Chapter 8

After another day of sitting in the front rows of the theater and presenting the finished poster to the teacher, Aidyn invites me over to his house, where we watch a horror movie while laughing and talking in between scenes and having to rewind all the time because of it.

An hour passes when he pauses the movie and tells me he wants to get some new popcorn from the kitchen, so I decide to go to the bathroom in the meantime. But when I walk through the hall, while searching for it, I hear a door creaking open and something falling down.

Was I now trapped in a horror movie?

When I slowly turn around, feet ready to run in case something jumps out, I recognize that the thing that fell down was a little booklet, accentuated with little stars and a few different flower stickers.

On it, written in big letters: “SELENE’S DIARY. DON’T TOUCH!!”

Immediately knowing who threw it down, I groan.

“I can’t just take your diary with me, Selene! That’s stealing. I’m not stealing,” I whisper-yell into the nothingness.

It’s silent at first, then suddenly, the diary slides even closer, to my feet. And I realize that she won’t let me leave unless I take it.

***

“Hey, Quinn.”

The dark brown-haired girl lifts her head up from the textbook and skeptically looks me up and down. “Max Campbell”, she whispers, without breaking eye contact.

“Did you expect me and read my file beforehand?”, I ask, but her poker face doesn’t budge.

Tough crowd.

“I got a few questions for you.”

“And why should I answer any of them?”

I sit down at the table and look around the cafeteria, my eyes landing on Aidyn who sits beside Taylor, laughing at something she just said. Quinn’s eyes follow mine before she presses her lips together into a line, most likely knowing where this was going.

“You could get more intel on the mysteries around Selenes’ passing. Maybe even find out what exactly happened to her.”

She stays silent while analyzing my face in detail.

“Fine. You have two minutes.”