Little White Lie
Chapter 5
By: Jenn
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Joel’s POV
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Silencing Paul by raising my hand, I lifted the phone to my ear.
“It’s Aaron’s,” Paul mouthed to me. I glared at him, eyes wide in anger.
“Hello?” I asked, as sweetly as I could.
“….who is this?” came the confused voice on the other end of the line.
“It’s Joel,” I answered. I searched my memory to place the voice, then suddenly it hit me. I was talking to Aaron’s mother.
“…Joel?” she asked. “Why do you have Aaron’s phone?”
My mind raced, desperately searching for a logical explanation to that very good question. Had Aaron left the band weeks ago, he would have taken his cell phone with him. I looked up at my band mates, biting my lip in an attempt to express to them my dilemma. The look on Benji’s face pleaded with me to tell the truth. I turned away from him, knowing that looking into my brother’s eyes much longer, seeing his fear and his desire to come clean about what happened, would make me cave.
“Uh…” I said, still thinking. “I guess he forgot it. He left in such a hurry, he must have forgotten it.”
Awkward silence followed, filled only by the pounding of my heart. Eventually, though, Aaron’s mother spoke again. She seemed to believe me. Relieved, I offered to mail the phone back to her so she could return it to Aaron when she saw him.
“And let us know when you hear from him, ok? Alright, talk to you soon. Bye,” I said, pressing ‘end.’ I turned around again to face my bandmates. Benji was glaring at me, shaking his head in immense disapproval of what I’d just done. He had one arm around Billy, who stood before me shivering and biting his lower lip in an attempt to keep back the angry tears threatening to burst forth at any minute. Paul turned away from me and flung himself down onto a nearby couch, laying his head back and closing his eyes.
“That was way too close,” he said with a sigh. No one replied. Benji turned his glare towards Paul, then led Billy out of the room.
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Benji’s POV
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“I can’t do this,” Billy said once we were alone. He sat down on the edge of one of the bunks and buried his head in his hands.
“I know,” I said, sitting on the edge of the bunk across from Billy. The aisle separating us was so narrow, our knees almost touched as we sat.
“I can’t lie anymore,” Billy continued. “I can’t be part of this. I need to tell someone. Someone has to know. Joel just lied to Aaron’s mother. His mother.”
I reached across the small aisle and took Billy’s hands in mine. They felt warm and clammy; Billy was terrified.
“I know.” I spook softly. “I’m gonna try talking to him again, see if I can’t talk him out of this… this insanity. If not, I’m going to the police myself.”
“But… but won’t we all get in trouble then?” Billy stuttered.
I paused, thinking. “Probably. But we have stop Joel, he’s gone way too far. Maybe it won’t be so bad.” I added the last part quickly when I noticed the horrified look on Billy’s face. Billy nodded and, pulling his hands free of mine, rubbed one arm across his eyes.
“It’ll be ok, Bill,” I said, smiling at him with more reassurance than I felt.
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Joel’s POV
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I pulled away from the closed door as I felt Benji start to open it from the other side. Without looking at me, he walked into the lounge and sat down next to Paul. I stood still, glaring at him. My own brother and that little twerp Billy were turning on me. I had to put a stop to it.
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Paul’s POV
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Joel stepped back from the door and spun around to face me. Shaking his finger as if lecturing a disobedient child, he snapped, “From now on we don’t leave either of them alone. They’ll rat us out.”
I knew he was right, but he scared me in that moment. The wild passion in his eyes was terrifying. I knew he was right; every time I looked at Billy I knew he was on the verge of blurting out everything. But Joel was so fanatic about this.
My thoughts were interrupted by Benji’s entrance into the lounge. Joel immediately walked towards the door but was stopped by his brother grabbing his arm fiercely.
“Leave him alone,” I heard Benji hiss. Joel glared at him for a few seconds, then turned away and sat down on the couch opposite me. Obviously still trusting me, Benji said nothing when I stood and silently slipped past him through the door to talk to Billy.
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Benji’s POV
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I stood glaring at my brother in silence until Paul was gone. As soon as the door was safely closed, I spoke.
“You need to stop this,” I said firmly. “We need to come clean, we need to tell someone what really happened to Aaron.”
“We can’t and we won’t,” Joel snapped.
“This isn’t right, Joel. We know where Aaron is and we know what happened. We have to tell someone. We can’t do this to his family. We can’t do this to Billy,” I pleaded.
“Fine, you wanna fuck everything up and land us all in jail, be my guest,” Joel said angrily, throwing his arms in the air to emphasize his point.
“Ok, I will,” I said, looking him straight in the eye and calling his bluff. I knew he wouldn’t let me. Sure enough, as soon as I reached for the door handle, he grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall.
“Don’t you even think about it, unless you want to ‘leave’ the band too. I covered up one death, I can easily cover another.”