Everything had changed. Now there was no one she felt she could trust. Cadence couldn’t believe what Damien had done. He was cheating on Jay. It was obvious. There was no other way of putting it. Upon thinking it over, she knew she’d told Kerass she would visit him and tell him, but Kerass, well, she didn’t think he could handle this.
The wind picked up shaking the frame of the car. Rolling the window up, she knew she should just leave. He wouldn’t listen to her anyway, but when she saw him walking on campus several yards away, she couldn’t force herself to sit still. Their friendship owed him that much. She wasn’t even 100% sure that Jay was still his boyfriend. She truly had been out of the loop for well over a year by now.
He noticed her before she came alongside him. His eyebrows raised, he asked her what she was still doing here. “You know I tried to meet up with you later last night, but you never showed. I can’t just force time for you whenever you decide to show up. Even when you so clearly need help.”
“Ouch,” Cadence uttered. “That’s not why I’m here. I don’t want nor need your help. I don’t want help from a cowardly cheater.”
“The hell are you talking about?” Damien asked floored.
“You heard me,” Cadence threatened under her breath. “I saw you. I saw you with Gus.”
Damien’s eyes bugged out, but he didn’t avert eye contact. He opened his mouth to speak, but Cadence marveled that no words slipped out.
“You can’t even deny it, can you?”
“Why should I? That kiss was the most beautiful moment of my life. Two souls connecting as one, screw what everybody else says. That was a natural, amazing moment that should be celebrated, not condemned. Gus is just now realizing that he’s homosexual.”
“You mean bisexual.”
“No, I mean homosexual. He only has eyes for me.”
“What about Jay? How could you do this to him?”
“How do you know that he’s not into polyamorous relationships?”
Cadence exhaled. That did seem like something Jay would totally be into, but there’s no way that Damien would’ve instigated it. “You just said that he only has eyes for you, which clearly goes against the polyamory definition,” she chastised. “He doesn’t know, does he?”
“No, and as far as I’m concerned there’s no reason for him to know.”
“You’re sick, Damien. You’re not the man I thought you were. I thought you were the one, the only one I could trust completely, but how can I if you’re so openly lying to your boyfriend and getting all handsy with my ex.”
“We didn’t get handsy…yet,” Damien replied with a devilish grin.
“I will never see you again,” Cadence whispered darkly. “Trust me, I never break my promises.”
She ran away from him. She didn’t dare listen to hear if he was calling after her. For all she was concerned, he was as dead as her abusive ex.
The student center was vacant apart from the few people who had to work there. Sundays were always dead days for the student center as all the eateries were closed, but if Kerass was completely honest with himself, the student center had been a dead hang out ever since he transferred, but it was Jordan’s favorite place to chill, yet Jordan hadn’t responded to any of his texts, so he just sat there just to get out of his dorm room.
Pulling out his Bible, he decided to take a moment to explore one of the Gospels. He had read Song of Solomon so many times he practically had it memorized. If he wanted more of a relationship with the Lord, which is what his mother and Lyra would’ve wanted, he would have to read some of the New Testament. He would have to read about Jesus.
Opening up to the last third of the pages, he stumbled upon Mark. He knew the story of Jesus backwards and forwards, but did he really, truly, definitively know Jesus? There was only one way to find out. He determined that he would read Mark not to discover the story, but to try and get to know Jesus, who he was, and whether he was worth following, dedicating his whole life to.
The first few verses came back to him instantly. He had read this book numerous times in his childhood. Then the verse introducing John the Baptist gave him pause. It stood out to him like a sour thumb. John the Baptist was preaching about repentance and the forgiveness of sins. He had yet to repent of his anger towards his father. He didn’t think he ever could. He shut the book quickly. No, he wasn’t ready for forgiveness. He never would be. Forgiveness was nothing more than a sign of weakness.
Jay lay on his bed. He felt more depressed than ever. Nothing, no explanation he thought about made any difference. Damien refused to call him back. If Damien truly loved him, he would make him a priority, no questions asked. Something was going on with him. It was inevitable that something was eating away inside of him, he just knew it. If only Damien would let him in. He wanted to talk about it with Kerass, but he never spent any time in the room anymore. He called Gil out of sheer frustration, but it went straight to voicemail. He felt guilty that he never followed through with meeting Gil’s boyfriend, but if he couldn’t answer his phone, he was no better than Damien.
Quickly deciding that he should call Gus, he bet inside his head that Gus’s phone was off too. Yet it started to ring. Perhaps there was still hope yet. Gus picked up after the second ring.
“Jay, my buddy,” Gus said. “It’s so great to hear from you. What’s going on?”
Jay replied that not much was happening with him. “No,” he shook his head. “That’s a lie. I just lied to you. Do you have a free moment? I really need to talk through something. It’s important.”
“Meet me in the student center in 30 minutes.”
“It’s pouring outside,” Jay observed deadpan.
“Hence the half hour wait.”
“Fine, 30 minutes on the button,” Jay replied hanging up on him. He looked out the window. The thunder shook his dorm room. He couldn’t see 5 feet from his window, but he felt he was dying just sitting in his room. He had to act. He would leave now. He’d be dry before Gus even arrived.
Cadence dialed Kerass’s number as she drove on the highway back to her mother’s. She told her mother that she was going to visit an old high school friend and her mother was beyond thrilled that she was getting out of the house that she neglected to ask when she would return.
The phone didn’t even ring before it went straight to voicemail. It was so Kerass. He was always one to live in the moment. She only had a moment before she could figure out what she wanted to say.
When the beep filled her ear, she paused for the briefest moment before she spoke. “Kerass, I, uh, I have to tell you something. I know we’ve both suffered from abusive relationships in the past year, yours was verbally abusive and well mine was physical. See, I know you’ve seen the news reports when you’ve visited Oak Stream. I did it. I shot my ex. I killed him,” she paused shaking, tears forming around her eyes. “I murdered my ex, Kerass. I just wanted you to know that. This is goodbye,” she breathed before she hung up the phone. The pain would end. It would all be over soon.
The lights flickered in the student center. Rain started dribbling down the windows, increasing as the wind rose. The rain started to pour. The door opened spraying water inside. Gus stood on the mat wiping his feet, his entire body soaked through. Jay motioned him over to his table. Gus beamed at him as he sat down.
“I guess I underestimated how much it would rain today. What’s going on?” Gus asked.
Jay couldn’t contain his feelings anymore. “I think something’s going on with Damien,” he blurted out.
“What makes you say that?” Gus asked awkwardly. “Just out of curiosity, do you have any proof?”
“Well, he hasn’t returned any of my calls for over two weeks for one thing.”
“That’s not exactly iron-clad proof. Do you have any reason to believe that he’s not faithful to you?”
“Who said anything about him cheating? Why are you getting so defensive about this?”
“Because…I mean, he’s a good friend. I just don’t like people talking shit about him. Why don’t you act your age for once?”
“Act my age!” Jay stood up yelling at Gus. He added that he wasn’t talking bad about Damien. Sitting back down he said, “Something is going on with him and I don’t have any proof, but he’s never been this distant before and I’m worried about him. That’s the truth.”
“There’s nothing to be worried about, Jay, not about him at least.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I talk to him, a lot actually.”
“He talks with you?” Jay asked floored. “When?” he demanded. “When was the last time you spoke with him?”
“This morning.”
Jay stood up and left without a word, fuming, not giving a damn that he was about to get drenched.
Kerass sat at his desk in his dorm room. His phone lay beside his laptop. Turning it on, he was instantly notified that he had a missed call and a voicemail. He really didn’t want to deal with it at the moment, but he knew he had to when he saw Cadence’s name attached to the call.
He called her back immediately, but it went straight to voicemail. Taking a deep breath, he played the message on speaker. His heart stopped. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Cadence was the most caring girl in the world apart from Lyra. She was the only one who saw him for who he truly was way back when they were freshmen together at Oak Stream High. How did she get to a place where she committed murder? It didn’t make any sense. Yet the memories of how terrible he felt when he dated Jez flooded his mind. He felt he could commit murder too, but it was fleeting, never a truly serious consideration. She had actually done it. When he heard that the message was goodbye, he felt utterly gutted. He would have to call her mother. He feared for her very sanity, but a shriek from the room above him caught him off guard.
Someone had screamed out ‘what’ at the top of their lungs. It was a voice he recognized. Jordan. He bolted out of his dorm room, slamming the door shut behind him as he raced up the steps to the second floor. Something was terribly wrong. Someone stopped him, a girl forcibly held his arms to his side warning him not to go in there.
“He’s my friend, I have to help him!” Kerass yelled at her, wrenching her hands off his arms.
“Keep away from me!” Jordan screeched as Kerass entered the room.
“What? Why, Jordan? I’m here to help you,” Kerass replied.
The girl rushed into the room trying to pull Kerass back, but it was too late. Jordan dashed up to Kerass, both hands firmly gripped around his throat. He felt his life slowly slip away. He thought of nothing other than the passage in Mark and forgiveness before everything faded to black.
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