“Chris?” Aderyn asked tentatively as their phone conversation dwindled slightly. They’d already been talking for two hours. Not really about anything specifically. They’d just been talking. But this part was important.

“Hmm?”

“There’s a funeral on Saturday for my neighbor...” she began.

“Ah,” he interrupted, knowing, like Sarah, how much she hated them.

“Sarah’s already agreed to tag along. Could you come too?” Aderyn held her breath slightly. She didn’t know why it was so important that he say yes, but it was.

“Of course.”

Aderyn sighed with relief. She apparently needed all the moral support she could get. She’d avoided funerals like she avoided that one guy in her science class who always smelled like he hadn’t bathed in a year. But her sister had decided that she was old enough now, and she needed to ‘face her fear’ or some crap like that. It had been eight years. But there was still something in her that dreaded the idea.

~~~~~

She couldn’t decide whether to be happy or not. It was Friday, so it was the last day of school for the week. But it also meant Saturday was only one day away. To distract herself, she decided to pull out a piece of paper and talk to Sarah again. Who cared about the imperfect tense, anyway? Everything Mr. Junker was saying was consolidated onto one page in the book. It would be much easier to look over that for ten minutes to prepare for the test rather than listen to him ramble every day for a week.

When she opened her backpack, she found a folded-up piece of paper on top of her books. It was rather odd; she didn’t know of anyone who would have given her a note this time of day. The only friends she saw were Sarah and Chris. Chris never wrote her notes (he preferred the phone) and Sarah always saved whatever she was going to say for their conversations during class.

She picked it up and unfolded it, finding a type-written message.

Aderyn,

I know you’re taken. But he doesn’t deserve to have you. As the most beautiful creature I know, you are miles above him. You should be with someone else. It doesn’t even have to be me. Just...not him.

Anonymous

P.S. If you wish to reply, leave a note in the empty locker at the end of the hall, number 236. I’ll find it.

It made absolutely no sense to her. It was just so utterly random. Who the hell thought she was the most beautiful creature they knew besides Chris? He wouldn’t have sent the note unless it was a really weird, schizophrenic way of breaking up with her.

She slid it over to Sarah’s desk, who, after reading it, simply gave her a puzzled look in return. Clearly, she didn’t know anything more about what was going on.

Aderyn took out a new piece of paper and simply wrote:

Who are you?

She would save asking what was wrong with Chris for another letter. Right now, she was just curious.

~~~~~

“Sarah!” Aderyn yelled to her friend as she passed her at the end of the day.

“Yeah?” she asked as she worked her way through the crowd.

“Can you come home with me tonight?” Aderyn asked.

“Sure,” her friend replied, nodding her head.

“Good. I need to show you something.”

~~~~~

Once they were both at Aderyn’s house, she spread out all of the notes on her bed. There was one for almost every break between classes.

They started with his reply to her first note, handwritten in carefully plain letters so she would not recognize them:

Simply think of me as an admirer. One who wants to see you happy. I don’t think that can happen if you stay with Chris. I didn’t say anything at first; I always thought you would realize and get rid of him. But you didn’t.

What is so awful about Chris that you felt the need to intervene?

I can’t say. But do know that it is bad enough to worry me.

Aderyn’s messy handwriting and large amount of sarcasm on the next one showed she was getting irritated at his vagueness. At least, she assumed it was a him that admired her. Sure, she didn’t have a problem with girl-girl things, but she just didn’t go that way.

What makes you think that I will dump my boyfriend, who I happen to greatly care about, at the word of a random stranger?

Because I love you.

Sarah just stared when she finished reading them all. Until her sarcastic nature took over. Then she said, “So, his love for you is supposed to prove that Chris is horrible, and that this attack on your boyfriend has nothing to do with the fact that he wants you himself?”

“Apparently.” Aderyn sighed. It was all so sudden, and so completely random, that she didn’t know what to do with it just yet.

“What are you going to do?” Sarah asked, seriously this time.

“Well, I’m not going to dump Chris. All that these notes have done is make me rather pissed off at whoever wrote them,” she replied. “I’m just going to ignore them for now. Maybe on Monday I’ll write back and tell him tough, he isn’t getting any. Probably all the creep wants.”

“I don’t know...maybe you shouldn’t completely discard them,” Sarah said hesitantly. She seemed to have gained a sudden interest in the fact that her fingers interlocked.

Aderyn looked at her as though she were slightly crazy.

“I know you think he’s a weird creep, but maybe he does know something that you should. You never know. He sounded like he meant it.”

“How can you tell from a written note whether he meant it or not?” Aderyn asked skeptically. “If he wants to tell me whatever the hell Chris did to become so ‘bad’ and show me some proof, then he can do that.”

“Whatever. I just want you to be careful,” Sarah said coldly.

Aderyn picked up on her friend’s tone of voice. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m just annoyed at Mr. Anonymous here.”

“I know.”

~~~~~

Aderyn was wearing a very dark green dress. It was as close as she’d get to black. Devi had tried to get her into a black dress she’d picked up in Aderyn’s size, but it hadn’t worked. She’d refused. Devi would’ve tried harder, but there was something about not wanting to cause a fuss in front of guests. Sarah had spent the night, and was therefore at their house when the argument took place. But it had all worked out. Because the whole sleepover had been unplanned, Sarah hadn’t brought anything to wear to the funeral and ended up wearing the black dress herself.

They left around one. Chris was going to meet them at the church. As they pulled up to the entrance, Aderyn shuddered. She hated churches too. She’d always disliked going every Sunday before her mother died, and the fact that it was where the funeral took place had not helped. She hadn’t entered one since.

They stepped out of the car, and Aderyn immediately found Chris waiting in front of the door. She quickly walked over to him, and he wrapped her into a hug as soon as she was close enough. Why anyone would say he was bad for her was beyond her. She pushed the notes out of her mind.

Sarah stood rather awkwardly off to the side, and Aderyn broke the hug so as to make it more comfortable for her friend. It had been nice of her to come at all; Aderyn was sure she didn’t want to put up with any of the lovey-dovey stuff she often complained about.

When Devi came up to them after parking the car, they moved to go inside. The funeral was due to start in several minutes. As she stepped into the church, Aderyn stopped suddenly and became lost in what she was seeing.

There was a large cross in the center of the wall at the end of the room, seeming to take over the entire space. The glow from the stained glass window behind it seemed to highlight the meaning even more. Not the one the church had told her, the one she’d always thought on her own. Simply pain.

Several soft cries could be heard in the surrounding area, along with phrases spoken by hushed voices meant to protect the family.

“She was so sweet. I remember when she used to have her little ones help make dinners for me when my hip was acting up....”

“And such a tragedy, what happened. Do the children know?”

“The little one does. She seems to have gone into shock. Hasn’t brought it up once or shed a single tear.”

“So sad...”

The sweet ring of a church bell could be heard in the distance, causing everyone to move to their seats. But she couldn’t move. All she could focus on was the cross. And no matter how she tried, she couldn’t get it to represent hope. She highly doubted there was any way her mother would come back like Jesus.

Aderyn hadn’t realized her eyes had been closed until they opened again. Chris, Sarah, and Devi were all leaning over her, looking worried.

“What happened?” Devi asked her frantically.

Aderyn sat up in a daze. “I’m not sure. The church must have stirred something...I saw another funeral. It felt like a long time ago, but I don’t remember being there...”

All three exchanged skeptical glances. Great. Just what she needed. To be considered crazy.

But perhaps she was. Because when she’d opened her eyes, in the corner of her vision, she thought she’d seen Jason. But what the hell would he be doing there?

~~~~~