ONE DAY LATER

"How did you find it?" Inez asks as we leave the sports hall.

I shrug. "Okay. Messed up the third one though."

"It's just one question," Edie says. "It was less scary than I thought."

Cerys snorts. "Speak for yourself. The invigilator took one look at me and decided she hated my guts."

"Which one?" I ask. "The one with the fake blonde hair, the old one or the pregnant one?"

"The fake blonde. Ugh, she'll have it out for me for the rest of the exams. Every time I looked up, I could feel her just staring at me and waiting for me to mess up."

I tune out the others assuring Cerys she's just being paranoid. Eden wasn't in the hall. Everyone knows by now. Knows that she killed Josh and didn't think twice about getting him onto the rocks and giving him a nice old shove. But there she is, walking towards Erin who's waiting at the gates with her head down. She must've taken the exam in a different room, that one by the science labs where one person can take an exam all on their own.

"Earth to Eve." Inez's voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" I ask.

"We were talking about getting Subway for lunch," Edie explains. "You in?"

"I'm in."

And then I leave school with all my friends and head down the street to Subway. We talk about everything but the exam and the fact that Jenny Hartley was the one responsible for Mr Granger's death. Anything but those two things.

Exams and killers are firmly banned topics now.

THREE MONTHS LATER

"Not bad, eh?" Dave says proudly.

Zach shrugs. "Not bad at all. Well done, Eve."

I manage a smile. "Thanks."

Zach has come over with his wife, Rachel, and kids to celebrate my results. Harriet and Henry are both playing with Alfie in the garden, the new water guns Rachel got them squirting water at each other. Mom and Rachel are having a nice chat about what's going on in Coronation Street at the moment. So Zach and Dave are talking to me about my results which yes, aren't bad at all. Mostly sevens and eights with a six in Chemistry, a five in Biology, (but I think you can excuse that because my dead ex-boyfriend's little sister had confessed to murder to me the day before) and a nine in History.

Not bad at all.

There was another speech about Josh when we went to pick up the results and sat down for the talk. Congratulations on the fact that our grades as a year were good considering that one of our mates and teachers had been murdered that week by people we all knew.

And there's nothing I can do to change that.

ONE YEAR LATER

"So how are you?" Jenny asks, finishing her long speech. "How's sixth form?"

"It's great," I tell her. "I'm still working in the cafe and classes are going fine. The new History teacher is so nice, everyone loves her."

"I promise not to kill her then," Jenny says, forcing a laugh.

She's doing well, that's really obvious. The court ordered therapy is doing its job, her new meds are keeping her anxiety under control and the depression she sunk into for a while is being kept at bay.

"What about that guy?" she asks. "The one you were going out with on our last call?"

I smile at the thought. "It's going okay. More than okay."

He's no Josh, that's for sure. He's different. Every minute with him is different than how every minute with Josh was. Not in a bad way, just in a different way. It took me a while to let myself fall for him- I only relented last week- but isn't that how it's supposed to be? The second love is harder, but just as crucial as the first.

"I have to go, but fill me in next time," she tells me. "Love you, Eve."

"Love you, Jen," I say softly as she hangs up.

I sit for a while more. Josh's grave has sort of become a safe haven for me. It's morbid, but true. Whenever something happens, I come hear to relay it all to Josh's headstone. There's always fresh flowers here and his dad cleans the stone frequently, so it looks like he was buried just yesterday. Sitting here is always calm and Josh is as good a listener in death as he was in life. Now that sounds morbid.

"Edie finally went out with Amy," I tell Josh's headstone. "They've been inseparable for a little while now, it's actually really cute."

I keep talking, updating Josh on all the recent events that have happened. And then I run out of things to say. So I say goodbye to Josh, leaving the little bouquet of flowers I bought at the shop as I leave the cemetery.

Leaves crunch under my feet and the wind whips through my hair as I walk. The city streets are quiet as I make my way through them towards home. The sun is setting, the sky bleeding soft shades of oranges and pinks. It's the same sunset we've been watching for millions of years, but people never get tired of looking at it. Of admiring the beauty of a day ending in one corner of the world while it's just beginning in a different corner.

And I smile because it's just perfect.