The Outsider-Chapter 8

"So where did you say you moved from?" Derek asked peering into his rearview mirror at Caleb.
"St. Louis, Missouri," Cale said, clearing his throat.
The ride to the movie theatres wasn't completely awkward. Ever since Derek had mentioned that he thought Cale and I really liked each other, he'd been doing to whole macho-brother number. It was actually quite amusing in my opinion. I wasn't sure how Cale was taking this, so I had to keep my laughter in. I also couldn't tell if Der was being serious or just trying to make a good first impression, if you kno what I mean. So, for the most part, I just kept quiet and only talked when I was spoken to, like usual.
"Here we are," Der said as we pulled into an empty parking spot. "Gosh, this place looks different. They've painted it and got a new sign, havent they?"
"Yeah the sign's kinda old, but the new paint job was just finished a week ago," I said.
"So what exactly are we seeing?" Cale asked. He sounded a little nervous, which made me feel slightly uneasy. My moods are easily influenced by those of the people around me.
"We could see 'A Christmas Carol', I love Jim Carrey," I smiled.
"Or maybe 'Old Dogs'," Cale suggested, "it doesn't really matter to me."
Der added in his girliest voice, "Or we could see 'New Moon', I've been waiting on it for 6 months!!"
We were all quiet for about a second, and then we all burst out laughing.
"I say A Christmas Carol, cuz Jim Carrey's freakin' hilarious!" Der said after catching his breath.
"Okay then, Jim Carrey wins," Cale added.
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"Pssst! Carmen....Carmen...CARMEN!!!" Sheriff Sanders whispered as loud as he could without actually being heard.
"Whaaaat???" Carmen responded. Gregory Carmen owned his own gun shop. He took over the business when his dad died a year ago during his senior year at Confederate High. Greg Carmen was the perfect example of our locals. and was the best shooter in town. He'd proven himself many times in the annual Leetown hunting trip.
Sheriff Sanders was growing impatient. "How long is this gonna take? I gotta pee!"
"Just wait a second..." Carmen's voice trailed off and his finger tightened around the trigger.
Pow! "Whew-wee, look! I got em Sanders, I got em!" Carmen ran over to see the buck he'd just shot.
"Oh, thank the Lord! Now I can go find a bathroom or somethin," Sanders said with a sigh of relief.
Carmen and Sheriff Sander's walked back to the house, the deer hung over Carmen's shoulder.
Once they were inside they started discussing more private matters.
"The rest of your guys onto our little plan?" Carmen asked, with a sense of evil in his tone.
"Nah, they're clueless," Sanders said and then added, "They're stumped with the Davison case...if it goes on too much longer, it's not even gonna be this town's case anymore. It may be moved up to higher authorities."
"That's good. How about a game of darts to choose who goes next?" Carmen had a sense of meanness instilled in him that could not be mistaken.
The sheriff looked skeptical. "Don't you think its a little early?"
"I didn't say we had to follow through with it tonight, just find out who's next."
"Okay," Sanders said, still hesitant, "take your best shot." He tossed a dart to Carmen.
He threw the dart with little force, but it went right through the Post-it note into the cork bored.
The note read, "Kevin Harolds".
"Kevin it is," Carmen said with a twisted smile on his face.

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After the movie was over, Der surprised us by taking us to the one chain restaurant we had in this town: Johnny Rockets. That was my favorite place, and I'm so glad that Derek knew me so well.
"Well, that movie was interesting," Der said as we sat in the booth.
"Yeah it was cool though," Cale added.
They seemed to be getting along better now; well, Der had quit the over-protective brother act. It was funny, most of the times dad's are the over-protective ones. But my dad had never had a problem with Cale, even if he was an outsider. Sometimes I wondered if my brother were adopted.
"Yeah it was. So ya'll just wanna split a large cheese fry?"
"Sure sounds great," I said, my stomach rumbling,"right now food just sounds good."
Cale agreed, "Yeah same here."
"Hey, ya'll, what can I get for you today?" Our waitress was Amanda Carwell. Amanda was your typical southern beauty: blonde hair, baby blue eyes, a gorgeous figure, and a strong southern accent that was almost irresistable. I knew her from school. She was a junior at Confederate, and almost all the guys adored her, and almost all the girls wanted to be her.
Der answered for us all and said, "We're gonna split a large cheese fry, and to drink I'm gonna have root beer...what do you guys want?"
"Um, I'll take cherry coke," I said.
"Same for me," Cale added.
"Well, alright, I'll have your drinks and food out for you in just a few minutes." She turned on her heels and walked back to the kitchen.
There was a tv in the corner and it was on Leetown's local news station. The volume was too low to hear, but I could read the subtitles, which read:
"Police have no word on the Kelly Davison house, and we are told that if they don't have any leads by the end of the week, the case will be passed off to higher authorities who can do more extensive research into the case. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Davison's as they are still mourning the loss of their beloved daughter..."
I stopped reading there, because they had switched to a new report. So that's it? The cops in our town were just going to give up? Obviously, I was showing some kind of angry emotion because Der asked, "Hey, uh, Suz, are you okay?"
I snapped out of it and replied, "Yeah I'm fine, I was just watching the news. They were reporting on Kelly Davison's case. It made me mad, because the cops have just pretty much given up. I mean, they've barely been investigating for a week and they're passing it to 'higher authorities'!"
"Yeah that's terrible-" but he was cut off by Amanda.
"Okay here you go: one large fry, two cherry cokes, and a root beer," she said passing out the food.
"Anything else I can get ya'll?"
"Oh, how about a partridge and a pear tree?" Derek said as we all four started laughing.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Derek, we're fresh out of those," Amanda said making a sarcastic pouty-face, and once again turned on heels and headed toward the kitchen.
You know, sitting here having Derek and Cale share cheese fries with me, everything just seemed right. A couple days ago, I was freaking out about Kelly's death. Somehow I managed to tell myself that everything was okay in little Leetown, and that I had nothing to worry about...hopefully.