[Note: BOYS & GIRLS: PART II is under production, and this preview may contain lines and content that do not reach the final book. In addition, this book assumes that you have read PART I all the way through. You can read more about Part I here.]
January 1st, 2017
Kinsky, California, USA
Phase Change, I
The next morning a few of the girls went out to downtown to try and distract themselves from everything that had happened the night before. They met at the same cafe they usually had breakfast at, though this time the table was much more quiet than before.
“How’s Lukas been feeling, Kat?” Sadja asked out of concern, the first break into the events of before.
“I haven’t talked to him much since we left yesterday,” Kat replied, swirling her coffee. “I mean, I’m still really upset about it too. But with him it can be hard to tell. He doesn’t… show his emotions that often, you know?”
Emily nodded her head. “Guys can be like that. Sometimes I ask Maurice how he’s feeling and he gives me the stonewall. It’s just the way they’re raised in comparison to us.”
“Though it would certainly help if they could learn to talk more,” Sadja added. “Would save us all a lot of time.”
Kat, eager to move on to a different topic, looked over at Ash, who had been sitting quietly at the far end of the table the whole time. “What about you? How have things been going with Alto?”
The question only served to further dampen Ash’s mood. “Well… it’s complicated.”
“Did you get waitlisted?” Emily asked, not knowing yet what had happened either.
Ash shook her head. “I got in, but… it’s just a lot more expensive than I thought it would be. So now I’m not sure if I’ll go.”
Kat looked frustrated. “Is there anyway you can get more scholarships? I mean… usually they should pay the tuition of anyone who can’t afford it, right?”
Sadja shook her head. “If only it actually worked that way, Kat,” she muttered, mostly to herself.
Ash answered Kat more directly. “It’s… complicated. It’s how much you should be able to pay, and my parents… well, they aren’t big savers. There’s other factors involved too, like how much you could afford in loans, or working on campus, stuff like that.”
“Sounds like some bullshit to me,” Kat answered, the irritation growing in her face and tone. “If you have the willingness to accept someone you ought to have the willingness to pay their expenses also.”
Before the conversation about Alto could push any farther, the sound of phone notifications going off hit the far side of the table. Both Sadja and Emily, curious, turned to their phone to see a brand new text.
“Did you guys just get a message from Rose?” Sadja asked allowed, opening the message up.
Kat, who had her phone next to her coffee, quickly swiped it open. “Nope, I got nothing.” Ash shook her head as well.
“Huh, weird,” Sadja commented.
“What’s it about?”
Emily, who had read the message and felt some sensitivity with its request, quickly disarmed the rest of the conversation. “Oh, Rose just wants the two of us to help her with something at the house I think. Probably just needed us because we live closer.”
Kat shrugged. “Well, guess we should pack up then.”
…
With Sadja in the driver seat, she and Emily began the trip down Kinsky’s dirt roads towards the Cortez house.
“What do you think it’s about?” Sadja asked, slightly nervous. “Rose seemed pretty cryptic in the message.”
“I don’t know. Maybe Maria’s really upset,” responded Emily, her eyes peeling towards the trees they passed.
“God, I just feel awful for her,” Sadja said somberly. “Awful and helpless. I feel that way for everything, really. At this point I can’t think too hard about it or else I just start crying.”
Emily turned towards Sadja, a sympathetic look on her face. “It’s been hard on all of us. We just got to push forward. For Maria and ourselves.”
Sadja nodded, clearly keeping her own tears in. “Wise words as always, Em.”
The two drove up to the Cortez house, where they saw Rose’s car still parked there. They parked next to it then walked over to the front door. They had scarcely waited a minute after ringing the doorbell before Rose opened it for them.
“It’s just you two, right?” she asked, looking at them.
Sadja began to feel uneasy. “Yeah… it’s just us.”
Rose nodded, and opened the door widely so the two could come in. There at the dining table they saw Maria, sitting alone with her head down, who suddenly turned up and looked at them once they entered.
“Go ahead, sit down,” Rose said softly.
Sadja began to be reminded of her interrogation with Cole some months before. Her heart began to beat quicker. She knew something was wrong. Emily could guess more or less the same.
The two girls sat across from Maria, with Rose sitting next to her. “Okay… tell them what you told me,” she said.
Maria looked up at Sadja and Emily. “Cole… um…” It hurt her to say the name now. “I have, reason to think… that he was involved in Anita’s death.”
Sadja looked tense. “What do you mean?”
“Cole sexually abused her,” Rose blurted out, her frustration now audible in her voice. “He was the reason she killed herself.”
The entire room turned silent. Sadja and Emily had no words to give. Sadja, in particular, felt her tongue go dry and her eyes begin to water.
“I had begun to suspect him a little while ago,” Maria finally interjected, hoping to give more context. “I was able to rule out anyone who Anita knew that I didn’t, and any strangers. All my family, friends… everyone but Cole. And the more I looked into it, the more it began to make sense… and then I finally confronted him about it, a few nights ago.”
“What’d he say?” Emily asked softly.
Maria paused, as if she almost didn’t want to admit the truth about it. As if it hurt to say.
“He all but confirmed it. It was him.”
Sadja began to cry, though she tried to hide it. She kept a straight face, breathing steady, but the tears still began to flood down her cheeks. The other girls did not think to mention it.
“So…” she began to say, carefully. “What… happens now?”
“We need to tell everyone,” Rose interjected. “Right now everyone still sees Cole as the good guy. We need to make sure the truth gets out there, for Anita’s sake.”
Emily, however, saw that Maria’s head was still hung low. She questioned further.
“But what do you want to do?” she asked Maria directly.
“I… I don’t know,” Maria admitted, not looking up. “I know how many people like Cole, and… I just really don’t want to turn this into a big deal.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Rose called out, getting out of her seat. “If we do nothing, everybody is going to just think that Cole was just some nice, pretty, soft spoken guy who ended up being troubled. They need to know the truth, Maria!”
It was clear Maria was uncomfortable with the boy’s fate being in her hands. Sadja interjected.
“Rose, stop,” she called out. “It’s her decision.”
Rose looked irritated, but she did as asked. Maria stayed silent for a few moments, playing nervously with her hands, before she looked up at the only person not yet to have spoken.
“What do you think, Emily?”
The other two also looked her way. Emily took a deep breath, as if to focus all her energy and intellect, and then spoke.
“Well, it’s clear you don’t want to release the floodgates on this. And I think that’s smart. There’s a lot of people who really liked Cole and… this soon after his death, if this is true… it’s going to cause a lot of problems.”
Rose didn’t say anything, but continued to stand, leaning against a nearby cupboard. Emily continued.
“We should start slow, tell people just a few at a time like how you told us. Starting with the people we know closest, of course. In the meantime, any further evidence you can gather that Cole was the one who hurt Anita… any tangible evidence you can find, at all…”
Maria nodded. “That sounds like a good plan.”
“You think Kat or Lukas would know anything that would help?” Sadja came in to say. “Not that they know about any of this, but they were close enough to Cole that they might be able to corroborate on anything else we find.”
“Maybe. But…” Rose spoke up again. “It’s gonna be hard to bring it up to them in the first place.”
“Rose is right,” Emily answered, nodding. “Those two are both the most important people to tell this to, as well as the ones we have to be the most tactful with. I’d say we start with Kat and then have her help us find a way to tell Lukas.”
There was once again a silence that crossed the group. Dread filled the air. Maria, who was sitting in thought with her head supported by her arm, nodded. “Alright, we’ll keep in touch.”
Emily and Sadja left soon after. They figured it was better not to stay and they still needed time to process what all this meant anyway. Rose stayed a little longer with Maria, not mentioning the elephant in the room but rather helping her cook lunch and clean up around the house. Then, around mid-afternoon, she left too.
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