Chapter Fifteen
Cars lined the street, bumper to bumper, from the corner all the way up to Ethan's house. It was like the whole town came to send their condolences to the Hunter family. Either that or they’re nosy and want to get all the nitty gritty details of Kelly's murder. I slipped into the house unnoticed and craned my neck around in hopes to finding Ethan.
"I heard it was gang related." One of the older woman said to the man that was standing next to her. "Rumor has it that it was an initiation gone wrong."
"I heard that she was a victim of a mugging," the man said. "If you ask me, it's the most deplorable thing that has happened in this town. Kelly was a bright shining girl with such a life ahead of her. She used to hang around here, playing with Ethan. She was like the family’s adopted kid. Who would kill her?"
"And to top it off, she was the mayor's niece!" The woman exclaimed. I tried to get closer, to hear more of their conversation, but the man grabbed the woman's hand and guided her off into the crowd. They disappeared before I had the chance to follow either of them.
I slithered through the throng of people, keeping my head down. I didn't want to talk to anyone and I didn't want anyone to try and talk to me. I had to find Ethan and see how he was doing. It didn’t matter what happened with us, or what would happen. I needed to be there for him now…when he really needed it.
A gang? I thought as I left the living room and found the stairs leading up to the second floor. They really think that Kelly had something to do with a gang? I didn't even know that there were gangs in Virginia and even if there were, I couldn’t believe that someone like Kelly would be a part of one. She looked like the last person to get involved in something like that.
As if I knew her that well. I talked to her for what…ten minutes?
When I got to the second landing, I turned and headed straight to Ethan's room. The door was closed, but at one touch of the knob I knew it wasn't locked. I pressed my ear against the door, listening. I couldn’t hear anything. Taking a breath, I turned the knob and the door swung open. Ethan was sitting on his bed, his back against the wall, and a bottle of whiskey in his hand. The bottle was three quarters empty and by the way Ethan's eyes were drooping, I had an idea where those three quarters went.
"Amber!" Ethan exclaimed. He tried lifting himself off the bed but his one foot tripped over the other and he landed with a thud back against the mattress. "Amber," he said again. I crossed the room, took the bottle out of his hand, and then turned Ethan on his side. Using my legs as a brace, I lifted Ethan back up into a sitting position.
"Yeah it's me," I said as I smoothed down his hair. "I'm here for you." Ethan's eyes were bloodshot and spit was dribbling from the corner of his mouth. I took a shirt off the chair next to his bed and wiped at his mouth. When I finished Ethan grinned at me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"I knew you would come," Ethan said. "You're like that." Like that? What does that even mean? What’s ‘that’ anyway? I shrugged it off my shoulder. Ethan probably wasn't even going to remember this conversation come the following day, he was too wasted for that. "I'm sorry I hurt you," Ethan mumbled. "I'm sorry that I ruined your party...your pretty, pretty party."
"You didn't ruin anything," I assured him. "Everything was fine. You were upset with me, I understand that." I had no idea why I was even assuring him that everything was okay. It was obvious that Ethan was just babbling...the words were nonsense.
"He killed her, you know." I froze, my heart stuttering, and turned to Ethan, staring at him. Is he talking about Madison? I wondered. No, that's not possible. He didn't know about Madison before I met him. He can't be talking about Madison. "Kelly...my poor, poor cousin Kelly. She had no chance, that cousin of mine. Not against him."
"Who?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"My father." Ethan spit out the words as if they left a bad taste in his mouth. "The all mighty mayor of this pathetic little town." I said nothing as I pulled Ethan up and repositioned him on the bed. His shirt was soaked and his breath smelled putrid. "My father thinks that he's above the law...like some vigilante. He's nothing more than a murderer. And a rule breaker. He makes all these rules for me but not for him. "
"I know, Ethan, I know," I murmured as I shucked his shirt