was a little hesitant to do so, Warren knew he had to do it in order to move on.

So, he did it. He started to drive towards the Pierce home. "I have to do this." He told himself calmly. "It's the only way I can go on." He took a deep breath and he knew he was drawing closer. Warren took a giant gulp, took a deep breath and just drove. When the car rolled towards the house, he looked over at the building. It hadn't changed at all, he noticed. The house was still its nice light tint of blue, the same front door, large and brown with two multi colored windows on its sides, and the big porch and went all around the house. A tiny smile formed on Warren's lips. He and his friends... or old friends now, spent a lot of good days at this house.

Flashback, 2 Years Ago

"I can't believe Sophomore Year is almost over..." Emmett Collins was saying while he and Warren sat on the porch of Andre Pierce's home. The group of friends were at Andre's so they could help him and his mother with some housework. Then they were going to help Andre's father with some heavy work.

Warren snorted with a roll of his eyes. "I can. This year went by way too damn slow. I hope Junior Year is fast. I can't wait to be a Senior!" He smirked as if he had his entire Senior year planned and mapped out to the day, hour and second.

"But half of high school is practically over! Soon we're going to be looking for colleges, taking the PSAT's, the SAT's, the ACT's..." Warren noticed Emmett covering his face with his hands, which only made him laugh. God, Emmett was such a goof.

"We'll be fine, E. I bet we're all gonna get into the colleges we choose." Warren smiled and patted Emmett's back.

"You're both not going to click the Submit buttons to your applications if you don't get off your asses and help us!" Andre was coming outside, his face all red and sweaty. Jacob and Nicholas were behind him with smirks on their faces. They weren't surprised Emmett and Warren were slacking, especially Warren.

Emmett shot up from the porch so fast, Warren gave him a look and wanted to sigh, but he kept to himself. After he got up from the porch, he turned to the others and asked what he needed to do.

"We need to move some more furniture in the living room. My Mom is so f**k**g anal when it comes to furniture being in the perfect place and position..." Andre rolled his eyes.

"Andre Williams Pierce! What have I told you about swearing?!" Patricia Pierce came out onto the porch with her arms crossed. She looked right at her son, her eyes glistening with anger.

"Sorry..." Andre mumbled and cleared his throat. He looked over at his friends and pointed with his thumb, "Need us to go do it now? Dad wants to start with the yard work soon."

"No, you're going to eat first." Patricia said, ignoring the look her son was giving her. "If you're going to be helping your father in this heat, you and your friends needs something in your stomach if you want to avoid passing out."

Andre sighed and motioned for his friends to follow him back inside. "Let's go guys. If we delay, she's gonna have a hemorrhage or something."


Warren was smirking as he remembered that memory. While Andre's mother did seem a little harsh and strict, she really was a wonderful woman. Andre's father on the other hand scared the hell out of Warren. But lucky for him, he never got on Damien Pierce's bad side. Warren chuckled at himself and stopped at a stop light when his phone started going off. Since the light was red, he was going to make a quick little reply to whoever it was. Looking at the screen, he bit his lip and stared.


"How was it going past my old house, War? I bet you miss my Mom as much as I do... -A"

It was this A person again, whoever the f**k it was. He didn't know what the hell to think about this... Was this really Andre? Had his friend finally decided to reappear after missing for two years? Did his family know he was back? He was so focused on the text that he didn't realize the light had turned green and someone behind him was honking their horn. Warren snapped out of his daze and continued towards downtown.

There, he found that things had changed while he was away. There were some new stores, changes to the decor outside, and he also noticed there was a new outdoor mall that was built. That was going to be a fun adventure. He was happy to see a coffee shop near the mall so he turned into the parking lot and grabbed a spot.

Going inside, Warren liked the nice, warm and cozy atmosphere it gave off. There wasn't much of a line, so Andre was able to make himself a cup of coffee and pay for the drink. Once he paid and tipped the barista, Warren found a table near one of the windows and sat down. There was some light music on which added a relaxing vibe to the atmosphere of the building. It was really nice. He took out his phone and looked at the text from A again. Seriously, who the hell is this person? And why did they know things only Andre would know? Was it pure coincidence? If Andre wasn't back though, then why was this person speaking like they are Andre?

While Warren was thinking of the possibilities, he hadn't noticed someone coming up to the table he was sitting at. "Well well, look who's back from Ireland!" Warren looked over at the visitor and instantly smiled.

"Jacob?" Warren got up from the table and the two old friends shook hands and patted each other's backs. He noticed Jacob had grown a little since he saw him last and also noticed that Jacob was starting to grow a light beard. "How've you been man?"

Jacob sat down at Warren's table and the two old friends began to do some catch up. Jacob shared his stories of his Summer which consisted of doing a lot of extra credit work and then told Warren some things that happened during the past year. "Unfortunately, I don't really see Emmett and Nick as much..." Jake frowned which made Warren feel pretty bad.

"Well we did kinda... you know. Went our own ways." Warren said as he swirled the coffee around inside his cup.

"Yeah, I guess..." Jacob bit his lip, which told Warren he wanted to tell him something. Warren sat up straight in his chair, trying to think of some way to make the situation less awkward. "Are you coming back to school soon?"

Warren nodded and told Jacob he was going back on the upcoming Monday. "I bet you can't wait to get back to your English class, huh?" He and Jacob chuckled together.

"Yeah I'm still a Language Arts nerd, I admit it." The two continued chuckling, which they were both thankful for. It just made everything less awkward. "So have you..." Jacob paused and looked down at the table.

"Have I what?" Warren raised his eyebrow and took a sip of his coffee.

"I was just wondering if you... thought about Andre lately." Jacob shrugged while he turned his head towards the window.

Sighing, all Warren could do was nod. Of course he had been thinking of Andre. Especially with this freak that calls themselves "A". But Jacob didn't know about A. And that wasn't something Warren was just going to bring up to Jacob, not without a good reason. "He was our best friend. Of course I still think about the dude." Warren said finally. He noticed the relieved look Jacob was giving him.

Getting Andre out of the way, Warren and Jacob were more comfortable in each other's presence. After a couple hours, they promised each other that they'd talk again soon, and set off. Warren was still thinking about Jacob and how he wanted to tell him something, which made him wonder if... was Jacob...

No. This was just a stupid ass prank. Warren thought Jacob would think he was f**k**g crazy if he brought up getting messages from their dead friend. He really didn't want his old friend to think he turned f**k**g crazy during his year away in Ireland. So, Warren told himself he was just going to ignore it. If he ignored it, A would get bored and move on to someone else. Unfortunately for Warren, it would be one of his old friends who would be the next victim for A.

Warren gathered his own things and prepared to exit the coffee shop. The barista who was working, a young woman named Glenda, waved for him and called out his name. When he approached her and asked what was wrong, she gave him a smile and handed him a large cup of coffee. "Someone had a keen eye on you and bought this for you. It's already paid for and everything."

Warren raised his eyebrow and took the cup of coffee. He thanked Glenda, turned to walk away and raised to cup to his lips, but before taking a sip, he noticed something was written on the cup. Warren raised it and when he read the words on the cup he froze.

"Aww, how was your little reunion with Jakey-Poo? You looked so cute together. Oh wait, sorry, I'm thinking of someone else, aren't I? -A"

When he looked around the coffee shop, Warren tried to see who the hell had left him this. Now this was just getting to the point where he was beyond pissed off. At first, he took this as a joke, but now it had come to the point of stalking! Damn, he wished he would have told Jacob about A... Gritting his teeth, Warren opened the trash can near the door with his foot and threw the cup away, opened the door and exited the building with a slam of the door.

Leading up to the first school day, the boys hadn't heard from A. The boys had thought A really did get bored and give up. Warren and Jacob had both come to the conclusion that A was each other, just messing with one another for kicks. Nicholas thought it was someone who was close to the family and possibly knew about his father, while Emmett had thought Andre was back from wherever the hell he went to and decided to just come home. Emmett was in a world for hurt though, because it was never announced that Andre was back and his parents hadn't breathed a word.

[Chris]

Chapter 6

School buses were lined up in a perfect row on the side parking lot next to the school. Students ranging from mostly Freshmen and Sophomore to a few of the Junior and Senior classes. Groups of students were talking and laughing with the occasional gossiping, updates on their relationships, and maybe crying about the over the summer break up's.

Nicholas Benedetti was standing in front of the school with Tyler Cooke on his left and Zachary Barnes on his right. The memories of A had left his mind so now he was focusing on better things such as football. His entire high school career had centered and rotated around football, but when football season was over, he kept his time occupied with soccer during the Spring.

"That's exactly what I need," Tyler was saying while Nicholas was looking off into space. "A girlfriend who appreciates football!" Nicholas looked at his friend with his eyebrow raised. When would Tyler ever learn that his expectations were just way too high? He didn't have it in him to shatter his friends hopes though. He would just let Ty figure that out the hard way.

"Good luck with that dude," Zach had said with his head down, "the only way that can ever happen is if you go out with one of the cheerleaders. How cliche."

A group of girls walked by Nick, Tyler and Zach and Tyler was immediately trying to get their attention. One of the girls, Abigail Richards, turned to Tyler with a smirk on her face. "Well well, what was Tyler Cooke want with me? To get into my pants before first period?"

The other girls began to crack up along with Nicholas and Zachary. After the girls walked away, Tyler was turning a deep shade of red. "Poor Ty, embarrassing yourself already and it hasn't even been a full week of school."

The first bell of the day had rung so the students had about five minutes to go find their lockers, put their stuff away and report to their first period class by the time the final bell rung. Two girls were standing a few lockers away from Warren Murphy's locker and they were both smirking. "Now he is cute!" Laurel Kaine was whispered while her friend, Danielle Delarosa nodded.

"He looks familiar for some reason... I wonder if he's new or something." Danielle shrugged at herself while she put her jacket away in her locker. She looked back at her friend and nudged her arm. "So are you going over to introduce yourself?"

Laurel rolled her eyes and looked the other way. "Ha, yeah right. He's probably already taken. Probably that bitch Stacy from the school down south." Laurel sneered, resulting in a snicker from Danielle. Stacy and Laurel used to be friends, but after Stacy moved away and joined some rival sports team, Lacrosse or something like that, Laurel and Stacy hated each other ever since.

"Well think about it this way," Danielle said placing her hand on her friend's shoulder, "Even if he is from Stacy's school, you're here and she's down there. You totally have the advantage!"

Laurel smirked and looked at her friend, impressed. "Girl, you're bad. No wonder you have a badass boyfriend..." Laurel straightened herself up and tossed her hair back behind her shoulder. "Wish me luck..." With that, she headed towards Warren with determination spread over her features.

Warren had closed his locker and was looking at his schedule when Laurel approached him. "Having trouble with where you need to go?" She asked with a smile on her face.

Warren looked up at Laurel and gave her a shrug. "I guess so... I have English 11 in 2G, but I kinda forgot where that is..." Warren explained he had been away overseas for a year so his way around the school was a little rusty. Especially since he'd barely been in some of the sections where his new classes were before.

"Oh it's easy when you know where to go." She turned Warren over to a set of stairs and pointed with her finger. "Walk up those steps and turn to the right. It's all in order, so you really shouldn't have any trouble, but if you do..." She took out a piece of paper and wrote down her number. "Text or call me anytime." She slipped the piece of paper in his pants pocket and gave Warren a wink.

She walked back over to Danielle, who was rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "And you say I'm bad."

"Psh, trust me, the things you do is way worse than the sh!t I do." Laurel gave her friend a light smack on her arm before she walked off to her first period class. The bell had just rung so Danielle rushed after her friend, who also had the same first period class.

English was one of Jacob's main reasons to attend school, and he had to do the best he could this year to maintain his place in the English Literature club. Nothing, and he made sure that nothing would get in his way. After he entered the classroom, he took a seat on the front row on the left side. He was setting his stuff up when Warren Murphy entered the classroom and sat down next to him.

Warren glanced over and noted the book Jacob had on his desk. "Catcher in the Rye, huh? You're such a nerd." Warren snickered softly.

Jacob just smirked at Warren and tossed the book on his desk. He noted Warren's confused expression. "Laugh it up, dude. That's the first book we'll be reading this Semester."

Warren frowned as he grabbed the book. He looked at the cover and turned it around to read what was on the back. Warren was so focused on the back cover and freaking out from Jacob's news that he hadn't noticed Nicholas Benedetti walking into the class. When he looked up and saw Nicholas, he was a little shaken. He noted that Warren had changed a lot from when he had last seen him.

"Wow..." Warren whispered, which resulted in Jacob looking at him.

"Brings back a lot, huh?" Jacob asked in a whisper, to which Warren nodded.

Next, Emmett Collins walked into the room. He walked up right in front of the teacher's desk, but stopped when he saw Nicholas and turned around, but when he saw both Jacob and Warren, Emmett walked down the row and sat near the back of the room. Warren had followed his once best friend's moves, but looked back in front of the room. Damn, he thought to himself as he slouched on his chair, a lot had changed over the course of the year... And of course, they were all in the same class.

Suddenly, a ringtone started going off and everyone looked back towards Emmett Collins who was slowly getting his cell phone out from his pocket.

"I would appreciate it if all cell phones were kept out of my classroom, please?" The English teacher announced as she walked into the classroom. "I believe the school has strict phone rules if you don't cooperate." She wrote her name on the board while Emmett looked down at his screen.

"YOU'RE INVITED!

DATE: Monday, August 1st, 2016

VENUE: Thorngrove High School, English 11

TIME: Now

Host: -A

Enjoying the company of your old friends? You'll need it."

Emmett looked around to see if anyone else was on their phones, and a few actually were. Including Nicholas and Jacob. The teacher, Mrs. Jones, was now passing out a book to each of the students. "Now, we will be reading and discussing four books this Semester. First book, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Sallinger."

Jacob smirked and looked over at Warren, who had his fist against his cheek and was rolling his eyes. He looked back at Jacob and whispered "Nerd", but that didn't affect Jacob. He just merely shrugged at Warren.

"Each book is assigned a number so if you lose it, someone can find it and bring it to the school's lost and found." Mrs. Jones caught Jacob's own copy of the book, "But of course if you have the book yourself, you're welcomed to use it." She walked back up to her desk and grabbed a pile of papers and started handing them out. "Of course we'll have worksheets to work on and yes," she flipped to the very back of the packet, "there are essay questions." She smiled amusingly when she heard the groans of the students before her.

Mrs. Jones allowed the students to get to work on the first five chapters of the book, so she sat down at her desk and told the students if they had any questions, do not hesitate to ask. Emmett tried to get into the first chapter of the book, but he continued to think about A. Seriously, why now? Why had A texted him now when he hadn't heard from A in a few days? Something told him this was not going to go away anytime soon.

[Chris]

Chapter 7

The rest of the day had gone and went. Nicholas hadn't seen any of his old friends, and as an added bonus: No A. So, he was busying himself with other things. For one, he was trying really hard to get into the book his English teacher had given him and the rest of the class to read for the semester... or first part of the semester? How many books were they suppose to read again? Whatever, Nicholas wasn't going to worry about it unless he had to. Opening the book, he picked up right where he left off. Page five. This was going to be the longest year of his life.

He'd been sitting on his girlfriend's bed for the past hour waiting for her to get ready for a date they'd be going on. Why they were going on a date on a Monday night, he didn't know and he didn't really care. Nicholas just knew he needed a night out with a ton of distraction.

"The book isn't that bad." Danielle had said while putting on her earrings she picked for that night. "You'll get into it, I promise."

"You're starting to sound like Mrs. Jones." Nicholas rolled his eyes then tossed the book to his side. f**k this book. He could just ask someone for the answers to the packet tomorrow.

Danielle smirked and climbed on top of Nicholas. The couple proceeded to kiss, which made Nicholas enter his own little world. Now this was what he wanted to do. Just be with his girlfriend, no worries about the world around him. "'So, I kinda have something to ask you..."

And there it was. Nicholas raised his eyebrow, but chose to remain silent. This always happened, Danielle would come onto Nicholas only to ask him for a favor. Now what would it be this time? "Okay... go for it."

Danielle sat on top of Nicholas with her legs beside his sides. "So you know my friend Laurel?" She waited for him to nod before continuing, "Well, you see... Laurel and I were talking at our lockers and we both saw one of your friends. The one that went to Switzerland?"

"I'm pretty sure he went to Ireland, but yeah..." Nicholas waited to see where this was going, but he had his suspicions.

"Right, Ireland." Danielle's eyes zig zagged and she bit her lower lip. "Anyway, I was wondering... could you maybe talk to him to see if he'd go out with Laurel?"

And boom. There it was. Probably one of the most toughest favor's she had asked him too. While he would have no problem doing this two years ago, both he and Warren were completely different people now. Nick sighed and turned his head to the side as he thought about it. It would boost his relationship with Danielle, yeah, but how awkward would it be to ask Warren? What would Nicholas even say to him?

"Well, baby, I haven't talked to him in a year..." Nicholas looked back at his girlfriend, instantly regretting it. She was giving him those puppy dog eyes, a big frown, the f**k**g works. The young man groaned, trying to resist the urge to roll his eyes at her. "Fine! I'll talk to Warren if it makes you happy!"

Danielle grinned and started clapping her hands. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She jumped off her bed and grabbed her phone from the side table. "I'm gonna text Laurel now, thank you! You're the best boyfriend ever!"

Nicholas just laid on his back with a look of hesitation in his eyes. Great. Now what did he get himself into? He sat up from the bed when his cell phone started going off. Thinking it was just one of his friends, he took out the device and brought it to life. What he saw wasn't a text from one of his friends. For fucks sake, A was back.

"You'd do anything for your girl, wouldn't you Nick? That's nice and all, but what would happen if she knew what you did over your Summer? Better keep your lies straight, Bro. -A"

Wait, wait, wait... Over the Summer? But Andre had been missing, he probably wasn't even in the damn town! Was he really stalking around, watching Nick's every move?! He'd been so focused on the new message, he didn't even notice Danielle waving her hand in front of his face.

"Nick? Hello? You there?" She crossed her arms when Nick looked up at her. "Is everything okay?"

Nick pressed the power button to his phone, and smiled up at Danielle. "Sorry about that. Mom's just asking if I was gonna be home for dinner."

Danielle raised her eyebrow now, "What, you didn't tell your mom we were going out on a date?" The question seemed to have escaped her mind quick because she was now going into her closet to look for something to wear. "I want to look really good tonight. Should I wear a dress? Maybe the blue one with the black belt?"

Nicholas gave a sigh of relief and sat up on the bed. "Babe, you'll look great in anything..." He paused before pursing his lips. "I wouldn't mind seeing you in the red one."

Danielle laughed, but she took the blue dress from the hanger. "Too bad, so sad. I'm going with the blue one."

Danielle smirked, walked over to Nick and gave him a kiss on his lips. "I'm gonna get changed. I'll be ready in a minute." Before she let Nick answer, she was already headed to the bathroom, and Nick knew this meant he had at least an hour to kill.

--

"Are you sure you're okay? You've barely touched your food since you got it." Danielle twirled the fork she had in her hand and jabbed some of her own food with it. "If it's bad, we could tell the manager and get it half priced."

Nick had barely touched the food, but it wasn't because it was bad or anything. All throughout dinner, Nick had A on his damn mind. He realized this was probably what A wanted too, but he couldn't help it. Whoever this freak was was probably watching them now laughing their asses off. It probably was Tyler or Brendan, recording this as an embarrassing moment so they could upload it to YouTube.

"No, no," He said in defense of the food, "It's good. I swear..." To prove it right, he scooped some of it up with his fork and placed it in is mouth. Pointing to it with his finger, he gave Danielle a nod of approval.

Danielle giggled and shook her head. How she loved Nick trying to prove things to her. It really made her feel good, in some way, she couldn't explain it. "Fine, fine. I believe you."

Soon, Nick had forgotten about his troubles and he and Danielle started talking about various subjects. Nick was happy when Danielle said she couldn't wait to watch her boyfriend out on the field during football. "That and soccer..." She tilted her head to the side and curled up her lips. "How did you get into soccer anyway?"

Nick stared at Danielle for a few moments before answering. "Oh, well..." He paused when he realized he needed to think about the answer. Why was he into soccer anyway? He tried to come up with an answer, but all he could do was give his girlfriend a shrug. "When I come up with the answer, I'll let you know."

"Okay. It's not really that big a deal, I was just curious." Danielle shrugged before going back to her food. She wanted to know if Nick was in the mood to split a dessert, to which he nodded and allowed Danielle to choose what they were going to have. Danielle was so excited when she was handed the desert menu and couldn't immediately decide.

"Everything sounds so good..." She said as she eyed all of the descriptions and pictures presented in the menu. "I know you have a thing for pecans..." That made Nick smile. While Danielle did have her moments, she was good at taking Nick's favorites into consideration.

"Ooh, how about we have a piece of chocolate pecan pie?! That sounds so good!" She looked up at Nick with her damn puppy dog eyes.

Nick laughed silently and looked up at the waitress who had taken their orders throughout the dinner date. "One piece of chocolate pecan pie, please?" The waitress smiled, nodded and went off to get their desert.

Five minutes later, the waitress handed the couple the piece of pie. A folded piece of paper was placed on the side of the pie with Nick's name on it. "What's that?" Danielle asked pointing to the note.

"Not sure to be honest," the waitress said with a shrug of her shoulders, "It was left with the maître d' so they wanted me to give to you now."

Nick took the note, opening it as casually as he could. He wondered what it could be. Maybe a coupon or something thanking them for their visit. As he read the note, his face became red.

"Ready for the real main course, Nick? Look outside the window in five... four... three... two... one... -A"

Suddenly, sirens from police cars and an ambulance rushed passed the windows of the restaurant. Everyone in the building looked out as if it was the most interesting thing of their lives. "I wonder what's going out. Barely anything happens in this town..." The waitress shrugged, wished the couple a good night and headed off to another table. There were a couple more police cars rushing past the windows and Danielle looked a little unsettled.

"I hate the idea of something bad happening here. Creeps me out..." Danielle shuddered before taking her spoon and broke a piece of the pie off. After she placed it in her mouth, she smiled, but her expression faltered when she looked up at the TV.

"What's wrong, Dani?" Nick looked at her confused, but noticed Danielle's eyes were practically glued to the screen. What the hell was on that was so mesmerizing?

Nick looked back and when his eyes met the screen, his entire body froze. He began to feel hot, his heart started beating fast. What he read on the bottom of the screen had shocked him.

"ANDRE WILLIAMS PIERCE FOUND TWO YEARS LATER!"

His old friend was finally back.

[Chris]

Chapter 8

Emmett had immediately went to Keith's after school. He'd been jumpy for the rest of the day after his text from A, so being with Keith really made him feel calmer. The apartment was nice, clean and quiet. The TV was on, but it muted so the volume couldn't be heard. He could hear Keith in the kitchen making them something to eat, otherwise he was in his own little zen.

"Would you like some Alfredo sauce with the pasta?" Keith asked from the kitchen.

Emmett smiled and turned his head towards the kitchen doorway, "Yeah, that'd be great!" He sat up on the couch and thought about everything that had happened since beginning his relationship with Keith. Things really couldn't have been any better, Emmett was on cloud nine.

Keith told Emmett that he wanted to cook something special for him, so who was Emmett to say no? There had been some thoughts that went through his head that consisted of Emmett calling himself selfish or whatever, but he always felt better when Keith expressed his love and care for the younger man. Still, he knew he could do something for Keith...

Emmett got up from the couch and walked his way into the kitchen. On the table were two plates and a lit candle, a bottle of wine with two glasses. He looked over at Keith, who was working effortlessly in front of the stove. "Do you need any help?" He asked as he stepped to Keith's side.

"Hmm," Keith had added some spices into the pot he had over one of the burners. He turned his head to Emmett with a smile on his face. "I don't think so, babe. Don't worry, this is my treat to you." He kissed Emmett's cheek before going back to his cooking.

Emmett walked out of the kitchen and back into the other room which served as both the dining room and living room. Keith was nowhere near wealthy or anything like that, but Emmett didn't mind. Walking in the hallway leading to the bathroom and bedroom, Emmett looked over the walls where pictures were hanging. There were a few of Keith with his parents and his siblings, some when Keith was younger, some of when they went on family vacations, fishing trips, etc etc. There was a hint of jealousy in Emmett, not because he wished he could do these things with Keith, but because he wished he could have done these things with Andre.

But now he couldn't, because Andre was dead.

Emmett immediately regretted the thought since all he could know, Andre was alive and well living a double life. Maybe he got picked up and was now working for the French or Italian Government. Maybe he was now in the CIA... Emmett rolled his eyes at his wishful thinking. Actually, he didn't know what he'd do if Andre suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Would Emmett go all ga-ga over him? Even after he rejected Emmett?

Shaking his head, Emmett turned to go back to the living room, but his cell phone stopped him. Feeling the vibration from his jeans, Emmett took out his phone and brought it to life. He stared down at the new text message that was displayed when Keith came out of the kitchen and was giving his boyfriend a worried expression.

"Is something wrong?" He asked in concern.

Emmett couldn't break eye contact with the text message. His mouth was dry, his head sweaty, his legs started to shake.

"Don't you ever watch the news, E? Here, let me help you with your current events... -A"

Below the text was a screenshot of a news report, the words "BREAKING NEWS" on the left of the scrolling headline. Ignoring Keith, Emmett rushed over to the TV and grabbed the remote so quick, someone would think he was a snake attacking his prey. Once the news was on, all Emmett could do was stare.

"On this night of the month, Andre Williams Pierce has been found after missing for two years. Investigations will be ongoing, so please make sure to tune in later tonight for more information." Emmett had the news anchor's words on repeat in his head, and soon a small smile spread over his lips. Was he psychic? He had just been thinking about Andre returning and now... he was back!

"Um, I have to go..." He rushed passed Keith, but stopped and walked over to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'll be back, I swear... I just have to go somewhere for now." He rushed over to the door and looked back quickly, "Wait for me."

Before Keith could respond, Emmett was out the door and gone. The older man just stared blankly for awhile before he walked over to the TV and watched what was going on. The more he watched, his expression grew grim. He took out his cell phone and began to dial a number.

--

Police cars zoomed towards the Pierce home, ambulances were parked next to each other. Neighbors and others had gathered together to see what the hell was going on. The police had put up Caution tape so people wouldn't disturb the scene. Teens were taking pictures and videos so they could upload them to YouTube and FaceBook and even Twitter.

"What's going on?"

"Has the Pierce kid been found?"

"Where is he?"

"Where are the parents?"

Jacob Martinez had made his way towards the Pierce house and settled himself in front of the caution tape. He looked on at the house where policeman were walking around, taking notes, and then he spotted a policeman talking to Mr. and Mrs. Pierce. Since it was dark, he couldn't get a good look of their faces. What the hell was going on? And where the hell was Andre? This was so him, waiting for the perfect moment to come out and surprise everyone.

"What's going on?" Jacob looked over to see his old friend, Warren Murphy. Jacob just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. They looked on to see more policemen rush towards the house. "Jacob, where is Andre?" Warren asked with an actual tone of concern.

"I... I don't know." Was all Jacob could say.

Suddenly Nicholas Benedetti walked up to Jacob's other side and crossed his arms. "He's probably getting himself ready for the cameras. Maybe he thinks this will be his big debut into stardom." Nicholas scoffed a little, but Jacob nor Warren said anything. Truth to the matter was, it was something Andre would do. What a perfect plan to go missing, stay on the run for a few years and and come back home with a story to tell and his popularity soaring. That did make sense... to them at least.

"You know," Jacob said slowly and quietly, "there's a lot of cops around for a person who came back home."

The others nodded while someone who had overheard him looked at him confused. "Come back home?" The three guys looked back at the person, Jacob asking what they meant. "Ooh honey, the person they found didn't come back." Found? Did this person just say they found Andre?

More couldn't be said because some doctors were walking out of the house, carrying out a stretcher. As the boys looked on, each started to feel sick to their stomachs. So if they found Andre, and he never really came home, did that mean...?

Emmett Collins stood across from his old friends and watched the scene going on before his eyes. He had also felt sick to his stomach and there were tears running down his face. He had gotten a text from Keith when he entered town and knew what had happened before he made it to the Pierce home. He looked across the scene and saw Jacob, Warren and Nicholas standing next to each other. After making his way over to them, Emmett gave them each a look.

"I can't believe it. He's really..." Emmett stopped himself and looked at the ground. He couldn't finish the sentence. He didn't want to...

One of the notorious reporters of Thorn Grove stepped up in front of the camera and waited for her cue to go on. She nodded at her camera man, who hit record.

"Good evening, town of Thorn Grove. I am Jessica McCarthy, reporting to you live in front of the Pierce home. Andre Williams Pierce was reported missing a couple years ago, never to be seen again, until tonight." Jessica paused to take a breath of air before she continued. "It is a sad night tonight, Thorn Grove, as what I am about to say will put this town into a shock wave. Something we haven't felt in years. Andre Williams Pierce was found dead, murdered, in his own home, two years later."

Jacob, Nicholas, Warren and Emmett's heads shot towards Jessica. Their eyes wide, shocked at what they just heard. "Murder? Did she just say Andre was murdered?" Emmett, Nicholas and Warren looked at Jacob, each not knowing what to say about these recent events.

"Chief of Police, Aaron Samuels, has opened an investigation. Who thought they had the right to commit such an evil crime? How will the residents of Thorn Grove live on knowing there may be a killer at large? And the most important question of the night is: Who will be next?"

Everyone around Jessica gasped in horror as the thought of someone being next began to haunt them. Did she have a point? Was someone next? Or was the death of Andre Pierce just an accident?

[Chris]

Chapter 9

"We are gathering all our resources to find out what happened the night Andre Pierce was killed. We have suspects we'd like to question, but for now all names will remain anonymous!" The TV shone bright as Chief Samuels stood in front of microphones, answering questions to every news station there was. It was pretty amazing, to be honest. Not only did the local news start reporting on Andre's death, but so did CNN. Apparently, a death in such a small almost non existent town, was huge news. And that was the type of thing Andre would have wanted. Wasn't it?

Jacob sat on his bed and just watched the news. It went on all night, sometimes new things would pop up whether it made sense or not, other times it'd be a repeat from something earlier. Other than the news, Jacob had received an email from Mrs. Pierce. It was a request to see if Jacob would be attending the funeral, which surprised Jacob. She and her husband had just found out their son was dead and now they're immediately setting up a funeral? That didn't make sense... unless the family grieved so much that they assumed Andre was already dead and was finally ready to move on from all of this.

Of course Jacob would be going to the funeral. He'd be stupid not to, besides Andre was his friend no matter what Andre may or may not have done in the past. He had a feeling Emmett would be attending to, but what about Nicholas and Warren? While he wanted to pick up his phone and call on of them, he couldn't help but feel awkward. He could call Warren, sure, but what was he going to say now? It had always been "missing" this or "missing" that, but now they had it call it...

The thought of the word made Jacob shudder.

His friends from the English Club were being nice and supportive though, which helped him with his "A"-suspect list. Yes, he had a suspect list. From the barista at the coffee shop to the librarian he saw the other day. It was scary honestly, anyone could be this A person.

Again, Jacob shuddered.

As if on cue, his cell phone started to go off and he looked freaked out. Slowly taking his phone from his pocket, Jacob sighed a breath of relief when it wasn't A. It was actually his aunt making sure he was alright. Definitely better than getting a message from A.

Jacob tossed the phone towards the corner of his bed and dropped himself, his head hitting the pillow. He didn't know how he should be feeling at this moment... was it supposed to be sadness? Relief that Andre and his family could now finally move on? Maybe now that his body had been found, A would leave him alone.

Speaking of A, was this anonymous person the killer? He hadn't heard from A in awhile so maybe now that Andre's body had been found, they would disappear forever. Now that made Jacob feel some relief.

On another note, it was really weird how the body was found. He only knew what the police had released to the public. Apparently Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were out when someone(whom Jacob assumed was A) broke into the home and placed the body on the dining room table. The only reason they were sure it was truly Andre's body was because the corpse had his favorite necklace, a silver chain with a cross which was given to him by his grandfather, in the bodies possession.

Honestly, it horrified Jacob that anyone could ever do that to anyone. It just wasn't right. After a silent sigh, Jacob looked over at his alarm clock which read 2:34AM. He needed to go to sleep, especially since there was some stuff he needed to do leading up to the funeral.

--

A few days had passed and Jacob was walking up to the town's church with his parents following him closely. He stopped himself when he reached the steps. When he looked around, he noticed there was a lot of people here. He recognized a lot of students from school, which had been cancelled due to the funeral. Parents who decided to come aided their teenage kids around, kids who came along joined together in groups and talked quietly to one another.

His parents were soon joined by Emmett's parents. They said hello to Jacob and Mrs. Collins gave him a hug. "Emmett is already in the church..." She paused to take a deep breath, "he's been really quiet since that night."

Jacob thanked Mrs. Collins and headed inside the church. His eyes immediately landed on the casket, and it suddenly started feeling very real. His old friend Andre Pierce was dead. This was his funeral. Silently, he walked towards the front of the church and stopped at the first pew. He couldn't go father, could he? Jacob's mouth hung open, causing the inside to dry up.

"Jacob?" A voice sounded behind him, which caused him to jump a little. When he turned and saw who was talking to him, his heart started to beat fast. It was Mrs. Pierce with her husband standing beside her.

"Mr. Pierce, Mrs. Pierce. I'm sorry for..." Jacob couldn't finish the sentence, but Andre's parents understood what he was doing. Mr. Pierce nodded at his wife and started to walk towards the back of the church.

"Jacob, can you do me a favor? It'd really be grateful." She asked Jacob if he could sit at the first pew, telling him Andre would have wanted that.

Jacob nodded slowly and took his seat, which now made him feel awkward. He was the only one sitting here and all he could do was stare blankly at the oversize picture of Andre, which rested next to the casket, which was closed. He was so lost in his own daydreams that he didn't notice Elliot sitting next to him. When Jacob looked over at Elliot, he could tell he'd been crying. Elliot's eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were fire engine red.

"Hi..." Elliot said as he looked quickly at Jacob, then down at the ground.

Jacob couldn't answer Elliot because Nicholas and Warren were both approaching the front pew and made their way to their seats. The four teenagers sat in silence. Jacob was looking at Andre's picture, Elliot was staring at the ground, Nicholas was crossing his legs and using his fingers to tap on his leg, and Warren slumped down in the pew.

"Can you believe this is happening?" Jacob looked over at Elliot while Warren and Nicholas were both eyeing him from the side. "We're actually attending Andre's... funeral."

"Yeah well," Warren sat up and rolled his neck. "We knew this was coming, didn't we? I mean, he couldn't have stayed away for too long, so wasn't it obvious he'd been dead all this time?"

Warren realized how gruesome that sounded and muttered an apology for saying what he said.

Everyone behind them were quietly talking to themselves, but then the boys noticed a still silence. Was the service about to begin? Nicholas looked around and noticed people were looking behind him, so he turned his head to see what was going on. "Oh my f**k**g God..."

The three others looked behind them and instantly shared the same look Nicholas had. Of all people to enter the church for Andre Pierce's funeral was none other than Clarissa Wilcox. Clarissa was an old friend of the boys, and Andre's ex girlfriend. That wasn't just all Clarissa was though. There was a secret Clarissa held and the four boys knew exactly what that was.

"I thought she moved to New Hampshire. Or was it Rhode Island?" Nicholas mumbled to his old friends.

"It was New York actually, and she must have come back for the funeral." Jacob replied and the boys turned their heads back to the front of the church as the funeral service was about to begin.

After the funeral, the four teens felt like they were floating in the air or something. It was nice to actually go outside and get some fresh air though. Nicholas swore he was about to pass out since it was so f**k**g hot in the church and the suit he was wearing wasn't helping at all. "Thank God that is over..."

The guys walked along the sidewalk as others came out of the church. Some headed into their cards, others went back into their little groups to talk about the funeral and Andre. Elliot looked at the entrance to the church when Clarissa exited and walked down the steps. "Do you guys really think she came back just for the funeral?"

Nicholas looked over at Clarissa and sneered, "She's probably out to kill us." He looked back at his old friends, who were all giving him a horrified look. "What, like you weren't thinking the same thing?!"

Elliot looked back at Clarissa who was now looking at him and the others and started walking right towards them.. "Oh God, she's coming this way."

Clarissa gave the guys a smile and waved quickly. "Hello." She said with a tiny smile on her lips.

"Hey..." each of the guys said, sort of scattered.

"I just want you guys to know I'm sorry about what happened to Andre. I know you guys were pretty close to him." She didn't wait for a response from the guys and quickly walked off towards her parents car.

"Do you guys think she's A?" Jacob asked suddenly, not even thinking about what he had just asked.

Elliot choked on his own saliva, Nicholas looked at Jacob like he was crazy while Warren turned pale. That's when they realized they were all getting messages from some stalker f**k named A.

"You didn't tell me A was sending you messages too..." Warren said while Elliott and Nicholas both looked at Warren.

"Wait, you guys decided to meet up without the two of us?" Nicholas asked with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"We didn't meet intentionally," Jacob said in defense to himself and Warren, "we just ran into each other at the coffee shop."

"Again, you didn't tell me you were getting A message's too." Warren repeated with an eye roll.

The four guys couldn't talk further because Jacob's cell phone began to ring. He thought it was his parents looking for him, but then Nick's ringtone started going off followed by Warren's phone and finally Elliott's. They took their phones out and brought their phones to life.

"It's from..."


"This cannot be happening..."

"This has to be a sick joke..."

Elliot looked at the others and back down at the text before he began to read what was displayed.

"Thank you for coming to my funeral, you guys are truly my best friends. But what's going to happen after I expose all the things you've done? I'm not going anywhere, assholes. -A"

--

A mysterious figure closes their cell phone and begins to walk down the steps of the church. They look towards Jacob, Nicholas, Warren and Elliott before walked down towards the limo that was waiting for them. "Everything is set. We're ready to take you to your destination." The figure steps into the limo and makes themselves comfortable. They open a compartment in the limo and takes out a mini martini shaker and glass.

"We'll arrive at your destination soon. Please make yourself comfortable, and so sorry for your loss." The driver closed the gap between himself and his passenger.

A proceeded to take a picture out of their pants pocket and looked to see Andre, Nicholas, Jacob, Warren and Elliott standing next to each other, huge smiles on their faces. Ripping the picture in half, A opened the window and tossed the ripped picture out, allowing the wind to blow the pieces away.

[Chris]

Chapter 10

One Week Later

The past week had done nothing for the four boys except become the talk of the town. They couldn't get away from the subject of Andre, even if they tried. Everywhere they went, whispers would meet the guys’ ears.

“That’s one of them… Andre’s friend, I think his name is Jacob…”

Jacob was standing at his locker trying desperately to ignore the noises around him. One of his friends, Brad, was currently digging through the locker trying to find one of his books. He told Jacob he knew he put it somewhere in it, he just needed to find it.

“Can we get a move on? We’re gonna be late…” Jacob said through his gritted teeth.

Another group of students were looking in Jacob’s direction, whispering about, what else? Andre Pierce. As they were gossiping, a tall, thin girl came up behind them and glared. After clearing her throat as loud as she could, the others jumped and looked behind them.

“Last I checked, gossip wasn’t a curricular activity. Maybe we should talk about how all your boyfriends are cheating on you?” She smiled at the group of students when one of them just scoffed at her.

“I have a girlfriend, thanks much?”

Shandra stared blankly at the other girl then rolled her eyes, “Good for you, am I supposed to

care?” She shoved the others away from her and made her way over towards Jacob and Brad. Turning her head, she smirked in satisfaction when the others were walking away from them. “Shandra Louis wins again.”

Jacob was thanking his friend as she put her arm around his neck. Shrugging, Shandra told Jacob not to worry because she would always have his back. It made Jacob feel good since he didn’t think anyone had told him that before, and he could feel himself smiling a little.

--

Class wasn’t any better for Jacob and the others. When each guy entered the classroom, they were met with stares from the other classmates. When their teacher came into the room, everyone went back to doing their own thing. Still, Jacob, Emmett, Warren and Nicholas couldn’t get the feeling of people watching them off their backs.

While it was a relief by the time class ended, they still had seven to go plus lunch. It wasn’t too bad though, and Nicholas was relieved by the time lunch came around. He’d been met by his friends Tyler and Brendon, but he was confused since he didn’t see Craig. After asking where he was, the others smirked.

“He’s in the vice principal’s office,” said Tyler as he bit into his apple.

“We dunno what he did, but it must have been bad.” Brendan chuckled as he stabbed his salad with his fork.

On the other side of the cafeteria, Emmett was slowly walking around with his tray in his hand. His eyes darted around the room as he was looking for an available seat when he heard his name being called out. He looked towards the source of the noise and smiled when he spotted Warren Murphy waving at him. As Emmett walked over towards Warren, he glanced over at Nicholas, who was looking at him too.

Emmett sat down next to Warren and asked how his day was going so far. Warren merely shrugged, saying it was going as well as it could. “I think there’s this girl though…” He paused so he could take a sip of the sh!tty cup of coffee the school served. He cringed at the taste, but kept it anyway. “Her name is Laurel, I think? She’s friends with…”

“Danielle Delarosa?” Emmett has finished for Warren since he paused. After Warren nodded, Emmett explained that Laurel and Danielle had been friends for years, and Danielle was actually Nick’s girlfriend.

“Do you think he’d be mad if I went out with his girlfriend's friend?”

Emmett shrugged and told his old friend it might get Nick and Warren close again, which when Warren thought about it, it did sound nice honestly. Warren looked over at Emmett suddenly. “Hey Emmett, how have you been anyway? Besides the whole…” he leaned closer towards Emmett, who immediately tensed, but Warren didn’t notice. “You know… A thing.”

Ugh, A. Emmett rolled his eyes at the thought of A, but calmed down after he thought about the question. “Oh, you know. Just working hard on my charities. I managed to raise fifty thousand over the summer!”

Warren smiled and congratulated Emmett for his hard work, but before they could discuss anything further, someone entered the cafeteria, resulting in Warren and Emmett's bodies freezing like ice.

Entering the cafeteria was Clarissa Wilcox. She was going to their school now? It was bad enough seeing her at Andre’s funeral, which they still weren’t aware about why she went in the first place… As the girl walked towards a table, tray of food in hand, Emmett and Warren couldn’t help the flashback of that horrible night from re-entering their minds.

Flashback, 2.5 years ago

Andre was sitting in a chair at Emmett’s house, moving his leg nervously. He was looking down at the ground when Warren asked him if something was wrong.

“No, no nothing’s wrong…” Suddenly he jumped out of the chair, startling the others. He looked around the room and was sporting a wicked grin on his face. He motioned the guys to follow him, telling them they were gonna have some fun tonight.

“Fun? You mean with girls, right?” Nicholas looked disappointed after seeing the look on Andre’s face.

Andre lead his friends to a house they weren’t familiar with, and when they asked who's house this was, Andre didn’t respond. He went to the back of the house and up towards the back door, opening it gently. “We’re in!” whispered Andre with a satisfied grin. He motioned for his friends to follow him, to which he lead them upstairs towards a bedroom. Unfortunately, he didn't find what or who he was looking for, so he lead the group to the highest floor of the house, which had an opening to the roof. Emmett was complaining how breaking and entering was wrong and they should not be doing this, but Andre rolled his eyes and told him to shut up.

Andre suddenly smirked as he saw a shadow in front of him. He crept up behind the figure and motioned his friends for complete silence. The next couple minutes were a blur to the guys, but Andre had jumped at the figure who ended up screaming and falling off the roof. Clariss was found on the ground with a broken leg, fractured ribs, a broken arm and worst of all, she suffered from long term memory loss, losing a whole year of her life. Her injuries had healed of course, but for the life of her, she couldn’t regain the lost year back.

Andre and his friends got away in time, but they didn’t bother calling the police. A neighbor had heard the scream and reported it. They also had caught sight of Andre and his friends, but they couldn’t identify the group.

Warren and Emmett were still staring at Clarissa when Jacob and his friend Casey came into view with their trays in hand. Nicholas looked sick to his stomach and proceeded to throw his food in the trashcan.

Each guy was shocked when their phones started going off, and as they took their phones out, they glanced at one another before opening their text apps. Warren and Emmett shared a look before reading the text message.

“You should be looking happy considering Clarissa can’t remember a thing! Oh wait, I know what you did, after all I planned it! -A”

Nicholas didn’t know what to do or say. He just stared at the text as though something was stabbing at him. His friends looked at him, confused. “Dude, you okay? You kinda look freaked out…” His friends had their eyebrows raised, heads cocked to the side. Nicholas seemed to snap out of his daze and smiled reassuringly at his friends, declaring everything was fine. He walked off towards a table with his friends at his back. After sitting down, his friends were even more confused with their friend.

“What? What the f**k are you looking like that for?” Nicholas became irritated with his friends expressions and wanted to deck them. Tyler chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his neck.

“This isn’t our usual table, bro.”

Nicholas blinked a couple times and looked around the cafeteria. The view was oddly familiar and took him a split second to realize where he was sitting at. It had been his table, but it was the table he and his other friends sat at with Andre Pierce. Nick suddenly wasn’t feeling up to the whole lunch period thing, so he got up from his seat and walked past Tyler and Brendon, stopping when he saw Jacob a few feet away from him. “Follow me, now!” He gritted his teeth and continued walking, walking out the door of the cafeteria.

Jacob wasn’t the only one who followed Nick. Emmett and Warren had slipped away from everyone and was following the others. They spotted Nick and Jacob in a corner of the hallway, and Nick did not look happy.

“Does this mother f**k*r think he can get his fuckin’ jollies doing this to us?! I know you got the text!” Nick glanced back at Emmett and Warren, telling them he knew they got it as well.

“Look, it’s probably some stupid punk doing this to us. Maybe someone who hated Andre, there were plenty of people who hated him.” Jacob shrugged while Emmett bit his lower lip thinking about all the people who hated Andre.

“So what? They hated Andre, that doesn’t give them the right to harass us!”

“You do know what they were harassing us with, don’t you?” Warren asked with a hushed, agitated tone. “They know what we did to Clarissa. You guys remember how bad it was…” He paused in order to breath and calm down.

“She was in the hospital for months…” Emmett whispered, feeling the guilt wash over him.

“It’s not just that…” Jacob said, his eyes on the floor. “We took a whole year away from her.”

After Clarissa fell to her doom, it was a miracle she didn’t die. She did suffer from broken bones, but nothing was worse than what happened to her head. Apparently, she hit it so hard she suffered from amnesia. When the guys found out, Andre assured them she’d get her memories back, but the thing was, she never did.

People would probably think it wasn’t a huge deal, but it was. Clarissa Wilcox was a very smart student at ThornGrove. She used to be at the top of her class, and even took pride that she’d give the Valedictorian Speech at Commencement. But now thanks to Andre and his friends’ little stunt, Clarissa was screwed.

Andre convinced the guys to keep it a secret, and they did. They wouldn’t dare do anything to jeopardize their own high school careers, even though they did exactly that to Clarissa. f**k**g hypocrites.

“So, what do we do? Do we go to the cops about A, or…” Warren was stopped by both Nicholas and Jacob. They told him if anyone else found out, especially an official, they’d both be in trouble academically.

“Here’s what we do,” Nick started, “we’ll keep each other informed. When we get texts from A, we tell each other immediately…” He looked at his old friends when a smile came over his features. He couldn’t help but chuckle. “You know, I actually kinda missed you guys.”

“Kinda?” Warren snorted loud then he rolled his eyes. “I missed you guys like crazy. I wanted to invite you to Ireland, but I didn’t know if you guys were busy or something.”

“So, you basically thought we’d say no and f**k off?” Warren looked at Jacob and shrugged at his question, then they laughed.

On the other side of school, someone was walking towards a locker. After opening the locker, they started digging through it, shuffling through papers and shoving things to the side. Near the back of the locker was a wooden little box. Opening the top, the person took out a USB drive which had a piece of tape with Andre’s first name on it. The figure pocketed the drive and closed the locker.

[Chris]

Chapter 11

After lunch, the four boys promised they’d hang out with each other soon and they went off to their next class. Warren had entered the classroom and sat in the middle of the room. He didn’t want to sit in the very back and there was no way he’d sit in the front, so the middle was the best choice. The current class was U.S. History, his least favorite subject ever. Anything related to history, Warren tried to avoid it.

As he sat, he placed his left hand on the side of his head while he leaned to the side. He wished so bad that this course would be easy, but now that he was talking to Jacob again, he knew he could always ask him for help.

The teacher, Mr. Warrick Megyese, walked into the classroom followed by a student. He handed the student a piece of paper and asked him to fill it out. “You’re lucky they let you in, sir. Otherwise, you’d have a very stressful semester.”

The student chuckled, politely telling the teacher he was lucky to be attending a school who showed him some leniency. This made Warren snort softly. He turned away from the teacher and new guy and busied himself by hypnotizing himself with the floor patterns.

Warren was entirely in his own little world that he didn’t notice the student sitting right next to him. With a smirk, the new guy looked directly at Warren. “Well, well, well if it isn’t Warren fuckin’ Murphy.”

Warren looked up from the floor and almost choked. He was looking at his friend, Xavier Woods. “Xavier? What the hell are you doing back in ThornGrove?”

Xavier and Warren had met years ago as kids. They became friends and would always get into mischief with each other. Unfortunately they drifted apart years later and then Warren had met Andre. Still, it was really great to see Xavier again.

“I’ve been back, bro.” Xavier laughed while Warren realized what he said. Right, he was the one who came back to Thorngrove. “Don’t worry, I know what you meant.”

The two childhood friends talked about various subjects such as girls, sports, Ireland, and school. Warren was secretly relieved Andre was not brought up, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Warren helped Xavier out whenever he needed it, much to Xavier’s relief.

“So, we should catch up sometime. Like we can play basketball at the court or whatever.” Xavier was placing his school book in the bag when Warren nodded. He agreed to the invite and gave Xavier his number, stating he’d call or text later with the details.

“Sounds good.” Xavier said with a grin. “By the way, how are the others doing?”

Ahh, Warren was wondering when the others were going to be brought up. “Fine. We have plans to hang out later.”

“That’s cool. I’d like to see them again. Haven’t talked to them in ages.” The bell for class dismissal rang, and the students started piling out of the room. Warren and Xavier said their goodbyes and Xavier expressed his excitement to hang out later. “See you later, dude!”

Warren was walking to his next class when he took out his phone. He saw he had one unread text message so he opened it up to read it.

“Replacing us already, War? Remember, I took you in so I can take you out. You can count on that. -A”

Wait, did this mean A was in his class? Who was in the class again?? Warren bit his lip nervously and started walking again. Tomorrow, he would write down all the names in his history class. For now, he would make sure to say something about this new text message to his friends.

-

After school, Nicholas went to his locker and right out the doors, hoping he could avoid bumping into his girlfriend. Once outside, he was pretty much free to walk to his car without any problem. Opening the car door, Nicholas got inside, feeling relieved. Of course his relief had been short lived because one of his friends, Zachary Barnes, was approaching the car.

“Where ya goin’, man?” Zach was knocking on the window, looking rather irritated.

“I uh, I have to meet someone at the library. For a school project.” Nicholas started the car as Zach just stood back and looked pretty confused.

“What the f**k is up with you, man?” Zach crossed his arms as he watched Nicholas switch gears into reverse.

“Nothing, I swear,” Nick backed the car up before placing the car in drive. “I gotta go, I’m sorry.” He didn’t wait for Zach to respond and he practically floored the car out of the school parking lot. It didn’t take long for Nicholas to get to Warren’s place. That was where the guys agreed on meeting up. Honestly it felt like old times for Nick, so he was glad he had this opportunity.

He was met by Warren’s mother at the door, and she had a warm smile to give him. “Oh my, Nicholas Benedetti, you have gotten strong young man!”

Nick couldn’t help but smile at the woman's compliment, and thanked her. Mrs. Murphy told him everyone was waiting for him in Warren’s bedroom. She also told him she prepared a lunch for the group of friends. “I can’t stress enough how relieved I am you and Warren picked up your friendship. I still think it’s kinda hard for him, with leaving Ireland and all.”

“It’s no problem, Mrs. Murphy. I’m happy to be here.” He smiled, nodded and walked past the woman and up the stairs.

Jacob and Emmett had already arrived, but Nick sensed an awkward silence in the room. Closing the door, he faced his friends. “We’re still not feeling weird around each other, are we?”

The guys cracked smiles and Nick was now happy because of this. “Better.”He went over to the desk that was in the room and sat on its surface. “Okay, as much as I’d like to talk about catch up, we need to figure out who A is.”

Everyone just sort of looked lost. It wasn’t like they had enough to go on. Warren was sitting on his bed when he looked at Nick. “Maybe it’s just a prank. People are always coming up with these sort of pranks. Just look on YouTube.”

Nick just snorted as he crossed his arms. “It’s a prank that A is texting me about my…” Nick suddenly stopped when he realized that none of his friends knew about his abusive father. The only one who knew was Andre. Hell, the football team didn’t even know how abusive his father was.

Emmett raised his eyebrow at Nick’s pause, but he didn’t question it. “I don’t know what A has on you guys, but as for me, it’s personal.” He looked at their expressions and could tell it was the same for them as well.

“So let me get this straight,” Jacob was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed Indian style. “Basically A has something on us that nobody else knows about? Not even each other?”

“Well obviously someone knows…” Nick mumbled, looking at the ground.

“Andre.” Three heads turned towards Warren. Jacob asked what he meant, and Warren sighed.

“There’s something Andre knows that A knows.” He just stopped there and did not go on. Silence met the room again, but only for a minute.

“Actually, it’s the same for me too.” Jacob confessed, looking red.

Nicholas suddenly began to laugh. He sighed and placed his hands on his face. “So A is threatening us with information we shared with our dead friend.”

“Nick, that’s gruesome.” Emmett cringed when he heard “dead friend” come out of Nick;s mouth to which Nick just snorted.

“Okay, so A suspect's. Any guesses?” Nick looked around to see if they’d say anything, but they didn’t. “Well, I for one thinks it’s someone at the school.”

Emmett crossed his arms as he listened. “Wasn’t that part kinda obvious? A did text us at the school during lunch.”

“A texted me after one of my classes.” Warren offered a little piece of info. He told them he wasn’t sure if A was in his class or not since the text was sent after the class dismissed. “It could have been anyone.”

Emmett bit his lip, then he asked if they should go to the cops about all that’s been happening. “Like, not tell them our secrets, obviously.”

Nick just rolled his eyes, “I doubt going to the cops would do anyone good. Besides we can’t risk letting the cops know about Claire.” He told his friends that if the cops found out about Claire, they’d go to jail for years.

Jacob sighed and asked how the hell did this all begin. Everything was going so well with their lives and now it was turning upside down. “Now we have to watch our backs for this letter obsessed freak.”

“Yeah, why did they choose the letter A anyway?!” While Nick ranted how stupid it was to pick a letter of the alphabet, Emmett quickly looked over at him and told him it was the letter that started with Andre’s name.

Yeah, of course Emmett would know that. “Still, could have been more original.” Nick grumbled followed by his stomach. “Is there anything good to eat around here?”He asked as he looked over at Warren, hoping for something nice and greasy.

“I’m gonna have to go check. If not, we could get pizza and chicken wings.” Warren shrugged as he got up from his spot and started towards the door as Jacob started to chuckle.

“That sure sounds like good times.” The others agreed as they followed Warren out the room and down the steps to the first floor. Warren was just taking the pizza out from the freezer when the doorbell rang to life. He asked one of the guys to answer since he’d be busy making the pizza.

Since Emmett was closest to the door, he decided to go ahead and open it. Standing before him was a woman in a suit. A badge was attached to her vest, indicating she was a police detective. “May I speak to you, Mr. Collins?”

Emmett was a little freaked out that she knew his name even though he was at Warren’s house. He told the woman that his parents were probably back at his house, but the woman merely smiled. “We’ve contacted your parents before coming here. Your mother and the others will be there waiting for us. Are Warren’s parents here?”

As if on cue, Mrs. Murphy appeared behind Emmett, asking what this was about. After explaining that they needed to boys to go down to the precinct, Mrs. Murphy asked if the boys were in trouble. The Detective shook her head, saying it was only routine.

After that, the four boys marched towards Mrs. Murphy’s car and followed the Detective to the station.

[Chris]

Chapter 12

The Detective, whose name is Roberta Stone, escorted the boys into a room where they all sat at a table. She offered them something to drink, all who asked for water. They sat in a row and all of them were looking at the tables surface. The silence was killing the boys, who all looked like they wanted to throw up.

The door to the room opened and Detective Stone walked into the room. She sat on the chair across from the boys and gave them a smile. “Thank you for coming in today, boys.”

The boys tried to smile, but it didn’t work out well. She just stared at them, probably to try to get something out of their expressions. “Now don’t be afraid, we’re in a safe place here, okay?” Detective Stone opened her bag and took out a folder. She set it down and the boys were able to see the name that was on the front cover: Andre W. Pierce.

Detective Stone studied the boys faces, but didn’t start the questions just yet. She opened the folder and thumbed through some of the pages, causing the papers to crinkle, much to Nick’s annoyance.

“Detective, what are we-”

“What were you doing the night of Andre Pierce’s murder?” Stone had asked, but it wasn’t directed towards Nick.

Emmett sat straight up, his eyes staring directly into Stone’s. “I… we were having a party. Just the five of us.” He immediately went silent after that. Detective Stone nodded and averted her eyes towards Jacob now.

“Mr. Martinez, how would you describe your friendship with Andre Pierce?” She stared at him, remaining emotionless.

Jacob could feel his mouth dry up. Was he being accused of doing something to Andre? Was that the point of this question? “We were best friends,” he said as clearly as he could, “he was always there if we… I needed to talk.” That wasn’t really far from the truth. There were times Andre could actually be a decent guy.

“So Andre was an empathic type of person?” She didn’t wait for an answer and wrote down some notes.

“He made us feel special.” Nick said with his voice slightly raised. “He kept us together.”

“And why do you think he did that?” Detective Stone inquired.

What the hell did this woman want to hear? Warren and his friends did not want to continue this little “routine” of Stone’s. Luckily for them, the session ended finally and the boys were released.

“It’s about time!” Jacob’s mother, Rebekah Martinez, exclaimed when they walked out of the interrogation room. Rebekah walked over to her son and his friends, asking how they were doing.

“We’re fine, mom. Nothing major.” Jacob offered a smile, but Rebekah wasn’t convinced. She looked over at Nick, who’d been searching for his mother.

“Nicholas,” she said with her voice raised so she could get his attention. “your mom wanted you to know she took the night shift tonight for work.” She immediately sensed Nick’s disappointment in his features. “She said you can stay at Zack or Bren-”

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Nick asked, his tone a little stressed. “Or I can go to…” He stopped himself and looked down at the ground.

“No, of course you can. You’re always welcomed at our place.” She looked at Warren and Emmett, telling them their parents are waiting outside for them.

They followed Mrs. Martinez and was greeted by Emmett and Warren’s parents. “Are you boys okay?” Asked Mrs. Murphy with concern in her tone.

Mrs. Martinez answered for the boys, adding in that they weren’t in any trouble. Soon everyone was saying goodbye and Nick was following Jake towards the car. Rebekah stayed back to say something to Mrs. Collins.

“What the hell was up with those questions by Stone, dude?” Nick rolled his eyes as he opened the backseat door.

“I have no f**k**g idea, man.” Jake and Nick got into the car and buckled up. “It’s like she wanted us to confess to killing Andre or something.”

A second later, both Jake and Warren’s phones began to chime off simultaneously. They dug their phones out of their pockets and opened the text apps.

“Good thing you kept your mouths shut.

Who knows what Stone would do if your

secrets dropped. Wanna find out? -A”

Jake and Nick shared a look with each other, but had to quickly put their phones away as Jake’s mom got into the car. “You boys ready? We can get some food on the way home.” She didn’t wait for an answer and began to drive off.

[Chris]

Chapter 13

While there was a creepy stalker calling themselves A out there, stalking the boys whenever they or it felt like it, the boys had realized they really had missed each other. Over the course of the next few weeks, they'd been hanging out together more and Nick started making it a habit to try and stay at one of the other boys houses, but would often make sure his mother was alright. Emmett, Jacob and Warren had noticed this, but didn't want to push Nick's buttons so they just left it alone.

Nick still made sure to check in with his mother often though, and made sure to keep in contact with his other friends from the football team. They were a little confused about why Nick was "phasing" them all out, but it hadn't become an issue... yet anyway.

Since time had passed, and everyone at the high school was getting back into the swing of things, someone had decided what better than to throw a weekend party. Word had spread around fast about the upcoming event, thanks to the cheerleaders making a big deal out of it. The thing was, only Juniors and Seniors were welcomed to come, but of course that wouldn't stop the lower class men from trying to sneak it.

Jacob was organizing his locker when Brad came up to him with a grin plastered on his face. He knew what was going on through his friend's mind, it was obvious. Jake finished with his organizing and took out all the books he'd need before lunch period. "I don't think I'm going." After he shut his locker, he walked past Brad, who was frowning heavily.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... what do you mean, you're not going?" Brad hurried up to Jake's side, giving him a side glance that said, "Are you f**k**g crazy, dude?!"

"I'm not going to the party, wherever it is. I have too much to do." Jacob shrugged his shoulders, continuing to walk to his class. Brad looked as if his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. Then he went on with some rant, telling Jacob he has worked his ass off for the past few years and deserved a break.

"Whether I deserve a break or not, I don't want to become distracted. It never works out." Jacob shrugged his shoulders just as Brad got in front of him in order to stop him from walking.

"Look, I know this year is stressful. Trust me, I'm feeling it too, man. But the fact is, this is our last year of school." Brad noticed Jacob's eyebrow raised, so he hoped he was starting to get to him. "If all we do is work, sure we'll be prepared for college, but if we don't take some time off from said work, we'll drive ourselves bat sh!t insane!"

Jacob stood and just stared at Brad for a few moments before taking a breath and sighed heavily. With a roll of his eyes, Jacob looked at Brad in defeat. "Okay fine, I'll go. But it's not going to be all night, ok?!"

Brad cheered for joy and smacked Jacob's back before running off to his own class. Shaking his head, Jacob entered the English classroom and sat down next to Warren. After he got himself situated, Jacob was about to say something to Warren when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Casually, Jacob got out his cell phone and looked at the screen.

Unbelievable. It had been weeks and he hadn't received any creepy messages and then 'BAM!'. He handed the phone over to Warren, who'd been busy reading a book. Warren took the phone and looked at the screen just as his phone started going off. He and Jacob shared a look before he took out the device and looked at the screen.

Emmett and Nick were just entering the classroom, their own phones in hand. Clearly, they all got the new text from A.

"If you supply the secrets, I'll supply your exposé. Sound's like a deal, right boys? See you at the party! I hear it's gonna be a screamer. -A"

Mrs. Gold came into the room after that and set all her things down on her desk. "Alright students, let's get on with the lesson. Please sit down and open your textbooks to chapter eight!"

All the boys could do was sit down in their seats and quietly open their school books. Whoever A was, Emmett had to admit, they had power over the boys.

After class had dismissed, Emmett was walking towards his locker, backpack slung over his shoulder. Students walked in all directions, but of course Emmett was used to this. But as recent times went on, he became more and more paranoid. Someone was A. Like, a real person, was A. Did someone hate him and his friends so much? So much that they're sending these senseless harassing texts?

Emmett was just standing at his locker, lost in a daze, when a man walked up to him and asked if he was Emmett Collins. The student jumped and instantly thought the police had come to the school to interview him, but one look at the guy told Emmett he wasn't a cop. "Yeah, I'm Emmett..."

The man realized Emmett was using caution, so he smiled and gave out a chuckle. "My name is Arik. With an A." Emmett flinched after that, but he thought Arik didn't notice. "I'm the new guidance counselor, and I couldn't help but noticing a student in distress."

Emmett remained cautious, but he slowly lightened his mood around the new counselor. If this was during the time before A, Emmett would have considered telling Arik everything, but now? No way would he tell anyone other than the other three about A. "It's just..." he started, but immediately closed up after that.

"Here," Arik reached into his pocket and took out a card. He handed to Emmett, telling him if he ever needed to talk about anything, he could always give Arik a call. Emmett looked down at the card and sighed as quietly as he could. Great, now the counselor probably thinks he's a freak or anything.

After Arik excused himself, Emmett watched as the man walked away. Emmett couldn't help but watch Arik until his realized what he was doing and shook the thought out of his head. What the hell was he doing? He was with Keith, he shouldn't be...

Emmett was interrupted by the school bell so he hurried to get his things so he could go to his next class.

By mid-day, all the students were talking about the upcoming party. Apparently it was going to be in one of the rich kids family homes. A cabin in the woods, or something. That didn't bother Nick any, because there were some really secretive things that could happen in the woods. Of course he was thinking about getting it on with a girl, or two if he was lucky enough.

At lunch, he was hanging out with the football team. Everyone was excited for this party, but they were curious as to who the host was. Brendan and Zack were talking in whispers, discussing the possibilities. There were a few that they, and the rest of the school had come up with, all starting with the rich people.

Samantha Mitchell: Grew up with a wealthy family. Her parents were lawyers and they had been "training" her to become one herself. Her family owns a home in the Bahama's, or so that was the rumor. She doesn't bother to confirm nor deny it.

Jonathan Richards: Like Samantha, his parents were involved with the court. His father was one of the best and most known judges in the state. He was one of the few who actually had a family cabin in the woods, which made him a prime suspect in being the party host.

"You know, who cares who's hosting the party?" Tyler Cooke announced while he took a bite from his apple. "The fact of the matter is, we're all gonna have fun, right?" He looked over at his friends, giving them a look of "Ya'll better agree with me or else..."

Nick and the others laughed, and Nick patted the back of his friends shoulder. He told Tyler that he needed to relax and chill out, to which Tyler sighed.

The English Lit club had a few of their own theories on who the host of the party could be. They were all discussing, except Jacob. He didn't care one bit who was hosting the party because he honestly didn't want to go. It was Brad who was pretty much forcing him to go anyway, but Jacob promised he wouldn't complain.

Shandra, who was sitting besides Jacob, was listing off all the negative points the party would have for them. They were part of one of the best clubs in the school, they all needed to keep their grade point averages to maintain their spots in the club, and if they miss one study session for anything, they'd all be fucked.

Brad had tried to pay attention to Shandra and her reasons, but they just pretty much went in his left ear and right out the right one. He was super excited to be going to the first party of the year. There would be hot girls, alcohol, hot tubs, which only meant one thing to Brad: Sex. Oh, he couldn't wait for this party.

"Earth to Brad, don't you care about your grades?" Shandra glared at the boy, who looked at her stupidly.

"Of course, but I'm not going to allow studying and overtake my life, ya know?" He gave Shandra a challenging glare, and soon the two were in a staring match.

It didn't last long though because Shandra snatched her things up and got up from the table. "Fine, if you want to be a bunch of lazy fools, be my guest. As for me, I'm going to be at home studying." She didn't bother to wait for a response and marched out of the cafeteria without looking back.

"Damn, she is so Goddamn anal..." Brad rolled his eyes and looked off into space. After snapping out of his daze, he began to stab his lunch with his fork.

Jacob picked up his soda to take a sip, "She kinda does have a point though. We have to at least be careful we don't lose our focus."

Brad looked at Jacob and nodded. Of course he knew not to lose his focus. He could totally balance out his work while still having some fun!

The rest of the day went by without any incident. Shandra hadn't talked to the others at all, but nobody was really bothered by it.

---

Nick had football practice after school, and then the team began to plan their strategy for the upcoming first game of the season. The game would take place here at Thorn Grove, so Nick's coach, Gabriel Alden, was very determined to win the first game.

"All right men," Coach Alden started as he stood in front of his team, "our first game is quickly approaching. So we have to be vigilant." He placed his arms behind his back and looked at his team one after the other. "The first game we have is against one of the toughest teams yet. They're from a small town in Pennsylvania, but we're going to show them that this is our turf, and we will WIN!"

Alden's team cheered and Nick could feel a sense of pride swim within him. It felt good, honestly. He would make Alden proud of him, no matter what came his way. After Alden dismissed his team to do warm ups, he waved towards Nick and asked him to stay behind to talk. While the others fist bumped Nick and left, Alden lead Nick to his office.

The office was any football coaches typical offices. Pictures of Alden's football memories hung on the walls, posters of his favorite pro teams, even some trophies sat on shelves that Alden had won in the past. One of Alden's important mementos was sitting on his desk, facing out. It was a picture of him and his current team, Nick standing right next to Alden.

"Nick. How are you doing? Getting yourself situated into the whole Senior year vibe?" Alden sat on his chair, and motioned for Nick to sit across from him, which Nick did just that.

"Yes sir, and I'm ready to win the big trophy." Nick said as Alden chuckled. He loved Nick's pride and determination to win.

"You remind me of myself when I was your age." Alden swung his chair around and took out a bottled water from his mini fridge and handed it to Nick. "I remember my Senior year of High School. Good times, it was."

Alden picked up a picture from his desk and admired it. It was when he won the football championship, and earned the big trophy. Now it was his dream to win it with his own team. He set the photo down after cleaning it from the non-existent dust. He looked at Nicholas with a flare in his eye. "Win this, Benedetti. I didn't make you captain of this team for nothing!"

Nick's eyebrow raised, which resulted in Alden giving him another chuckle. "Don't tell the others just yet, I want them to be surprised." he gave Nicholas a wink before dismissing him from the office.

Nicholas left the office with a smile on his face. Captain, he made Captain! His mother would be very happy because of this, but Nick knew his father would most likely just ignore him.

Nick took out his phone out of habit to see if A was going to send him a threatening message, but surprisingly, it didn't come. Had A given up finally? Something told Nick that was a big fat "NO!". But if A wasn't threatening him now, what was this freak doing now?

--

The fact of the matter was, A had their own plans when it came to the party. They would be attending, of course. But they had something devious waiting for the party goers. This party was going to be one nobody would ever forget, not even those pathetic little assholes Nick. Jake, Warren and Emmett! They'd all get what was coming to them, that was a promise A was going to keep.

In their lair, A walked over towards a desk and laptop and sat comfortably down on their desk. Digging into their pocket, they took out the USB stick that had Andre's name on it and placed it into the USB Drive. A few click here and there, and A had access to a ton of files, including a copy of Andre's notes he himself kept on Nick, Jacob, Warren and Emmett.

After everything was situated, A clicked on icon on the bottom bar of the laptop and the song, I Am Dust by Gary Numan began to play.