Page 11 of False Idols

I always thought she would do it, but not this fast. I should have known better.

“Great, let’s get those over there then. What do you say to pizza after?” Pastor Mike asks as he goes to the dolly and pulls another box off the top. College Books is written neatly on this one and I’m grateful I’ll at least know where to start for classes.

“Pizza?” Sunny perks up and stops unpacking her things. “That would be awesome. Nevaeh and I were just talking about pizza,” she says and grins at me. “Weren’t we?”

All eyes come to me, even Tyler’s. I’m only thankful for it because I don't have to think about my mom kicking me out and whether this means I’m homeless or not. I have the scholarship, but other than that nowhere and nothing else to my name. My mother came to Bloom to get away from her tiny town after she graduated high school because she’d gotten pregnant with me and ran away from her hometown. We’ve been in Bloom ever since. She’s never mentioned anything about her parents or if I have any other family to speak of.

If she’s kicked me out then I am seriously on my own.

“Nevaeh?” Sunny’s voice breaks me out of my mini-spiral and I give her a jerky nod.

“That’s right. Pizza,” I say, because I don’t know what else to do. “I-I owe you pizza.”

“Nonsense, it’ll be my treat. It’s your big day, after all,” Pastor Mike tells me with a grin. “It’s not everyday that it’s your freshman year. There’s only one first day, Nevaeh. We should celebrate it.”

“I, uh, I have to get home soon and-” Tyler starts, but Pastor Mike gives him a sharp look I pretend not to notice. “I mean, pizza sounds good,” Tyler finishes weakly and I remember wanting him to ask me out so badly. Why did I want that? I didn’t even really like Tyler and now I’m going to have to play nice while we have pizza with Pastor Mike. It’s not at all where I thought I would be a week ago, but there’s no stopping it. Jared mumbles something about how good pizza will be and we keep bringing boxes in until they line my side of the room in a neat row, two high. It’s awkward, but Sunny doesn’t notice. She just chatters on while she puts her side of the room together. Before I realize it, we’re done.

“Well done!” Pastor Mike claps his hands and gives us a bright smile. “I knew a little pizza bribe would speed things along.” He sounds so happy and sure of what he’s saying that I wish he was right, but I know better. It’s not pizza that got us done so quickly, it’s the fact that the faster we’re done, the faster they get away from me.

“How about we head to The Pie?” Pastor Mike asks while he starts to fold up the handcart.

“What’s The Pie?” Sunny asks.

Tyler is the one that answers, even though he’s tried to stay quiet. “Only the best place in town to get pizza.” He sounds normal now. The way he did when we talked on the phone at night. When I look his way, I see him smiling at Sunny the way he used to smile at me. My throat goes tight. Not because I care that Tyler is smiling at Sunny, but because I know she’ll choose him.

He draws himself up to his full height and squares his shoulders. He used to do this to impress me. I didn’t think it would be this lame when I wasn’t the girl in front of him, but it is.

“Maybe I can show you around after we get pizza,” he offers Sunny.

My new friend isn’t going to pick me. Minnie didn’t, so why would Sunny? I clear my throat and go to grab my jacket when Sunny steps beside me.

“I thought you had to go,” she says and crosses her arms over her chest. “Didn’t he say he had to go?” she asks me with a raised eyebrow. I have to hide a smile behind my hand. Sunny links her arm with mine and gives Tyler the stink eye while he turns beet red.

“Ah, Tyler is a forgetful guy,” Pastor Mike covers and leads us out of my dorm. “He’d forget his head if it wasn’t attached. Isn’t that right, Tyler?”

“Yes, sir,” Tyler mutters.

I’ve got a smile on my face when I lock the door behind us. The hallway isn’t so scary with Sunny walking beside me. Maybe this year won’t be so bad now that I have a friend.

5

BEAU

Freedom is sweet. The sun is high in the sky above me. It’s hot as shit, but damn is it good to be free. I turn my face up to the sky and inhale deeply. I can smell fresh cut grass on the wind and I know the maintenance crew has been hard at work getting the campus ready for today. I hear the telltale sound of a leaf blower and turn my head to see the crew working halfway down the block. They’re at the corner, so I can only just make them out from where I’m standing, but it makes me remember the shit I had to do in prison.

Getting to work outside was a privilege then. Just to feel something alive on your skin, the wind, the heat of the sun, dirt on your hands, anything other than the cold numbness that filled my body in prison. I never got to stand around like I am now and enjoy it, so I do.

“Beau, do you have everything?” My mother asks and comes beside me. I don’t look away from the clouds above me but I feel her smooth her hands over the dress shirt I’m wearing. It’s pressed and perfect. Blue to match my eyes, my mother said when she insisted that I wear it. I let her fuss over me. She never gave up on getting me out of prison and that’s why they didn’t drop the case. That’s why they found the knife that killed Carrie Salt. And the prints all over it weren’t mine.

They don’t know whose prints they are, but the thing that matters is that they weren’t mine. And besides, whoever did kill Carrie made sure to have the knife delivered nice and neat to the Bloom Police Department with a note attached. I even heard they wrapped the box it was in with a red bow like it was a fucking gift. Which, you know, it was. For me.

Not for the Bloom Police Department, though. It was their worst nightmare, because the psycho fucker that killed Carrie and handed over the knife tipped off every news station in the area. They were swarming all over that damn station like maggots on roadkill. The note though, that was something else.

Fear The Reaper.

That was as dramatic as the cherry red bow. I’m not a fucking idiot. I know whoever did it is out there, but I don’t care. They killed Carrie, but Nevaeh took my life away. I’ve got a score to settle with her before anything else. Psycho serial killer or not. I don’t care who he kills next, I’m free. That’s all that matters.

“Beau?” My mother asks again and I look down at her.

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