Propped up by crossed arms, Weevil laid stomach down on his bed. His feet kicked at the wall above his pillow.
He could have taken anything. These rich boys didn't know to protect themselves, probably never thought they'd have to. They saw the world as safe, coddling them with open arms. Didn't even lock their car doors, let alone put passwords on their electronics. When Weevil saw the laptop on Duncan's passenger seat, he couldn't resist. It covered more than the thousand dollars he was owed from their botched poker game. Weevil shook his head. He would have been more amused at his acquisition if he wasn't filled grief.
"Man, I don't even wanna see this shit."
He moved to get up, get out of his room, go for a walk. But something kept him sprawled on his bed. Duncan's laptop open in front of him. A pixelated manila folder titled Lill's Camera 2003 stared at him, taunting him with new information of a girl long gone. Taking a deep breath, Weevil minimized the pictures window and stared blankly at Duncan's desktop.
Do something else. Get back to it later, when you're prepared.
"Nunca en mi vida." He muttered out loud. He may never be ready.
He scrolled idly through Duncan's private files. Homework, pictures from 2004 and beyond. He noticed there was no Veronica and far too much of Echolls. Part of him hoped to find pictures of the tough blonde. He'd had a thing for her since their first interaction a few months ago, just as he'd known Lilly would keep him occupied the first time they met. There would be pictures of the old Veronica from Lilly's camera, but that was a different person. Lilly had been right about the spunk behind all Veronica's frills sophomore year. Part of him felt guilty for thinking of his new crush. He had stolen the laptop for the memory of Lilly, not the hope of her best friend.
After some time had passed, he unconsciously started to dig deeper and see if the more boring Kane sibling had any porn on his hard drive.
Some vanilla shit, probably.
Veronica must have been really repressed before if she could handle dating a straight-laced white boy like Duncan.
And what is this, Kane? A Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos folder? In the Algebra section of your homework folder?
Weevil hummed to himself and double clicked, pleased with his sleuthing. A wall of documents flooded the screen, each named with a series of numbers.
"The fuck?"
Looking closer, the titles were all dates going back to the start of high school. There were no entries for the month after Lilly's death, he discovered with disappointment. Plenty of entries before, though. Some had asterisks typed at the end of the date and Weevil correctly guessed that those were the entries of blackmail material. Duncan had dated Veronica during a majority of these dates and Weevil was tempted to read just to find out more about her. Pausing, he stared at the file icons until they became blurry.
It ain't fair to read these. I've got my own secrets. I need to respect this, walk away.
Weevil took his hand away from the computer and rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling.
But it isn't just Veronica and it isn't just Duncan's journal.
Lilly lived in these files, alive and breathing. Still creating havoc and sucking the tip of her pen when he walked past in the hallways. The first person he had allowed to take control of him, instead of being the one to possess them. Her own intensity had calmed him and made him a better person. He needed proof that she had really been there; that everything he remembered so vividly actually happened. He blinked, refocusing.
He inhaled deeply through his nostrils and bit his bottom lip in a preparatory snarl.
Let's see what Richie Rich was doing on my birthday.