CHAPTER 5

She took out a note and wrote some things down. She decided to make that her investigation journal, no one was to know about it, not even her friends or her Nana.

Visiting Nancy had actually been a good idea. Even though she wasn't able to gain much, she at least gained something.

"What made you so sure I'd talk about Nicole?" She asked. Gabriella could see that she had cried a lot because her eyes were puffy and red.

"Well because she was your friend. I'm sure deep down you know that talking about it would relieve you a bit," She said. Hearing this, Nancy scoffed, making Gabriella think she said something wrong or probably said too much.

"Take a seat," She said surprisingly, and Gabby did as she was told. She dragged a chair by the desk closer to her bed, so they could talk. Nancy took a deep breath before she managed to speak.

"I don't… I don't know what happened. One minute we were on the phone, and she was preparing to go to a party, the next minute she suddenly stopped talking and the following day I heard she's dead," She said. Tears began to roll down her cheeks at this point.

Not knowing what to do, Gabriella went forward to comfort her.

"What do you mean she stopped calling?" She asked. Nancy wiped her face, clearing her throat.

"She usually took a shot of tequila before going to parties. After she did that, her doorbell rang. It was strange because she rarely received visitors that late except from her parents, but her had had work that evening,"

"You know her that well?"

"We are… we were practically sisters, so we knew everything about each other, including that fact that she and Renee were cousins,"

"How do you know it wasn't her father that night?"

"It wasn't because as soon as she opened the door, she fell silent. I called her name but got no response until she hung up," She explained.

It was all starting to make sense, Nicole must have been killed that night since she didn't attend the party…

"Gabby! Get down here this instant!" Rosalind yelled from downstairs.

She never shouted at her like that, except when she must have been called severally and wasn't getting any response.

"I'm coming, Nana," she said. It was probably dinner time and Gabriella knew her Nana would be pissed because she didn't help out with making dinner and also because she had spent too long upstairs.

She kept her journal inside her drawer and headed downstairs.

She got downstairs and just like she had suspected, her Nana was NOT smiling.

"What took you so long?" She asked

"Homework,"

"You could have done that later. You weren't even here to set the table,"

The table had already been set, this made Gabriella guilty. Rosalind looked at her, obviously annoyed. Gabriella returned the look, but hers was different. Her puppy eyes always got her out of trouble anytime she did something wrong, both as a child and presently.

"I'm sorry Nana," she said and Rosalind sighed, she could never stay mad at Gabriella.

"Sit, let's have dinner," she said, and they both sat down. Gabriella could see her Nana wanted to tell her something, but she didn't push it, she'd definitely speak when she was ready. There was a long awkward silence while they had dinner, which was strange. Finally, Rosalind broke the silence.

"Your mom is coming over next week,"

★ ★ ★

As soon as Cleopatra was done with her dinner, she excused herself from the dining table. Her parents were still seated, and they both watched her stand up. They were both silent and said nothing to her until she was completely out of sight.

"What do you think the problem is ?" Her Dad asked her mom.

"I have no idea," Her mother responded, and they went back to eating. Cleopatra was usually chatty whenever she dined with her parents, but it was different that evening, this made her parents assume something was wrong.

Cleopatra got to her room and laid on the bed. She had finally gotten the message she had been waiting for.

She was always anxiously waiting for that text, that very text which said,

    'I'll see you soon'

She grinned from ear to ear seeing that massage. Finally, 'G', as she called him, was coming back to town, which had been her prayer for months.

Cleopatra and G dated for over a year until he left, but no one knew about, not even her friends or her parents. She kept it a secret not because she was embarrassed or banned by her parents from dating, but because of some other personal reasons.

She daydreamed of how her time would be, and she decided when he arrived, she would tell her friends about him, that was the plan.

 'I can't wait'

She texted back and held her phone to her chest with a big smile on her face.

 'I've missed you'

He said, and she replied saying the same. One could tell that he had been gone for a while and during the person of his 'disappearance', he was completely unreachable. Until recently, he spoke to Cleopatra. She was upset at first but later forgave him since she couldn't deny the fact that she missed him, and she couldn't wait to see him.