Chapter 17: We Will All Be Buried in the Tomb Called the Universe

"One root beer."

Peter said to the owner as he stood in front of the store called Kelly's Fruit Shop.

The place was a mix of a grocery store, a cold drink counter, and a gas station.

In addition to selling cold drinks, it also sold beer, cheap wine, little yellow uncles, and a variety of miscellaneous cigarettes.

"Well, there's no need to keep following me, Gwen, I've seen you."

While the proprietor was preparing a soda, Peter turned behind himself.

In a corner position, Gwen stepped forward with a bit of a wiggle.

"Good afternoon, Peter."

Gwen was dressed casually today, with her blonde hair pulled back with a clover green hairband and a tight-fitting Basque shirt that framed her breasts.

She tried her best to make her expression look natural, and said to Peter after coughing, "I was just at the coffee shop, and I saw a back that looked like you, so I followed it, and I didn't realize it was really you."

"Well, it's quite a coincidence."

Peter pretended that he didn't recognize Gwen's small mind, and took one of those big frosted cups from the 1990s from the owner.

"I remember you like root beer, Gwen."

He said as he handed the cup to Gwen."For me?"

Gwen blinked.

She was a little surprised that Peter had remembered that he liked root beer.

"Well, consider it a thank you for your righteousness yesterday, in Vice-Principal Morton's room."

Peter said as he placed the five dollar bill, on the marble counter and pushed it towards the owner.

Gwen took the soda, exhaled, lightly tasted the flavor, looked up and said, "I thought you'd blame me for maybe ..... yesterday did something stupid."

Peter shook his head and said, "No, some people don't even have the courage to do something stupid."

Gwen's mood instantly brightened when she heard Peter comment on her courage.

She was tempted to ask Peter why he had come out of the Presbyterian Hospital, but felt that it would be presumptuous and impolite.

And so it was with her hesitation that the atmosphere became silent and quiet.

"I ... believe you had nothing to do with Josh's death, Peter."

Half a dozen times, Gwen, who was carrying a root beer, said, gazing firmly at Peter with her eyes, "Peter, you're a victim."

"Actually, Gwen ....."

Josh Peter took the owner's change with a bland expression and said to her, ""Whether it's the bullying before, or the fact that I was suspected after the death, none of this ... don't matter to me.""Not important?"

"Some people are incapable of empathy."

Peter said slowly, "They don't realize that they are acting in a way that will actually hurt someone else. Humans never get better, they just get smarter."

When you get smarter, you still go and pull the wings off butterflies and find better justifications for that behavior, Principal Morton said he would feel bad for what happened to me before, but he doesn't, and I also believe that there is not a single person who can comprehend what a solidly unrelated person feels on a daily, hourly, and momentary basis, and that they aren't in the flat."

Gwen was a little speechless as she listened to Peter's words.

She was a little heartbroken for Peter.

"I'm one of those people, Gwen."

At the end, Peter added towards Gwen

"So, I can't empathize, and naturally, I don't care what others think." 3 Gwen was about to say you're not that kind of person, but finally swallowed what she was about to say Thank you for buying me a root beer.

She handed Peter the frosted mug and muttered in a low voice, "I can feel you."

"Need another one?"

Peter asked her."No, I don't think my stomach can hold out much longer, although I do like root beer. "

Gwen waved her hand, indicating that she had drunk enough to hold out.

"You said ..... Josh is this kind of thing still going to happen? Peter. "

She still wanted to discuss the "Josh" incident with Peter.

"I always thought it wouldn't be that simple."

"Maybe the murderer will continue to do the crime, he hid the body in his frowning Gwen, said his thoughts, the storage room, maybe it is a provocation."

Peter nodded, "Maybe, maybe the guy is pretentious and likes to show death to others."

"Death, still a nasty word."

Gwen, who was frowning, said with some annoyance.

Next to Peter, listening to Gwen's comment about hating death, he suddenly thought of Ms. Weber's comment about being the "hand of death".

Half a minute later, he cast his eyes to the passing cars on the road.

I don't know if he was talking to himself or to Gwen.

"Death may not be so terrible, entropy increase is irreversible, hot silence will probably be the end of us.

From ancient times to the future, all the people we can imagine, all the people we can't, all the species, the ones that are alive, the ones that aren't, everything that is, will eventually die.

"In a sense, we'll all be buried in a tomb six called the Universe." Listening to Peter's words, Gwen stared blankly at the side of his face.

The lines outlined on the side of Peter's face under the light of the rising sun suddenly made Gwen feel somewhat mysterious and handsome.

Her heart beat a few points faster.

...

After parting with Peter, Gwen took the subway and rushed home.

Although her mood was still a little depressed, the conversation with Peter in the fruit store, still made her mood a lot better The only pity was that she still didn't know why Peter, would appear in the Presbyterian Hospital.

Inside her room, she turned on her computer.

Inside her email, the email from the school postponing the football regional championships appeared on the front page.

Opening the e-mail, Gwen read it briefly then deleted it.

This was the first time in ten years that Midtown High School had made it to the Regional Championships, and the school was supposed to host an event on game day.

Unfortunately, the tournament had been temporarily postponed because of what happened with Josh.

"But this has little to do with me, I'm neither a member of the football team nor a cheerleader Gwen shook her head and continued to browse through her e-mail.

Soon she found another boring email, a somewhat strange confession letter.Although being a member of the school's "famous" band, having a fan and being confessed to shouldn't be a strange thing, but confessing to someone through an email seemed strange, knowing that her email address wasn't public.

Since the sender of the mail, didn't sign his name, she couldn't know the name of the confessor either.

"Is it a prank?"

Gwen, who muttered, casually deleted the email.

Glancing up at the black forest cuckoo on the wall, the hour hand was already pointing to seven o'clock in the afternoon. Closing her computer, she prepared to go to the kitchen to make some food.

Her father had just called to tell her that he wouldn't be coming home tonight, so she would have to prepare dinner herself.

Somehow, a thought suddenly popped into her head if only this e-mail was from Peter.