Chapter 49

(Bakersville HighSchool)

***

It had been a month since Emily’s family moved. He’d found out that they had moved when he saw a ‘FOR SALE’ sign on their front porch. It had been, for him, the worst way to find out that his best friend had left him.

Everything had started going wrong on the day of Ashley Brown’s party. Gabriel and Emily, who had been dating for a little over a year at that point, had argued that morning and he had decided to go to the party without her. He told himself that she had a car, too, and that she knew where Ashley’s house was, so she would make it. He reasoned that they didn't need to go together.

He hadn’t wanted to do that, hadn’t wanted to leave her even if they were arguing, but he had also argued with his Dad and he had feared that would make things worse.

It was something he had started considering ever since that day in middle school when he got into a fight in school after arguing with his Dad. Arguing with his dad made him angry and when he got angr