But It Isn't Right (Duskwood Fanfic)

Episode 2 - One Of Them

Jessy started a group chat--one without Lilly and Thomas because she said she couldn't bear to tell them. That was understandable. Cleo said something mean to her about not helping enough. I didn't like it when people acted like bullies, so I told her to keep her opinions to herself. Jessy was nice and she was just trying to help.

The group wanted to decide whether to tell Thomas and Lilly and who would do it. Cleo offered to tell Lilly. I said I'd tell Thomas. Richy said it was "incredibly nice" of me. I didn't know about that. I just thought that he would want to know, and I usually wasn't afraid to talk to people. I would try to be gentle about it.

I did feel bad already though when I asked him if he had a minute and he said "of course" with a smiley face. I felt sick to my stomach. I almost chickened out. Then I said "They found a body. The victim is female." Ugh! What's wrong with me?? Way to break it gently. I couldn't believe how heartless that was. Thomas immediately went offline without saying a word. The group was already texting me to see what happened, so I went back to them to give them the news.

But they all were more worried about Thomas being upset than about what I said. Everyone except Dan; he thought Thomas was suspicious. He asked me to agree with him, but I couldn't. I said I didn't think it was suspicious at all. Thomas was probably really upset and went to have a moment in private.

So I didn't win any brownie points with Dan. But I wasn't going to lie just to get him to like me. Not my style.

Everyone logged off after that, and I felt like crap about the whole interaction. It only got worse when US texted me to say he had heard a body was found. Oh, man! Why didn't I think to tell him right away?

When mentioned that I was about to tell him the same thing, he started to write something then deleted it. It seemed important to him to find Hannah, so I wondered if he was upset. "What were you about to write?" I asked.

When he said he was impressed, it was not what I was expecting. "Kind of," I responded when he said I seemed to be part of the group already.

He asked who told me about the body, and I said it was Jessy. "You should keep her close," he responded.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked. I wasn't sure I was going to like the answer.

He said that Jessy seemed to trust me, though he didn't know how I'd managed it so fast. Well, I thought, Jessy was friendly and easy to talk to and we'd talked about things we had in common. That would be hard for US to do since he didn't share even basic info with anyone. US then told me that I needed to deepen the relationship so I could get more information out of her. "Alright," I said. I didn't mind becoming better friends with Jessy. And it isn't like I would hurt her or anything. Especially if it could help find Hannah, then I'd do it.

Then, US did the weirdest thing. He brought up the cat picture I'd sent him and asked if it was from Hannah's cloud. "Is there something wrong with it?" I asked. 

"Never mind. Everything is fine," he responded, then logged off. I didn't know what that was all about, but I shrugged it off. So, US was a little eccentric. He wasn't used to dealing with people. That was OK with me; it takes all kinds.

The next file I sent was a very blurry prescription. US logged on quickly, said he'd fix the resolution and then disappeared again. I couldn't help but smile. That guy was all business.

Jessy came online to me tell me that Cleo had jumped the fence at the junkyard. How weird! Then she asked me to get Cleo to confess to Richy. I agreed even though I didn't think Cleo would want to talk to me after I told her to be nice to Jessy. Well. We'd see how that goes.

Cleo added Lilly to the group chat, and then she immediately texted me separately. Well, good to know she didn't hold grudges.  She wanted to talk to me about Hannah. I asked her if she thought US could be someone from the group. She said she didn't think so.