Page 195 of Ominous: Part 1
I roll my eyes, looking up at the ceiling. “What does that have to do with any of this?”
There’s an edge to my brother’s words when he speaks. “Why’s he following you out from the school in the middle of the night anyway?”
My face heats when I think about grinding up on Dom.Answers.I let him bother me because I wantanswers.“He’s Eli’s friend.” I don’t feel comfortable talking about Eli with Sebastian, but he asked.
“Yeah? And why do you think that is?” Sebastian asks the question like he knows the answer.
I drop my gaze to meet his, his blue eyes on mine. “Spit it out,” I snap.
Sebastian grins, but it’s lacking warmth. “I’ve heard your boy’s name mentioned a few times.”
I bristle, rolling my eyes. “Here we go again,” I mutter under my breath.
“Yeah, keep talkin’ shit, E, you know, some people think he killed the chick.”
Why would Eli kill Dominic’s sister? That doesn’t make any sense.
I wonder again how Dom is taking the news, but my thoughts, as always, circle back around to Eli. “What did you mean? About why they’re friends? They’ve been friends for a while.”
Sebastian shrugs, his eyes drifting closed. “If I killed someone, I’d want to stay as close as possible to the murder investigation, know if anyone was gonna question me about shit. Besides…” He pauses. “King said the three of them were together a lot. The chick, Dominic, Eli.”
I want to immediately dismiss all of this. Sebastian barely got a high school diploma, has no jobs and no prospects. But if he knows anything about anything, it’s crime. Maybe not homicide, exactly, but even so…
“I knew they were friends.” It’s all I can say.
“Yeah, I mean…” Sebastian trails off, eyes still closed. “I told you before. King said Dom was always weird about Winslet. They couldn’t seem to stand each other, he said, but he brought her along sometimes for pickups. Eli too.”
“What’re you saying?” I ask anyway.
“Maybe they did it together.”
I roll my eyes, but it feels like it’s for show. Unease twists in my stomach. “Was this posted today?” I change the subject, veering off track a little.
“This morning,” Sebastian confirms. “King told me about before I left, and I read it on my way in.”
His way in.Jesus. “You were out until… now?”
Sebastian laughs, and it turns into a cough. He puts his fist over his mouth to muffle it, then says, “Yeah. Just like you, I was wide awake.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I stay quiet, my eyes drifting over the flooring of my room, but it’s Winslet’s face peering back up at me in my mind. Then I see Eli’s, in my head.
Why was he absent so much of last year?
He has to have a limit to his evil.But does evil have a limit? Am I just making excuses because… because I’m falling in love with him?
But no. The police would have him in custody if there was any connection. He didn’t do it.
I close my eyes for a second, and I feel his hand over my face. I feel myself spinning in his car, my mind growing black.
But I liked all of it.
Chills run down my spine, and I pull the covers up higher, to my chin. In the tunnel of darkness under my blankets though, I see a glow, and it doesn’t seem to matter what I did or didn’t think about Eli. My body warms anyway, knowing it’s probably a text from him on my screen.
I snatch my phone up as Sebastian starts talking again.
“Just be careful, E.” His words are soft, and he sounds contemplative. I wonder if this is the moment, when I should talk to him about the ways he’s throwing his life in the trash.
My throat feels tight, and I take a deep breath, but I don’t know what the hell to say, and I don’t think Mom has talked to him, about everything I told her last Friday.
