Mystery, Drama
5 min
You Know What You Did
Vivian Lai
Tragedy struck on last year's junior class trip, when Nes was found drowned in the ocean.
Now, twelve months later, Bri and I have figured out a way to continue living life without our best friend. Even now, Bri doesn't seem like she'd fully recovered from it. Me either, but I've managed to get back to a regular routine faster than Bri was able to.
But Bri wasn't the one who had made a terrible mistake in the past on top of all that. No, that was me.
"Are you going to prom with anyone?" Bri asked as she and I left biology class.
I shrugged. "I dunno."
Bri shot me a smirk. "Kyle was staring at you in class today."
"What?"
"He asked me for your number yesterday, too." Bri giggled. "He's totally gonna ask you to prom, Eva. I gotta go to Art now, talk later?" With that, Bri was off.
I felt a faint blush creep across my face. Kyle... asked for my number?
My joy was interrupted by my phone suddenly buzzing in my back pocket. My heart skipped a beat. Kyle?
I yanked out my phone. Whoever was calling had blocked their caller ID, so I couldn't see their number. Strange.
I brought it up to my ear. "Hello?"
A low, distorted voice crackled over the line. "Eva Jones..."
I froze, goosebumps rising on my arms. I managed to choke out, "who is this?"
The voice chuckled, the sound sending shivers down my spine. "You have done something terrible."
My mouth hung open. Panic seized my brain. No. No way they know about that. Nobody knows. Nobody can know.
I played dumb. "What are you talking about?"
"You know."
My hand began to tremble. Play dumb, and offer a diversion. "You mean that time I copied off Bri's math test?"
"Do not play stupid. You will regret it."
The line went dead.
I sat in my room that night, numb from the strange phone call. I debated telling my parents about it, but I couldn't. Not without admitting what I had done.
I was sitting in wait for the caller to ring again. This time, I won't let them threaten me. I installed an app to capture the number of the caller, even if they blocked their caller ID.
My head spun. Somebody knew my secret. One word to the wrong person and my life was over.
My phone suddenly buzzed again. I pounced, snatching it. My heart pounded as I saw the screen. No caller ID.
I spat into the speaker, "Identify yourself or I'll tell the police that I'm being harassed."
"Oh Eva, you can't do that without them finding out what you did."
Shoot. They were right. I gritted my teeth. I was trapped.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Admit to what you did, and I'll tell you. I need to hear you say it."
"No."
"Eva-"
"Leave me alone!" I shouted. "I'm innocent!" Even as the words left my lips, I knew that it was a blatant lie. But I had to protect myself.
"You regret this." The voice said again, then hung up.
I checked the app I had downloaded, and soon enough, the number was revealed. Now, I just had to figure out who's number this was.
The next day in math class, I could barely pay attention. I only realized I had been zoning out when the teacher gave us free work time to complete a worksheet with our table partners.
"Hey partner, you alright?" said Kyle as he waved a hand in front of my face. "We gotta finish this worksheet by lunch."
"Right, sorry!" I jerked to attention, an embarrassed flush creeping up my neck.
Kyle shot me a concerned look. "Ev, are you okay?"
"No," I sighed. I couldn't exactly tell him that a mysterious caller was threatening me into admitting a terrible deed I'd committed, one so bad it would ruin my life. So instead, I said: "I was just thinking about Nes. Math was her favorite subject."
I felt guilty using Nes as a cover, but I couldn't tell Kyle the truth.
"Nes?" He said, looking confused. "I thought you two were always fighting."
"We weren't," I said quickly. "Well, towards the end a bit, but we were friends."
Kyle looked skeptical. "Really? I remember overhearing you complain to Bri that Nes was always talking about you behind your back, stealing your friends, making passive aggressive comments-"
"Well, Nes is gone." I said abruptly. My chest constricted. I had to change the subject. "Let's finish this worksheet, okay?"
Kyle and I began solving the problems together, but my brain couldn't help but wander. I went down a rabbit hole of spiraling thoughts, trying to piece together who the caller was. Who knew the horrible thing I had done.
Then it hit me.
Kyle.
There was one person who had gotten my number recently enough that I wouldn't have theirs saved. And the way he was just probing me about Nes... it was like he wanted me to admit something. Because if he couldn't get a confession out of me, might as well draw out another, real or fake.
Kyle is the caller. He wants to get me in trouble, and I have to figure out why.
As Kyle and I left the math classroom, I knew I had to confront him. I turned on him, staring him down as he jumped back a step in alarm.
"How did you find out?" I demanded.
He looked confused, scared. "What?"
I was so sick of his act. Asking for my number to take me to prom? Oh please. "Don't play stupid, isn't that what you said yesterday? You're just gonna stand and pretend like you weren't threatening me twice?"
Kyle truly did look alarmed. "Eva, what??"
"Blocking your caller ID was clever," I sneered, taking out my phone and waving it in his face, "but I caught you. If I dial this number right now, your phone is gonna ring. Don't even lie."
As Kyle stammered around, I did exactly that. I dialed it. I'm catching this liar and silencing him for good. I heard the ringing of a receiving phone coming from... behind me.
Behind me. Not Kyle's pocket.
I whirled around to find... Bri. She held my stare as she slowly reached into her secondary pocket and pulled out a ringing burner phone. On its screen, it showed my number requesting to call.
"Bri..." I couldn't breathe. Bri knew.
"Ev," her voice came out hoarse. "Can we talk?"
I followed her to a quiet corner of the school, too stunned to say much. It didn't matter. Bri knew.
Bri suddenly looked angry as I turned to her. "What will it take for you to never tell anyone what you know?" I asked.
"Easy," Bri sniffed. "Admit it, Ev. Admit it and I'll stay silent."
Tears began to prick in my eyes. Screw everything. If that's what it'll take, I'll do it.
"Fine!" I spat. "I killed Nes, okay? I did it!"
Out comes the truth. That day on the junior class trip, Nes and I had reached a breaking point in our friendship. She always had a bad habit of bad-mouthing and gossiping behind people's backs, and I'd told her about my insecurities many times before. And of course, she gossiped about it to her other clique of four girls who were hated bullies throughout at the school.
Soon, the whole school suddenly knew about my personal secrets and dealings. The four bullies would constantly leave threatening or straight-up mean messages in my locker, and it made my life miserable. I'd never felt more violated. All my deepest, darkest secrets and insecurities were out in the open... and all because of Nes. I was so overwhelmed with rage that I'd invited Nes for a late night walk on the nearby sandy bluff, just the two of us.
That was where she'd "accidentally" slipped on some loose pebbles, and plunged into the ocean.
She never resurfaced.
My life has never been the same. The police ruled her death as an accident, but I've lived in constant fear that somebody would discover the real truth. Like Bri has.
I couldn't stop the tears as I explained all this to Bri. At the end, I looked up, expecting to find her crying as well. And she was, except she also had her phone out, and she'd pressed record.
"I'm sorry, Ev," she whispered. "I can't let you get away with murdering our best friend."
And as she walked away, I didn't try to stop her.
Whether or not Nes had it coming, that doesn't excuse that I was the one responsible for her death. I need to make things right. And that's to face the consequences of my terrible mistake.
Nes had ruined my life once, with the secrets. Now, she would finally ruin it again, when the truth comes to light.
We Love Sharing Stories
Select a story
3