Symbiotic

Chapter Seven

Several days passed with no meetings. No work on either locating Vanessa or finding the killer’s identity. And it was killing Eve.

To be fair, she couldn’t exactly blame the lack of progress on either of them. The clearing of Latimer’s name had left them directionless, lost in a forest with nary a path to guide them. But she needed to be doing something, she needed to be working on a productive way of solving the problem. And she wasn’t. Roxie’s continued insistence on not speaking to her at school wasn’t helping. It had been irritating enough before; now, it was downright getting on her nerves.

Suffice it to say, she already wasn’t in the best of moods when she noticed none other than Chase Bancroft making his way towards her.

She looked around, checking if maybe he was actually looking at someone behind her. But no, she was alone. He was definitely making for her. Putting her head down and taking a few steps forward, she pretended she hadn’t noticed him. Maybe he would leave her alone.

“Hey! Art girl!”

No such luck.

She stopped, attempting to restrain any obvious signs of annoyance as she confronted him. After all, this was Roxie’s boyfriend. As much as she hated it, she was obligated to be nice. So instead, she contorted her lips into a light smirk.

“Miss the English homework, Chase?”

“Ha! Yeah, right. Not this time, luckily.” He scratched the back of his head with a shamed smile. Eve couldn’t help but notice that he was being oddly… friendly. Strangely enough, she wasn’t pleased with this.

“So what do you want? Places to be, art to make.”

She started walking again in an attempt to illustrate her point. He followed, keeping pace with her.

“What’s your deal with Roxie? Just out of curiosity?

A deeply uncomfortable feeling ran through her.

“I don’t know what you’re on, but I was fairly certain she already told you what the deal is with us. Biology project, remember?” Thank god Roxie had actually told her what the alibi was.

“Yeah you’re real subtle, Eve. You know, I can talk to the people who do biology. They too are people who take other, non-biology classes.”

“And?”

“And there’s no group project. Not only that, I’ve heard it told that you don’t even take that class.”

“I do too!”

“Ok, tell me one thing you learned this year.”

She hesitated, and he tilted his head at her.

“Not one thing? Come on Eve, I know you’re a better student than that. You don’t take biology.”

“Well listen, jock. Roxie’s the one who doesn’t want you to know the real reason, not me. I’m sure she has her reasons.”

“I don’t even really care about that.”

“Then why do you care? Why does it matter to you what your girlfriend does when she’s not around you?”

“Look, are you two friends or not?”

Eve paused. The word ‘yes’ had been about to slip from her mouth.

“I don’t have friends.”

The retort came out more bitterly than she would have liked, making even Chase flinch. He groaned.

“I get it, you’re an edgy loner who don’t need no company. I was just asking.”

At this point, he actually reached out and took a firm grip on her wrist, pulling her to a premature halt. Spinning around to face him, she threw the most vicious glare she could manage at him.

“Release me.”

“Chill, art nerd. As you’ve clearly heard, Rox and I have… I dunno. A thing. If you were friends, I was going to ask you for advice. What kind of flowers to get her. Et cetera. But since you’re not, it doesn’t matter.”

Ignoring most of what he had said, Eve spat back at him “I’ll ‘chill’ when you let go of my arm. Did I say you could touch me?”

Looking down at her arm, Chase hesitated. Eve pulled back.

“Let go. I’m not kidding.”

Finally releasing his hold on her, Chase stepped back. He looked her up and down with a decidedly more distasteful expression than the friendly demeanour he had approached her with.

There’s the real Chase Bancroft. Welcome back, Buddy.

“What’s your problem? I was just asking a question.”

“Asking a question does not require touching me. You asked the question, I answered it. Leave me alone.” With that she left him standing there.

“Whatever. You’re such a freak.”

Turning back, she threw her hands up. “Does it look like I care what you think?” Storming off, she pulled out her phone as she felt it go off.

Upon realising that it was Roxie, her fingers flew across the keypad and confirmed their next meeting. Putting her phone back in her pocket, she sighed.

Why am I still doing this to myself?

Entering her home at a near sprint, Roxie met the corner to her room with such velocity that she almost skidded straight past. She felt her hip bang against the doorframe, and swore under her breath.

She jammed her phone charger into the small device, throwing it onto her bed as she changed into some cooler clothes. The day had been a scorcher, and school-regulation clothes were not doing it for her right now.

She heard her mother call her name, and turned to see her leaning in the doorway.

The older woman seemed to have more hair falling out of her usual bun than what was in it. Her uniform was wrinkled and she seemed on the whole quite dishevelled; but her expression was as calm and patient as ever.

“I thought I heard you get back.”

“I didn’t know you were home, or I would’ve come to say hi. Sorry.”

Her mother yawned. “That’s alright, I fell asleep anyway. Thanks for donating those old clothes to the cause, by the way. I saw the pile you left in the hallway.”

“Always.”

“You heading out again?”

“Yeah, if that’s ok. Gotta meet up with a friend.”

“That’s fine. But I need to chat to you for a couple of minutes first. There are some things we need to talk about.”

Roxie felt the chill that every child surely experiences when their parents speak those dreaded words; we need to talk. Stalling for time, she checked the charge on her phone.

Two percent. Damnit.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” She sat down on her bed, gesturing for her mother to join her. She did, and they talked.

By the time her mother had finished, Roxie was refusing to look at her. She knew what she would see if she did – that same passive face her Mom always had. And that was the last thing she wanted right now. How could her mother have such a calm face, when Roxie’s entire world was collapsing in on her?

She clenched her teeth, closing her eyes against the onset of potential tears. Her one question, when it escaped into the air, was just as dull and still.

“And there’s nothing I can do to stop this?”

“Not unless you get a job.”

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and shrugged it off.

“Roxie, I know how hard this is to hear. I’m trying, ok? But there’s only so much I can do.”

Not trusting herself to speak, Roxie stood, unplugged her phone, and left.

When she reached the park clearing, Roxie wasn’t surprised to see that Eve had beaten her there. As angry, as heartbroken as she had been just a short half hour ago, she had to admit that her heart felt significantly lighter upon seeing that dark hair and familiar short stature.

Though she didn’t care to admit it, she already felt awful about the way she had treated her Mom. Yes, it was a crappy situation. But had she really deserved that? She decided she had to find a way to apologise later.

Eve was standing by the edge of the pond, throwing stones into it. Judging by the amount of aggression that was going into her strikes, she didn’t seem to be having the best day either. Roxie walked up and hugged her from behind, making her jump.

“Guess who?”

Eve turned, and Roxie was gratified by the way the deep crease carved into her eyebrows immediately relaxed.

“Hey.”

Roxie nodded towards the pond.

“Is it helping?”

“Not really.”

“Dang, I was thinking about joining you.”

“You too, huh?”

Roxie sighed, resting her face on Eve’s shoulder blades.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

They stood in silence for a few minutes, watching the ripples from Eve’s last stone radiate outwards. Crickets chirped, and the air around them was starting to cool as the sun sank lower in the sky.

Eve pulled away from Roxie, and went to the bag she had sitting on the bench. Roxie watched her curiously as she pulled out a piece of paper, flattened it out, and handed it to her. Her gaze dropped away as soon as Roxie took the paper.

“What’s this?”

Eve didn’t answer. Roxie’s question was soon answered, though, when she actually looked at the paper.

It was her cross. Eve had re-drawn it, with black outlines and vibrant colours. It looked amazing.

“I figured if you’re actually planning to get it as a tattoo, you should at least have a good drawing of it. They can use that as a reference.”

“Eve… How long did this take you?”

“Most of yesterday afternoon.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“That’s fine. It just gave me an excuse not to work on my final.”

“Thanks. That’s really sweet.”

“What’d you get up to yesterday? You know what I did now, so even the score.”

“I have soccer on Sundays.”

Eve raised an eyebrow. Roxie gave her a quizzical expression.

“What?”

“You do soccer?”

“Duh.”

“Wouldn’t your makeup run down your face?”

“I don’t wear makeup at soccer practice.”

Eve mock gasped, holding her hand to her chest. “There exists a time frame where you’re not wearing makeup? I assumed it like, grew on your face or something.”

Roxie burst into a fit of giggles. When she had regained control of herself, she met Eve with a more sombre expression.

“I… I don’t know if it’s going to work with Chase.”

Eve shook her head, a sad smile on her face.

“That doesn’t actually surprise me.”

“Didn’t think it would. I just- I know how cliché this sounds, believe me. But I really do think we work better as friends.”

“Problem being, who the hell knows if he’ll still want to be friends after you dump him?”

Roxie nodded. Eve crossed one of her legs in front of the other.

“Well, what else are you going to do? You said it yourself, it’s not working.” She wasn’t sure why the thought made her happy – wasn’t she meant to feel sad that Roxie’s relationship was on the rocks? Instead, she was just relieved. She decided that revealing this to Roxie probably wouldn’t be the best course of action.

“I know,” Roxie groaned. “You’re right. I have to leave him. This isn’t fair to him.”

“So…”

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

“Cool, settled. Anyway, I should probably get home – didn’t exactly tell my parents I was going out after school. The last thing I want is for my Mom to call the police because I was an hour late.”

“That would be funny to try and explain,” Roxie ruminated. “Alright, I’ll let you go. We do need to start working on the case again, though.”

“You really think I don’t know that? Again, only friend.”

“I’m pretty sure you can stop calling Vanessa your ‘only friend’ by now, Eve.” She gave Eve a knowing look. “Do we really not qualify yet?”

I dunno, are you willing to introduce me to your other friends yet?

Not the time, Eve firmly reminded herself. Not when her hopes of finding Vanessa depended on this girl.

“Yeah, I guess we do.” With that, she said her goodbyes to her new ‘friend’ and headed home.

Instead of running for the stairs, Eve made for the living room when she got home. She figured she definitely owed her mother an explanation for her tardiness.

She rolled her eyes when she saw that her Mom had that damn preacher on tv again.

“Hey Mom, you home?”

No answer. Eve tried again, worry starting to coil in her chest.

“Mom? You didn’t already go out looking for me, did you?”

A moment later, Mrs Verbeck appeared in the doorway. “Oh Evie, darling! You’re home.”

“Sorry I’m late, I was hanging out with Roxie at the park.”

“Oh. Were you working on that project?”

“At the park? No, we were actually just… hanging out, for once. It was nice.” A genuine smile crept across her face at the thought. Mrs Verbeck didn’t seem as happy.

“Hm.”

Eve snapped to attention. “What? Aren’t you always telling me I need more friends? Now I have one. Don’t tell me you’re gonna start complaining about that now.”

“Oh no, not at all. I’m happy that you have a new friend. I’m just… Not sure about this Roxanne girl. Be careful, ok? You can’t trust everyone you meet.”

“What’s wrong with Roxie? She was nothing but polite to you when she came over.”

It took a few seconds for her mother’s implications to sink in.

“Oh are you seriously going where I think you’re going with this?”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Eve. I’m only looking out for you.”

Eve leaned against the doorframe. “Mom, she’s no different to you or me. Please just stop that thought before it does actual harm.”

“Well, if you’re sure.” Her tone left the sentence hanging. Eve sighed and hit her head against the wall.

“Sure, whatever.”

She headed up to her room, already regretting her decision to talk to her mother. She tried to ignore the preacher on tv, who seemed to be ranting and raving about the ‘sin’ of homosexuality on today’s broadcast.

Yep, I’m going to Hell. Thanks for reminding me.

Once the door to her room swung closed, her eyes widened in a sudden epiphany.

Her art final. She had an idea. An actual, honest to God idea.

Pulling out her art diary, she started to sketch.

The next morning, Roxie was in the living room doing her makeup for the day when the news came in.

“Oh s**t,” audibly escaped her when the news broadcaster’s voice reached her ears. She stopped what she was doing, staring at her reflection. She wasn’t sure how to process what she had just heard. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to.

“Language,” called her mother from the next room. Roxie blinked, and turned her head slightly in the direction of the voice.

“Sorry Mom. That Vanessa Pierce girl was just found.”

With everything inside her heart, Roxie hoped and pleaded that Eve was watching the news. She did not want to be the one to deliver this information.

After all, how do you tell someone that their best friend is dead?

Once she reached school, it didn’t take her long to see the impact of what had been discovered only that morning. The tree out the front had started to receive its second wave of memorial offerings. Eve, for the time being, was nowhere to be seen.

She must have heard, then. Of course her parents would keep her home the day of. She had taken the news of Vanessa’s disappearance so badly the poor thing had passed out. How was she going to cope with this?

The day passed by slowly and painfully, but Roxie was almost in too much of a daze to notice anyway. The students were silent in every class, the atmosphere thick with panic. This was the second person from their school to be murdered. They were sure of it now; there would be a third. The teachers did their best to manage the situation, to keep their young charges calm despite the grievous circumstances. But nothing like this had ever happened in their town before, and it was clear that the shadow hanging over them would not be gone anytime soon.

The students were silent, that was, with the exception of one Chase Bancroft and a couple of his friends. Roxie found it difficult to disguise her disgust when she heard some of the very audible things he was saying.

“I heard her throat was slit right open. Ear to ear, like something out of a creepy pasta.”

“Chase!”

“What? It’s true.”

Roxie stood, and started packing her things. Chase grabbed her arm.

“Hey, Rox.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, this is a human being we’re talking about. Someone’s friend. Someone’s daughter. She’s not a goddamn character from a creepy pasta! She was real, and she had people who loved her, and you’re sitting here making light of the fact that those people will never see her again!”

She addressed Mrs Clarke at the front of the room.

“Sorry, I’m not handling this very well right now. I’m gonna go to the office and ask my Mom to pick me up.” Mrs Clarke only nodded and offered faint acceptance, and Roxie ignored Chase’s pleas as she left. She couldn’t deal with him right now, it was too much. She had other things on her mind.

Once she had been retrieved and taken home by her mother, she changed into some more comfortable clothes, and packed a few things into a bag. She approached her mother, who was getting ready to go back to work.

“I want to go visit my friend, see how she’s doing. If that’s ok?”

Her mother paused to think, clearly conflicted.

“I’m ok, I promise. Some kids at school were just being jerks about it, and it was getting to me. I’m more worried about her right now. She and this girl were really close.”

“Ok,” her mother caved. “But I don’t want you out too late, ok? And be respectful. Don’t push the poor girl, she’s been through a lot.”

“Hey. If she wants me to leave, I’m out. I just want to check on her.” She hugged her Mom, and left for Eve’s house.

When she knocked on the door, it was Mrs Verbeck who answered. She looked relieved, of all things.

“Oh, Roxanne. It’s good to see you again. Please, come in.”

Roxie entered the house, and heard crying a couple of rooms over. “Vanessa’s parents came over… to talk about everything,” Mrs Verbeck clarified as she closed the door. “I’m actually glad you’re here. It’s been difficult to take care of them and Eve. This has been hard, on everyone.”

“At your service. Point me in the direction of your daughter, and let the comfort commence.”

“She’s in her room. Thank you, truly.”

Roxie jogged up to Eve’s room, and knocked. Nothing.

Well, Eve hadn’t exactly welcomed her in. But she also hadn’t refused entry, so Roxie took that as permission. She opened the door.

Eve was sitting on her bed, curled up with her face hidden under her hair and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked up when the door opened, and some of the pain etched into her face faded away.

“Roxie.”

“Hey girl,” Roxie offered in a gentle tone as she took a seat on the edge of the bed. “I had to see you.”

“So you heard.”

“Everyone’s heard. Oh Eve, I’m so sorry.”

Eve sniffed, and it was then that Roxie noticed the redness of her eyes.

“It’s my fault.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is. There were whole days that passed by where we didn’t do anything, Roxie. We could have used those days, we could have stopped this.”

“And maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference. Maybe we still wouldn’t have found her in time. And then you’d be sitting here saying ‘I should’ve done this or that’. The police couldn’t find her either, Eve. It is not your fault. It was never your job to find her in the first place.”

She pulled Eve close, and held the girl as she sobbed into her shoulder.

“You did more than most people would have. You tried, and that’s all that matters. Sometimes trying isn’t enough, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that.”

“But-“

“For all we know, it could have already been too late by the time we even knew she was missing. For all we know, we never had a shot. So stop beating yourself up about it.”

“Oh god, I miss her so much…”

“I know.”

They sat for a long time, in silence but for Eve’s sobs. After what seemed like an eternity, she seemed to run out of tears, and quietened. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse.

“The last conversation we ever had was a fight.”

“Jesus...”

“I was going to apologise… I never liked arguing with her.”

“No one likes arguing.”

Eve threw her a look.

“Ok, some people like arguing. But not most people.”

Eve sat up, determination lighting a fire within her eyes.

“We’re not giving up. Not now, Rox. We’re going to find the bastard who did this.”

“Of course we’re not. But we should take a couple of days. You need time to deal with this. To process it.”

“What I need is for my friend’s murderer to be in jail.”

“I know that. But you realise that to continue the investigation, we’re going to have to look at the details of Vanessa’s murder?”

Eve baulked, as Roxie had known she would.

“See? We should wait, just for a while. Just until you’ve had a chance to separate yourself from this a bit. I don’t want you to get hurt, ok?”

Eve snickered. “Nice to hear, I guess.”

“Ah, shut up art freak.”

The two continued to embrace long after Roxie’s curfew had passed, oblivious to the dark figure looking up at them from the street and snapping photos.