The Silent Deceivers

Chapter 28

Securing the Evidence

Eventually we caught the number seven bus from the end of the high street. It was next to empty; a young couple, about mid-twenties, sat at the front of the bus, two rows behind the driver. It made me feel physically sick to see the adoration in their eyes when they looked at each other. It was nostalgic. We chose two seats furthest away from them, at the back of the bus and from those seats we could see everything. It was becoming an obsession; I couldn't sit in a seat where some judgemental stranger was looking at me. That was just too much handle. For the entire bus journey back Roxy and I sat in stunned silence. It was ghostly. Although thankfully the nauseating couple got off the bus a few stops before us, the image of them walking down the street hand in hand was implanted into my brain. It was haunting. Connor and I used to be that couple, now I don't even know what chapter we were on.  Happy never after page three hundred and fifty four?

My mind was tangled in his web of lies. He'd lied to me. It's a crumpling feel, knowing that someone you loved and trusted was able to break you into millions of fragments and obliterate your self-esteem. It's like when you get off the tea cups, you're dizzy and confused, the whole world is spinning but you're standing still, you're numb, you've lost your senses and you're trying to regain control but you can't. It leaves you vulnerable and you have no idea how to win back control and move on. You're trapped in that tea cup.  That's how I felt about Connor. Connor had told me a thousand lies but I was weak; I knew that if he was to look me in the eye and spin me some fucked up excuse he would suck me right back in.

The bus stopped at the bus stop a few meters down the road and as we got off we thanked the driver in a rather subdued manor.  We turned in to the driveway and as we did Roxy reached for my hand and I took it. It conveyed to both of us a sense of reassurance and the feeling of strength. As if to say you aren't alone without either one of our lips moving. Even as we walked into the house and ascended the stairs we stayed unified.

It wasn't until we were safe in my room, door firmly shut, pillow blocking the gap below the door, windows locked and curtains pulled that our voices were resurrected.  

"I feel like we're the criminals!" Roxy said as she dragged out the evidence files.

"I know but we can't let anyone find out. Do you think we should get Josh or Mark to text the information so we have proof?" I asked.

"Yeah, good plan!" she agreed "Always have proof!"

As I texted Josh and asked him to send over the important overview information that we had discussed, Roxy began to write down everything she could remember. I pulled out the printouts of the tweets and Aden's bio. I read through them over and over, connecting all the dots, thinking through everything I knew about Aden and David trying to make sense of it all but it was like algebra, complicated and confusing and messed up.  After a while my phone buzzed and I opened up the message only to my horror I saw it was from Connor. In reply to his demanding 'We need to talk.' text I shot back 'Leave me ALONE' and then blocked the number so I wouldn't have to deal with him again. As soon as I'd put my phone down, it vibrated again. This time it was the text I was hoping for. Josh had delivered with information and I quickly fired them off to Roxy who wrote them down. We then deciphered through the rest of the evidence we had and wrote down what we were certain about but there was still mysteries laminating questions that we didn't have the answers to.