in hand. His name was huge and the dates of his life carved beneath. There was a single phrase across it: Rest easy, for your work here is done.
Suddenly my throat was tight, my eyes burning, and I had to press a hand to my mouth to stop a sob from escaping. I’d had a brother. A real, blood brother, who might have been a part of my family, if I’d ever been given the chance to know him.
“Oscar was the funny one,” Beck said, breaking the silence. “Always making a joke. We learned to never leave him alone in our rooms or houses, because there would be some bullshit prank waiting for us when we least expected it.”
“He was such a fucker,” Jasper said with a choked laugh. “I still remember the time he dyed my dog purple. I swear he gave her fleas just so I would have to use the powder.”
Their laughter died off, but the silence didn’t feel quite as heavy this time.
“Tell me more about him,” I said, managing not to sob.
“He was shorter than you,” Evan chimed in. “Shortest of us all, which he hated, but he liked to say he had the biggest guns.”
“Not fucking likely,” Beck cut in.
I chuckled, because it was hard to imagine anyone having larger arms than Beck and Dylan.
“He was up for absolutely anything,” Dylan added, and the mood was somber again. “It didn’t matter if you phoned him at three in the morning, Oscar was always the perfect wingman. He would never let you down.”
“Never,” Evan whispered. “He was the one who introduced me to anime, so it makes perfect sense that his sister would share the same love.”
The tears couldn’t be stopped any longer, and I decided just to let them fall. I might not have “known” Oscar, but through these four, I felt the connection.
“He was our best friend,” Jasper added. “And the fact that I still don’t know what happened to him, kills me every fucking day.”
The silence pressed onto me, questions hovering on the tip of my tongue. “Do you think he killed himself?” I finally asked, my voice a breathless quiver of sound in the still air. “Is that possible? We know there’s no other way out of Delta.”
I waited for their anger, because it felt disrespectful to suggest such a thing when they all had such fond memories of him. But I knew that suicide, depression, grief … it didn’t just happen to poor, lonely, sad people. It happened to people from all walks of life.
It happened to anyone and everyone without prejudice.
“Oscar had times when he was introverted,” Dylan said, kneeling down then, pressing his hand to Oscar’s grave, as he had done with his sister. “Where he would retreat from us, go into his own head, and be aloof for a few days. We always just knew that was his way, and we’d let him go. Giving him the time and space he needed.”
“And he always came back,” Beck added, voice growly. “Always. Until we got that call.”
“So you think he did kill himself?” I pushed, needing to clarify it.
“Not a chance,” Beck bit back, crouching down next to Dylan. “Oscar was murdered. I’m certain of it, and I’m equally as certain that it was someone in Delta that did it.”
23
I couldn’t get anything else out of them about Oscar’s death, so I instead spent the rest of my time there, silently talking to my brother. It was much more painful than I’d expected, and by the time we left, I was emotionally spent.
The five of us ate dinner together in my apartment, because it seemed to be the central gathering point, and then I crawled into bed, only to be joined by Beck ten minutes later.
He held me close, and even though we didn’t talk, there was some more healing happening between us. I ended up sleeping soundly for most of the night, and it was only when I woke that I realized how long it had been since I had a nightmare.
The next day at school passed quickly, and just as I was wandering across the parking lot with Evan, Eddy sprinted out of the school and pretty much tackled me into the grass next to the front stairs.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Edith,” Evan cursed, peeling her off me so I could stand up again. “Riles still has bruises and shit, ease up you psycho.”
Eddy rolled her eyes at him, like he was another annoying brother, and plucked