“Why did you want to come here?”

“I’ve got some returns to make.” I pull the books out of my bag. “And you love it here.” I say with a grin. Cadence rolls his eyes but from the smile on his face, he’s happy for the distraction.

After turning the books in, I’m happy to find Risa in the aisles. Cadence is trailing behind me like a duckling.

“How’d you like those books?” Risa asks, casting a glance towards Cadence.

“Not bad, turns out I’m not as much a reader as I thought. He is though. Risa, my brother Cadence, Cadence, this is Risa.” I say, because I can tell Cadence is waiting for introductions. Mainly by the not so subtle way he elbows me in the back.

“Wait, so you’re Lyric and his name is Cadence. That’s awesome!” Risa comments, and then with full attention on Cadence. “Nice to meet you.” She offers her hand for him to shake. Cadence gives me a side glance as if he’s never had to shake someone’s hand before.

“We get that a lot,” Cadence says. “Our brothers are also musical terms.” Risa arches an eyebrow, “Clef, Alto, and Harp.” Risa grins again.

“So, I take it your parents are in the music biz?” Cadence nods, explaining about how our parents during a performance in college. Serenity was in musical theater, Reid was in the orchestra. It’s my first time hearing the story too.

“Well, before Cadence here tells you our entire life story, does the library have any newspaper archives?” Risa nods and motions me to follow her.

“Newspapers?” Cadence asks. I forgot to clue him in on my newest idea.

“I want to read up on all the details of the accident.”

“All our newspapers are going to be in our online database,” Risa says as she leads us to a set of ancient looking desktop computers. “They’re a little slow, but they get the job done.” Risa adds when she sees the look on my face.

“I think I’ll go find something to read.” Cadence says before leaving us. Risa shows me how to access the newspapers and how to use the search engine to find what I’m looking for and then leaves me alone. I start on the day of the accident, but there’s nothing that I can find.

I find a small blurb about the car wreck the next day, it just talks about three critically injured in a severe car crash, one dying on impact, but mentions no names. From the description of the location, I know it’s about us.

So, three of us made it to the hospital. I didn’t know that. The next thing I find about the accident mentions the death of one of the car crash victims, another still in critical care, but the third was in stable condition. The third one must have been me.

I scour the next few days of information trying to find out anything I can, but the only other mention I find is about a memorial service for the two others that were in the car with us, held by what I assume is our high school.

Underneath a black and white photo of a football field full of students holding candles it says, ‘Tonight the students of South Shores High School say farewell to fellow students, Margaret Elizabeth Aston and Darryl Johnson Davies with a candlelight vigil.’

The next pictures are school photos of the two. The girl has long straight hair and one of those faces that could be in magazines. She’s got a secretive little smirk that indicates a sense of humor.

The boy is just as attractive. He has a piercing in one ear and a mischievous grin, he’s got an eyebrow arched in the photo, as if he has a secret he’s hiding from the camera.

I feel a tightening in my chest, I knew these people, and it feels so wrong that I can’t even remember them. That nothing comes to mind when seeing their faces.

The article mentions that Margaret was an award-winning gymnast and Darryl was in the theater club. He was slated to play the cowardly lion in the end of year production of Wizard of Oz. Both were straight A students, well liked among the school.

The article includes a bit about their families. Darryl was being raised by his widowed mother. His father was a decorated soldier that died in the line of duty. Margaret had her parents that ran a successful furniture store and a little sister.

The article goes on to talk a little about their goals and includes a few quotes from students and family members, but none of it tells me about why all of us were out so late near a construction site. I decide to give up, just as Risa is coming back.

“You find what you were looking for?” She asks. I shake my head and suddenly find myself blurting out what I was trying to find.

“O-oh… well the best way to know is maybe to talk with their parents?” She suggests.

“Right, I didn’t tell mine, but maybe one of them mentioned it to theirs.” I thank her and go to hunt down Cadence.

When I find him, I stop for a moment to laugh. He’s sitting on the floor amongst a pile of books, a worn pair of reading glasses sitting on top of his nose.

“Aren’t those for old people?” I ask as I get closer. He jumps up, knocking over a few of the books.

“Maybe I’m old on the inside?” He says as he takes the glasses off and I watch as they fold all the way in half, and he sticks them in his pocket.

“Find anything?” He asks as he begins stacking the books into a single pile.

“No, but what can you tell me about Darryl and Margaret?” I ask.

Cadence casts a glance my way as he picks up his tall stack of books, supporting them with his chin. I reach over and grab a few before they topple off. He hides the surprise well, but I can see that the question shocks him a little. I hadn’t asked about them.

Of course, they were mentioned just as much as Evan, but Evan felt so much more real and I feel a little guilty that I didn’t ask about the pair sooner.

“There’s not much to say. We were all friends. Best friends, really. I know you’ve been reading your journal, so chances are you probably wrote about hanging out all the time.” A few more books almost topple down and I reach to grab them.

“We had movie nights once every week and most days we took turns studying at each other’s houses. We’ve known Darryl for years. We both met him separately, he was in your year, but he became a big part of our family, just like Evan. The four of us, we did practically everything together.”

Cadence swipes at his eyes a little and I pull him in for a hug, causing our book piles to wobble precariously.

“Darryl was a great guy. He was a jokester.”

“And Margaret?” I ask. I know from my journal that I hadn’t been fond of her at first, but I want to know what Cadence thought of her.

“We hadn’t known Margaret for long. He’d been talking to her for maybe a few months before he officially introduced us all and they hadn’t been dating long, maybe three or four months.”

“What were they both like?”

“Darryl was a goof. He was always making up jokes, often at his own expense. He was amazing at impressions, and he was always constantly playing pranks and devising new ways to get us to laugh. He used to help us play pranks on the twins and dad.”

“We played pranks on them?”

“Oh yeah, there’s an ongoing prank war in the house. I’m actually surprised they’ve held off this long on pulling one.” Cadence gives me a long glance and I know that the reason has to do with me. “Anyway, he was always down for anything, even the wacky adventures and ghost hunts that you and Evan always wanted to go on. That’s why we put up with Margaret.”

“Put up with?”

“Well… it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead.”

“Cadence.”

“Well, none of us liked her, even Evan wasn’t that fond of her and he’s far more easygoing and likes everyone. You especially hated her, gave Darryl a hard time about her all the time. At least… at first.” He adds. I wonder if he’s referring to the argument Darryl and I had concerning her.

“Did I have a thing for Darryl?” I ask, which would explain if I was jealous of Margaret. Cadence startles me by laughing uproariously.

“Oh no, definitely not, you liked...” Cadence stops himself and glances over.

“Darryl was like another brother. Believe me, your dislike of her had nothing to do with anything like that, you thought she was vapid and didn’t think they had a lot in common…” Cadence smiles after a moment as if remembering something.

“You may not have realized it, but you were a bit of a tomboy. I don’t think you have any friends that were girls at all, at least not that you were really close to. And Analise definitely didn’t count as one.” Well, I guess that would explain a lot, not to mention it must’ve been hard not to be a tomboy with a bunch of brothers.

“That isn’t to say you had a problem making friends with girls or anyone in general, you and Darryl were the most outgoing in the group, it’s just that you didn’t spend any time with them out of school.”

“So, they’re more like acquaintances then.”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that, anyway a bit before the accident you actually started to like Margaret a little. Well, you had it out with Darryl first.” He stops and stares at me for a moment, perhaps deciding how best to word what he wants to say.

“I read a little about this in my journal. He got mad at me for being rude to her and I had to apologize and spend a day with her, right?”

“Yeah, like I said before, Darryl was a goof. I’d never seen him angry before. Heck, I’d never even heard him raise his voice. But you weren’t giving her a chance. I think you thought she was going to be like Analise, you compared the two quite a bit. But after that day you were forced to hang out, well you said you found something in common with her. That was when I was a little busier with...” He trails off.

“With whatever you were hiding from me, I know, so you don’t know what it was I had in common with her?” Cadence looks relieved that I don’t press the issue, apparently, he’s not ready to talk about whatever he’s hiding and it’s not like I remember enough to really confront him anyway.

“Yes, she shared your mystery obsession, you never told me, but I think you were looking into some sort of mystery with them.”

We reach the front and Risa checks the books out for us, remarking on a few of Cadence’s picks.

“This is, by far, my favorite book.” She says as she scans one of them. It’s got a black cover with a colorful and intricate one-word title, Coalescence.

“Mine too, I was getting it for this one to read.” Cadence says pointing at me. I roll my eyes.

“Well, I’ll read it, but don’t cry when I don’t like it.”

“Oh no, you’ll love it! It’s got everything that makes a book great: action, adventure, comedy, a hint of romance, even a mystery.” Risa gushes. Her love for books really is infectious.

“Ok, I’ll definitely give it a shot.”

“Oh, so you’ll listen to her but not me?”

“Well, she’s the one that works at the library. She probably knows her books, right?” I ask with a smile to let them know I’m joking.

“Of course, I’m an expert.” Risa says jokingly in reply. She finishes bagging the books and tells me to let her know how I like the book before we leave.

“She’s cute,” Cadence says when we get to the car.

“What?” He seems surprised that he said that out loud.

“Uh… um, she’s… her enthusiasm for books is cute.”

“Nice try, easy now Romeo, she’s at least a year or two older than you.” Cadence has a blush so bright, he could stop traffic.

“Well…”

“If you say age is just a number then I’ll slap you.” I say.

“Can we change the subject?” Cadence asks.

I chuckle and tell him about my idea to talk with the parents of Margaret and Darryl.

“I think that’s probably a bad idea, Leary, they’re still in mourning.”

“But they might know something.” Cadence argues with me for a while but drops it when we get home.

He might be right, maybe it would be wrong to go and talk with their parents, but I can’t pass it up. I decide I’ll start out with Mama Etta. She already likes me at least, and I have been meaning to take up her offer for tea.