June 7th, 2019 | Present day
"So, Kaden showed you around the school, and you immediately became friends?" Officer Hudson asked, scribbling whatever onto his notebook.
"You make it sound so cliché, but yeah basically." I muttered in response.
"And you just happened to get a job at the same place he worked at."
"Yep."
"Can you give me the full names of those who worked with you and Kaden Wells?" The way officer Hudson phrased his question made it seem like it wasn't really a question at all, more of a demand.
"Why? So you can question them too? No way. I'm not putting anyone else through this."
"Miss James, in a situation like this we need to talk to everyone that had any sort if relationship with Kaden. Now I'm going to ask you one more time. What are their names?" I don't think he was trying to be rude, he was just doing his job. But his tone was definitely stern.
"Kendall Lockhart, Cole Jennings and Molly Prescott." I let out involuntarily. As much as I didn't want to put them through this, I didn't really have much of a choice.
"At your hot chocolate hour thing, did Kaden ever say anything suspicious?" His voice was calculating and calm. I took a deep breath before responding.
"I told you officer Hudson, if I was gonna tell you this story, I'd tell it right. If you want to hear the dark parts of our friendship, than you're going to hear the light parts too. The parts that had me fooled, I won't let you, or anybody else tell me that I was stupid for not noticing, because you didn't know him. I did. Now, let's get on to October, shall we?"
*
October 2nd, 2018
"So Avery, do you have any plans for Halloween?" Kate asked while Mr. Sloane spoke, mostly to himself other than to the students.
"Not that I know of, why?"
"Dawson is throwing a huge party, it's one of the best parties of the year actually, do you wanna go with us?" Kate sounded like she genuinely wanted me to go, and since I didn't think I had to work, why not?
"Sure, sounds like fun!" I smiled, causing Kate to basically explode with joy.
"Really?! Great! I was sure you were gonna say no."
"Why?"
"You know, you're just always with Kaden Wells, I thought for sure you were gonna be hanging out with him on Halloween." For some reason, her answer caused me to laugh.
"Don't worry, I don't think Kade is the kind of guy who celebrates Halloween. He'll most likely be doing homework or something like that. A party sounds like fun." Obviously, my response was just what she wanted to hear, because a smile lit up her face once again.
The rest of the class went by quickly, along with the school day.
My parents are home until Wednesday, but part of me doesn't want to be around them right now. After what happened on Friday, we haven't exactly been on great terms, not like we usually are, but normally we don't express it.
The problem with my parents is that work consumes them. When I was younger, they taught me to work for what I wanted, but not to the point were I was unhappy. My life used to be a priority to them, my happiness actually meant something to them, but around the age of twelve that all changed. They traded family for luxury and never looked back.
Not that I'm complaining, I respect how much they work, their motivation, but sometimes I can't tell if they're robots or human beings.
Then, as I was walking to Physics, my phone buzzed.
Kendall: Hey, do you want to go shopping today? I assume you haven't been to The Maine Mall, it's in Portland and like thirty-five minutes away, but It'd be a good distraction.
Me: It's seriously like you read my mind, I am in desperate need of a distraction and I'd rather not go home at the moment.
Kendall: I know, I'll pick you up at four.
I had told Kendall and Kaden at our Saturday shift about the incident with my parents. Kaden could relate more, but Kendall being Kendall, she knew exactly what to do. Their advice was to just lay low, not directly ignore them but also not start a conversation.
Kaden had told me once that his mom was very obsessive when it comes to his life, even though she was home maybe a week out of the month. One time when he was working late, she called every one of his recent calls through his old phone, luckily after five calls, Cole answered and explained the situation.
As soon as the bell rung, I shot up from my seat and basically rushed out of the door. Kaden was working today, so our usual "end of school conversation" was short. When I arrived at my locker, I noticed that Kaden was right, I am not very organized. Crumpled paper was scattered on the two shelves, at lease one pair of shoes were crushed at the bottom and my textbooks were all over the place.
Since I usually have a shift right after school, I wasn't too focused on keeping my locker clean, more on not being late. Kendall went to Willow Crest, a school on the opposite side of Runswick, which is why even though we got out at about the same time, she would still need a good thirty minutes to get to my house.
Making several trips to the trash, my locker was finally decently clean. The halls were mostly empty and the time was 3:20. Guess I had to head home now.
I definitely took more time than I needed to get home, but by the time I arrived it was only 3:35. Biting the side of my lip, I walked into my house, only to see my mom at the counter on her laptop typing profusely and my dad on the couch watching the History Channel.
"Hello Avery, how was your day?" I hated how my mom spoke to me like one of her clients, not her daughter. Not wanting to dig myself into a deeper hole, I plastered on a fake smile.
"Good, I'm leaving soon though."
"And where are you going?"
"The the mall with a friend." I shrugged.
"Kaden?" I had been basically forced to tell her about Kaden when I went to his house on Sunday to study for a Chemistry test on that was on Tuesday.
"No, Kendall. Just somebody I work with." She gave a nod of approval before focusing back on her computer screen. Instead of staying in the tense environment that was downstairs, I went upstairs.
Staring into to mirror, I noticed that my mascara had smudged around my hazel eyes, my lightish brown hair had tangled a bit and my pastel yellow t-shirt had become slightly wrinkled.
Yeah, today was a rough day. It was funny how one mishap with my parents caused me to stress so much.
Actually it wasn't funny, it was annoying. I seriously need to loosen up.
Taking a makeup wipe, I took off the access mascara and applied more, before hearing my doorbell ring.
Shit, looks like Kendall's gonna have an encounter with my mom.
I basically sprinted out the bathroom and downstairs, in hopes of saving her from the company of Isabella James.
"Mrs. James your outfit is amazing! You look absolutely stunning!" I heard Kendall exclaim, I knew she was lying because my mom was wearing the most horrible pantsuit I had ever seen.
"Oh thank you dear! Avery should be down any- there she is!" My mom's voice was overly nice and pitchy, but I could tell she believed Kendalls fake compliment.
"Yeah I'm here." I spoke, interrupting their conversation.
"Okay, well you girls have fun!" I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes, because I knew for a fact she wasn't happy that I was leaving. Kendall waved politely to her before I shut the door behind us.
"I am so sorry, she can be unbearable but I swear, she's not usually like this."
"Avery, relax. She was really nice, but I did lie about that pantsuit." We both laughed at Kendall's last comment before getting in the car.
⦠Psychotic â¦
"Do you like this shirt?" Kendall asked. We were currently in Forever 21, each of us had at least five shirts in our arms.
"Its cute, but more stripes?" I replied, motioning to the four out of five shirts Kendall had in her hand that were striped.
"Okay, says you. Literally all of those shirts are yellow."
"No! This one is orange."
"That's not orange, thats mustard." Her response caused me to look at the shirts I had gathered, and she was right, they were all yellow.
"Fine." I grabbed a shirt to the side of me, it was pastel blue and had white lining on the neckline and sleeves.
"Wow, what a rebel." She laughed, causing me to laugh too. Heading to try them on, the lady gave us two rooms across from the other.
We showed each other everything we tried on, getting honest opinions before leaving the store. I had bought three of the six shirts I had picked out, two yellow and one blue. Kendall bought four I think, all striped.
We went into H&M, American Eagle, Nordstroms and Urban Outfitters before taking a stop at Starbucks.
"Well, I just spent well over my budget." I laughed. We were currently waiting for our drinks.
"Me too, I guess it's just bread and water for the next too months." She sighed sarcastically, before going up to the counter and taking her drink.
We took at seat at a long, bar-ish type table, facing some of the shops.
"Kendall, did you lie to me about why you and Cole kinda, you know, hate eachother? It's okay if you did, I understand if you didn't want to tell me." My question caused her to nearly spit out her drink. My curiosity was just about killing me, I had to give it a shot, right?
"Am I really that bad of a liar?" She joked in a deflated tone, her answer took me by surprise.
"No, not at all actually. It just seemed weird that you two disliked each other so much for barely any reason." I immediately felt guilty for asking, I didn't want to put her in an uncomfortable position, especially since she did all of this for me.
"I'm sorry we really don't have to talk about i-" I started, but Kendall was quick to cut me off.
"Avery, it's seriously fine. I think it's about time I tell someone anyways. I mean, Molly and Kaden know the basics, but not what really happened. Can I trust you?" Kendall admitted, it was weird seeing her like this. She was normally so happy.
"Of course."
"Okay, well long story short, we dated-" She must of noticed my jaw basically hit the floor, because she stopped what she was saying and laughed.
"I know, it's weird to think about, even for me. But yeah, it's true. When Cole first started working at Mugs, we didn't get along, that's true. I'll admit, that was mostly my fault. But when hot chocolate hour's started, we became friends. We had a similar sense of humour, we were both overly sarcastic and he was nice but not so nice is was annoying, you know? My whole life I knew when I got in a relationship I didn't want to be a super lovey-dovey kind. More like friends, but not friends. So when Cole asked me out, I thought; 'Okay, there is a funny, nice, attractive guy asking you out, say yes!' so of course I said yes." She took a deep breath before continuing. I could tell she was holding something back, but I wasn't going to push it.
"We never really fought, we hung out all the time and things were never awkward. But after around seven months, things changed. He took me on a date, like normal. However this was more meaningful and heartfelt. That night, he told me he loved me. He loved me! I had never been good with stuff like that, trust issues maybe, but I completely freaked out... then broke up with him." Guilt spread across Kendall's face while mine probably only showed straight shock.
"Horrible right? Who does that? But I couldn't take the pressure. I felt horrible after that day, I didn't tell a single person what happened, not even my family. It wasn't long before it hit me. Okay, maybe I wasn't ready to tell him I loved him, but it was clear I had made a huge mistake. About two weeks later, maybe more, I went to his house to apologize and explain why I did what I did, and when I knocked on the door..." Kendall took a deep breath.
"I had a whole speech prepared you know? I had rehearsed it so many times that I was sure it was etched into my brain. It wasn't Cole who opened the door, it was a pretty blonde wearing his shirt." Oh my god. I felt absolutely horrible for her and him on the account of him pouring out his emotions only to be left heartbroken. This explained why the two act so hostile towards each other.
"She asked me if she could help me, I said no, then never went back. I have no right to be upset, he didn't cheat on me, and I broke up with him. But I'd be a liar if I said that didn't hurt. You know, maybe there was some reasonable explanation as to why she was there, but I wasn't gonna stick around to find out. When I finally went back to work, he was like a completely different person. He has the whole "confident jerk" thing going on and it's annoying as heck. But then again, he doesn't know that I ever went back, he most likely thinks that I just left that night and never thought of him again, so I don't really blame him." There was something she wasn't telling me, that was certain. The pain in her eyes were enough to expose that there was more to the situation.
"Kendall I'm so sorry, if I would've known I would've seriously never brought it up."
"Avery, don't be sorry. I'm over it, and it wasn't your fault. Now wanna go back to Forever 21 and try on ridiculous clothes?" What seemed like a genuine smile spread across her face, so I returned it.
"Definitely."
Authors Note
okay so just to clear things up: i know the story is based on avery telling officer hudson about her and kaden's friendship, but a majority of the story is told from flashbacks, therefore they show everything that happened to avery in the time she knew kaden, not just their friendship. that's why this chapter showed a little bit of kendalls backstory and whatnot.
anyways i actually don't hate this chapter and i feel like things are getting a lot less boring so that's good. i have been doing so much writing lately i'm actually kinda proud.
have a great rest of your day!!