So the news has been saying there have been a string of missing people in our town lately. It’s very odd, and most of them go to the same school as me. It’s starting to get worrying, as if maybe we might have a serial killer loose in town. The police have zero leads.
So yesterday was a normal day at school. Go to class, go to lunch, hang out with my friends for a bit before classes start back up. But this was different. Jeremy, the kind of odd, really goth-like kid, was sitting at the table next to us, alone. I invited him to come sit with us. Just an extension of friendliness. I felt bad for him. He doesn’t really have any friends, and is actually a very nice guy if you talk to him. Which I do from time to time. He gets picked on, a lot. And can be kind of socially awkward in class, but undeservedly gets made fun of. It’s the epitome of that “kids are cruel” cliché.
So Jeremy comes and sits with us. We’re not popular, but we’re also not outcasts, we’re pretty middle of the road in the popularity scale. I tell Jeremy he can have lunch with us, and we talk about the hilarious shirt our English teacher was wearing- it was a language pun type of joke on it. Jeremy let out a really genuine smile at my engaging in conversation with him. I’m not sure I’ve ever really seen him actually, legitimately smile before.
After lunch, Jeremy sheepishly approaches me as we’re all leaving the commons area. It’s just the two of us, and all of my friends had already made their way to their post-lunch classes. He seemed nervous, but when I gave him a pat on the shoulder and told him I enjoyed our lunch together, he gained more confidence and asked me “would you want to come over to my house for dinner tonight, my mom’s making a special meal tonight, and I’d love to have you join.” I accepted, with the caveat that I had to make sure my parents would be cool with it, but I was pretty sure it’d be fine.
Jeremy’s house was nice. Not like super mansion nice, but you could tell his parents did pretty well for themselves. His parents seemed so, normal compared to Jeremy, but they also were extremely accepting of who Jeremy was and how he was. It truly was a very warm and loving home. As we sat to eat, Jeremy’s parents made the comment that I was one of the few that was consistently nice to Jeremy and that they were glad he had an acquaintance like me who didn’t judge him. It was a pretty nice dinner. His mom made a really good meat loaf that was packed full of flavor.
Midway through the meal, I brought up the subject of the recent spat of missing kids. I mentioned that the most recent one was that basketball center, Kyle, who had pushed Jeremy into a pond next to the school parking lot after school one day. I made a quip about how I hoped nothing bad happened to him, but also that karma is a crazy thing. The family started shuffling in their seats a but, and gave each other a look. I instantly recognized that look, they knew something. I tried to back pedal and say I’m sure it was just some kind of accident and they hadn’t found him yet, but it felt like a cat was definitely out of the bag in some way. The look was a bit unnerving, and I tried to change the subject.
“This meatloaf is amazing, Mrs. Miller, what’s you’re secret?”
Jeremy answered, with a very creepy look, “Kyle.”
Jeremy’s dad put his hand on mine and looked me dead in the eye, his eyes seeming to drill right through my very being. “We’re so glad Jeremy has a good friend whom he can trust to keep his secret. Right? I mean, you’re nothing like Kyle.”
I’m glad I’m nice to Jeremy.