"You look like you're having the time of your life." Janae spoke as she walked toward the punch bowl. Allison didn't want to go to prom, and it showed all over her face. Despite looking great in green.

"Really?" Allison blinked innocently.

"No." she blinked back, making Allison give a faint chuckle. "So, if you don't wanna be here, why'd you come?"

"My parents." Allison answered with a swallow. "They think I should act as normal as-

She stopped when she realized who she was talking to. "I'm sorry."

"They want you to act as normal as possible while you're a murder suspect?" she finished her sentence, getting a shy nod. "I knew, by the way."

Allison blinked. "What?"

"How you were fucking my best friend. He couldn't keep that from me." she answered, sipping her spiked drink. "Before you freak, I didn't tell anyone."

Allison swallowed, looking down as she shook her head. "No. No, I don't- if Simon trusted you, then I will too."

Janae stared at her. "You know he just didn't want to be your secret anymore."

"I didn't want that either." Allison gave a guilty look. "Honestly. I wanted more then anything-"

"Yeah, I know." the blonde cut her off. "I'm just saying what he doesn't get to now. Because someone killed him and took him from us. Simon wasn't an affection person, and he rarely liked most things. But, he liked you. And i'm sure he probably never straight up said that to your face, so i'm gonna do it for him."

Allison gave a sad smile. "I know that it might sound ridiculous and pathetic, but I never liked anyone the same way I liked him. He listened to me, and like, really understood, or at least acted like he did. No one's ever done that for me."

"Well, I get what you're feeling if you ever wanna, I don't know, play some video games." Janae shrugged. "No one aside from Maeve gets what i'm feeling, and it's not even in the same way."

"Maeve?" Allison's frowned her eyebrows. "I didn't know she was friends with Simon."

Janae blinked. "Wait, he never told you?"

"He only talked about y-" she was cut off by seeing Bronwyn waving her over from the corner. "Could we maybe table this conversation for just a second? I swear, i'll be back."

Allison hurried over, her dress swaying at her feet as she walked into the hallway, following Bronwyn into the classroom. Nate, Addy, and Cooper all waited for her. "Didn't we all just get questioned by the police for doing this?"

"That's what I said." Cooper tossed a hand in her direction.

"Someone was at the water park last night stalking me." Addy spoke up with an inhale. "Like, inside the park, following me and none of you were there."

"What? Who?" Bronwyn asked quickly.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Allison asked, pulling one of her heels off when it started to rub a painful blister on the back of her heel.

"Barley." Addy answered.

"They followed you to Murder Club?" Cooped gapped in disbelief.

"We really need a rebranding." Nate said honestly.

"If Nate hasn't finally shown up, I'd be taking selfies with Jesus right now." Addy spoke in a panic.

"Well, my parents say that heaven is unlike to have any devi-" Allison's started.

"Allison, not helping." Bronwyn looked her way with wide eyes.

"Right, sorry." the girl apologized quickly.

"I wanted to hear what she had to say." Nate looked over at the other four. "You guys might wanna hear it too."

"I know who posted our secrets to About That." Addy looked around at each of them.

"What?"

"Who?"

"Right on que." Addy spoke up as the door opened, Janae walking in.

"Janae?" Allison gapped.

"You little fucked up Gossip Girl wannabe." Cooper glared in her direction.

"Gossip girl, woah. You are gay." Janae rose her eyebrows.

"Really?" Allison defended Cooper with a look of disbelief.

"And you fucking ruined our lives." Bronwyn shot her way with a glare. "Why should we listen to her?"

"Just hear her out, please." Addy spoke in a begging manor. "Tell them about the messages."

"Yeah, I posted your secrets but that's it." Janae spoke up to defend herself. "Somebody locked me out and changed the password before the picture of your meeting was posted. I knew the password because I knew about Simon and Allison."

"Last time I tried to log in, all I got was this threatening message. It popped up and then disappeared." the blonde looked around the huddled together group.

"What did it say?" Bronwyn asked her with curious eyes.

"Simon says back off." Janae with with a faint bitter look.

"Like...the game or like he's not dead?" it was a stupid thing to ask, probably the worst thing that had ever came from her mouth. But Allison would hang onto any chance she could for him to somehow to alive, in any way possible.

"The game." Janae answered, Allison's body fell slightly as Nate reached over and rubbed her right shoulder.

"But, you have no proof." Bronwyn pointed out.

"Okay, do you guys have any idea of what would happen if they catch us meeting in secret again?" Cooper walked away from the door, after checking outside. "How that'll look in the eyes of the police, who we already know are dying to make an arrest and release Allison's secret to the entire freaking world."

"Wait, we think we know who killed Simon and who's been stalking us." Addy cut in.

"Who?" Allison asked immediately, straightening up quickly.

"It's TJ." Addy said back. "After you told me about how he knew about your house, it was weird."

"It was." Allison agreed.

"TJ?" Cooper gapped in disbelief.

"Yeah. The day that Simon was murdered, I saw TJ grab him in the hall. They had a whole argument, it's how Simon got detention." Janae explained, Bronwyn didn't seem convinced, but Allison had disappeared into thought. "I'm pretty sure TJ was threatening him, okay? I didn't think anything of it at first, but that's just because thought one of you did it. No offense."

"What if TJ knew that Simon was gonna post our secrets?" Addy spoke up with a knowing look. "He told me he had done something he wasn't proud of."

"Of course you think someone would kill for you." Bronwyn mocked her.

"Well, someone was stalking me at the water park last night." Addy shot back with a faint glare. "And knowing Allison's address, even though she never told him. And TJ has been messaging me, and is obsessed with me, and after I broke his heart, and he got suspended, someone revoked Janaes access to About That, followed the four of us, and then posted that photo of our meeting place. So, like, maybe you can just believe women, Bronwyn."

"Seriously?" Bronwyn gapped as her, Allison's hide a laugh.

"TJ is, like, the chillest guy i've ever met." Cooper spoke up honestly.

"I bet Ted Bundey was pretty chill too." Allison looked his way with risen eyebrows. "And Richard Ramerize. I mean, look at Billy Loomus for example. Super cool, super hot, super chill, then bam! Straight up a murderer. TJ could be our Billy."

"Okay, you need to watch real horror movies for a change." Nate said honestly in her direction. "Is it possible TJ is smarter then he looks? And sounds? And acts? And drives, considering he wrecked into Allison."

"Wait, like, he tried to kill her too?" Janae spoke up.

"No, that was my fault." Allison's spoke up with an exhale. "I was-

Seeing my dead boyfriend in my passengers seat.

"-really upset, it was around the time we all just found out." Allison shook her head, because it wasn't a total lie.

"Sometimes people aren't what you suspect." Nate pointed out. "Look at Allison. Good girl that is suppose to be a virgin pure all her life banging the number one jack ass in school? No offense to the dead."

"Yeah, and sometimes people are exactly what you suspect." Cooper mocked his way. "This is ridiculous."

"If it's so ridiculous, then Nate would be crossing the boarding into Tijuanita right now. Instead, he's here, helping me with my plan." Addy spoke up confidently to stop Cooper from leaving.

"Is that true?" Bronwyn looked toward the boy.

"He had his passport on him last night." Addy informed her. "He still has it on his motorcycle and he's planning to leave if my plan-"

"I didn't think it mattered to you where I parked my bike, Bronwyn." Nate huffed in her direction

"Okay, not this shit again." Cooper shook his head at the pair, looking at Addy. "What do you mean your plan?"

"To shoot TJ in the freaking head?" Allison asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Not the best choice of words, right now." Nate hummed in her direction.

"TJ is here tonight." the blonde looked around the room. "I can get close to him, maybe tug on his heart strings, distract him, and then Nate can swing by, swipe his phone, and we can use his location data to retrace his steps."

"No! If you're right about TJ, that means he's a psycho, stalker, killer." Cooper spoke dumbfounded in her direction. "You shouldn't be tugging on anything of his."

"He's actually right." Nate agreed.

Cooper looked oddly. "Thanks."

"Allison should do it." Nate added.

"Oh, thank you, Nathanial." Allison nodded her head. "I'd love to just be his next victim. A little Romeo and Juliet acting."

"That's not how the story went." Bronwyn stated.

"You two clearly have bonded after your wreck." Nate pointed out. "He probably will trust you."

"Okay, no." Cooper shook his head.

"Then you do it." Nate hummed. "You're his friend. Make him use his phone. Check the code. After he's had a few drinks, bump into him, and take it."

"Okay, okay. Say we do this. How are you gonna get the data off of TJ's phone?" Bronwyn looked at Addy in questioning.

"I heard that your sisters good with computers." the blonde looked her way hopefully.

"No. No way." Bronwyn shook her head, nodding toward Janae. "Don't you see she's pointing at someone else so we don't focus on her."

"Why would she confess to uploading all your secrets if she was the killer?" Allison defended Janae immediately. The main reason she did was for Simon, but apart of her genuinely knew, after all he'd told her about how close they were, she'd never hurt him like that.

"That's normally your thing." Cooper sided with Allison, looking at Bronwyn.

"What are you saying?" she asked in disbelief.

"We all saw the video. You stole the laptop. Clearly, you don't want your secret getting out." Addy looked her way with a knowing eyebrow raise.

"Neither did any of you." Bronwyn defended herself, looking around. "And I didn't tell you about the laptop because I didn't want to implicate you but you went ahead and ratted me out the first chance you got."

"They were pressuring me about Cooper, and his incident in the past, and Allison and Simon." Addy started, Cooper giving a look.

"What?" Bronwyn gave an odd look. "So, there's something?"

"What does it matter?" Cooper questioned in annoyance.

"It matters if you're still lying to us." Nate gave a knowing look.

"Okay, well, I may not be perfect but at least I didn't fake my moms death." Cooper threw it in his face with a shrug. "Or sleep in the same room with the laptop that had all these unposted secrets."

Allison rose her eyebrows. "Oh, was that a jab at me now?"

"I'm just saying, it hard for me to believe that you were laid up with this dude all summer long and he didn't say one thing about About That." Cooper said honestly in Allison's direction. "Killing him is one thing, lying is another."

"Well, i'm not lying." she glared in his direction. "We had better things to talk about then a stupid app."

"Oh." Nate laughed. "Are we talking about the same guy here?"

"Okay, guys, enough!" Addy cut in with a shake of her head, making them all shut up. "There's something out there trying to frame us and judging by last night, even trying to kill us. Can we all just work together for one night?"

Bronwyn exhaled, nodding toward Janae. "Fine. But my sisters not gonna be involved in this. And just so you know, I don't trust her. I barley trust any of you."

•

kylie speaks

we love janae in this house