The Bonnies by Nicole N. King
Chapter Nine
“Okay this whole situation has stepped up a notch.” Kerry said sitting on the bed in my room. After receiving the phone call, I’d texted them asking to meet. Since it was almost curfew, the best place to meet was my room. I didn’t have to worry about my roommate over hearing since Yuri was my roommate. She was also late. I’d texted her three times, and she hasn’t shown up yet. “How did this person even get your father’s phone?”
“I don’t know Kerry. Maybe when he killed my father!”
“Hey, I’m just trying to help.”
“I know.” I said rubbing my forehead. “I know and I’m sorry. I’m just freaking out here.”
“All of this over some painting though.” Taylor said. She’d been quiet ever since I told them about the phone call. “I could understand if this painting belonged to your dad, but it didn’t. Your father never found the painting so why kill him. Why not go steal the painting now instead of threatening and taunting us? It’s not like we knew anything about them.”
Kerry turned towards me. “Autumn are you sure your father wasn’t in to anything illegal?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?”
“Look I know you wouldn’t want to hear it, and I understand. But you have to admit, none of this makes any sense. Why would someone kill your father over a painting? Maybe your father saw something he shouldn’t have, or maybe he got involved with the wrong person. I’m not trying to damage the memory you have of your father. I’m just saying, maybe, just maybe he didn’t tell you everything.”
I sat down on the bed. I was drained, physically and emotionally. I knew that I had no reason to be mad at Kerry. She had a point. Things were getting strange and there were so many missing pieces. I didn’t want to admit it, but it seemed my father really did have another life that he kept hidden from me.
The door to the room opened as Yuri stepped in. Her face was covered in dried mascara and tears.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. Mark and I just broke up.” She placed her purse on the couch and took off her uniform blazer. “What’s going on? You said it was an emergency.”
I gave Yuri a run down on about the phone call and what we’d just discussed. She sighed as she stared at me with sad eyes. “Kerry’s got a point Autumn. Your father was really obsessed with finding this painting. There’s no telling who all he got involved with. Don’t forget that he used to go to all of those out of town meetings.”
“Yuri those were meetings for his job.”
“Which he had been having problems on remember. He and your mom got into that huge argument that weekend I stayed over. Maybe those meetings were more than to discuss government funding. You should call your mom and find out.”
I got up from the bed and raised my hands okay. “Okay, hold your brakes Yuri. I’m not going to call my mother and ask her anything that has to do with my father. The first reason is because she doesn’t talk to me about my father’s death. As for the second reason, she doesn’t want to hear anything about that painting. Trust me I’ve tried to talk with her about it after my father’s death. She didn’t care about it when he was alive. She doesn’t care now. So please stop trying to make it seem like my father was a part of some secret group and attending hidden meetings. He loved his job and he loved me. He wouldn’t lie to me.”
“Autumn he already did.” Kerry pointed out.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear anymore. I’m going to bed.” Walking over to the door, I held it open and stared pointedly at Kerry and Taylor. Kerry shot a look at Yuri who just shrugged her shoulders. Getting up off the bed, she walked past me out into the hall as Taylor stood up from the sofa.
Walking over to me, she stopped. “Do you want me to check into him? I won’t do it unless you want me to.”
I bit my lip and stared down at the floor. Taylor said nothing but placed a hand on my arm, and then she was gone. I closed the door behind her and turned to face Yuri.
“Don’t be mad at us Autumn. You’re the one who wanted to do this heist. We’re just doing what we’re supposed to do. Research any and everything associated with the target. You might not want to hear it, but your father was hiding something. It is your job to find out. You might not like it, but it has to be done.” Yuri made her way to the bathroom and closed the door as I slid down our room door. Digging the heel of my hands into my eyes, I cried for the first time in a long time.
The rest of the week blew by in a blur. Because of the last conversation I’d had with the girls, I’d spent the week avoiding them. I needed time away to get a grasp on things, but every time I saw one of them around campus, I thought of their harsh words. I knew they didn’t mean to hurt my feelings intentionally, but they did. But they weren’t the ones I was mad at. I was also mad at my father. All this time, I had been thinking he was being honest with me, but now I wasn’t so sure.
“Isn’t this fun?” Heather gushed. While I hadn’t been hanging with the girls, Heather had proven to be good company. She chatted on enough for the both of us to keep me out of my thoughts. Not to mention, she was the President of a lot of clubs at the school and had asked me to help volunteer. I helped her with a couple and had to admit I was having fun. But this was one project— I’d wished I’d said no to.
“Just think of all the secrets we’ll discover in the boys room. I already found a couple of guy’s naughty stash.”
She walked off to clean another room as I sighed. I walked over to the next room I had to clean. Using the all access key card, I scanned it before pushing open the door. Stepping in, I noticed how clean it was. It was a first. All of the boy’s rooms I’d been in cleaning were messy double bed rooms. I was walking further into the room, suddenly the bathroom door swung opened.
I let out a scream, but stopped when I noticed the person standing in the doorway. My heart was racing from being brought on by fear, or at least so I hoped. “Jesus, you scared me.”
Micah stared at me, surprise to see me in his room. His eyes ran over me slowly from head to foot before coming back up to my eyes. “I’m sorry. What are you doing here?”
I smiled a bit sheepish. “Cleaning. I’m a new member of Code Green. Heather needed some help, so I’ve been volunteering lately.”
“Yeah I heard about that”
A rush of embarrassment went through me. He’d heard it from Paige no doubt. She’s thought I’d fallen from being the school’s “it” girl. She had no idea how quick I could rise back to the top.
“So why aren’t you in class? Are you sick or something?” I asked staring down at his sweat pants and t-shirt.
“You could say that.”
He walked past me and sat on his bed. I moved back some to give him space. “Today is the anniversary of my brother’s death.”
I placed a hand over my mouth in shock. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s been a year.”
I nodded my head even though we both knew it was okay. I knew from experience how hard it was to lose someone close to you, especially a family member. Micah said he was okay, but I knew he wasn’t. His state of dress said so. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Micah smiled tilting his head staring at me. The dark brown eyes I loved to stare in so much were a bit dull and sad today. It made my heart hurt. “No I’m okay really. Besides you have work to do.”
“Please” I said plopping down on the bed beside him. “Your room is the cleanest one out of the entire dorm. By the way, how did you and your roommate swing a room this nice?”
“Another perk of my mother being close to Blake.”
“Sweet. Maybe I should introduce her to my mom.”
Micah smiled at me and looked down at his hands. We sat in silence for a while before he finally decided to open up.
Micah remembered his eyes connecting with to the faces of all of the men before Seth yelled at him to come on. Together they raced down the stairs as the men came behind them firing their guns. Bullets raced past them colliding with the wall. They made to the last couple of steps when the bullet hit Seth in the back. Micah had carried a bleeding Seth away far away enough to call the police. The ambulance came but it was too late. Seth had died in Micah’s arms.
Micah had blamed himself for Seth’s death. He was the oldest and because he made the wrong decisions Seth was dead. He felt they should have never followed the call for help. He should have put his phone on mute. Anything that could have saved Seth. But Seth was gone. Micah knew the only way to help Seth now was to put the guys in jail. So he testified against the men who he later discovered had ties with the mafia. Christophe Bareli was the leader and had been the one to push the victim off the building. The cops had been trying to nail Bareli for years so they were more than happy when Micah decided to testify. His parents became even more happy and relieved when Bareli was sentenced to life in prison. However, that feeling was short lived.
Bareli’s crew had staged a prison fight and broke him out. Now that Bareli was out, he wanted blood. Preferably Micah’s. The FBI and judge feared for his safety so they recommended sending him away. That was the real reason why his parents wanted him to attend Baldwin Faith Academy. He didn’t have to worry about Bareli thinking to look for him here. Headmaster Blake had enrolled him as Adrian Parker. No one was the wiser. He just hoped they caught Bareli soon. He hadn’t surfaced since the prison break. His disappearance had everyone including Micah parent’s on edge.
“You miss your parents” I said softly.
“Yeah. Especially my mom. Despite that we were growing up, she would always wake us with happy faces on our breakfast every morning. She made lunch even though we ate at school. She was just always happy. And every weekend we would go fishing or bowling with our dad and finish the evening camping out in our backyard. We didn’t have much money, but it was enough for us.”
I felt my smile drop a little as sadness came over me. I would trade anything to have a normal breakfast with my parents. I use to spend mornings eating with James and my dad, but now it was just James.
Micah noticed the change in my face. “What are your parents like?”
Not wanting to open the blank pages of the book that is my family, I quickly stood up. I ran my hands down the jumpsuit. “I should get back to work. Heather is probably looking for me.”
Micah stared at me. I know I was being hypocritical. I had wanted him to open up about his family, but when it came my turn, I clammed up. Maybe it was because I was being shallow, but I didn’t want him to see my imperfections, and my family was one of them. But as I looked at him, I knew he’d already seen through my façade. He was looking past all of that to the lonely little lost girl that I truly was. “I’ll help.”
“You don’t have to. I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I turned to leave but stopped. Something had been nagging me since the other day and I needed to know the answer. Turning to face him, I said “Are you and Paige really just friends?” Micah stared at me and I wanted to slap myself in the face. Great going. You just had to ask him that. I rocked on my heels. “I saw you guys at the movies together.”
“You were there?”
“Yeah, I went with Heather.”
Micah rubbed the back of his head. “I only went with Paige because some other people were supposed to be there. But when I got there it was just her. I didn’t want to be mean so I stayed.”
“Oh. Well, I’ll see you.”
Spinning on my heels I left the room closing the door behind me. I didn’t see Heather anywhere and that was fine by me. Exiting the boy’s dormitory I headed over towards the cafeteria. It was lunch time so the student center was full. Walking up to the buffet bars, I grabbed a paper plate container and filled it with greasy food or what I liked to call comfort food. I got in line and waited for my turn to swipe me card. After paying for my lunch, I was headed towards the exit when Mark stood in front of me. I was so not in the mood for him today.
“What do you want?”
“I waste some food over there and need you to come clean it up.” He said smiling. A few of his friends cackled.
“Why don’t you use that cow tongue of yours to clean it up? I mean since you obviously don’t know how to kiss with it. Or so at least I’ve heard.”
Mark’s friends choked with laughter as his face grew red with rage. Not giving him time to retort, I pushed him to the side with my elbow and headed out the door. The lamps outside were switching on signaling the evening winding down. I entered the girl’s dormitory to see Karen coming towards me ready to complain about something. I put my hand up. I was not in the mood to hear whatever room error I’d made. Climbing the steps to the second floor I walked towards my door, and continued walking pass. I made my way down the hall to the last door on the left. I had no idea if she was here or having lunch. But I had to find out. Raising my fist, I gave a knock on the door.
The door opened as Taylor stared at me. “Hey.”
“Can you still do what you told me?” Taylor nodded. “Good, I want you to find out everything.”