Free Adventures in Funeral Crashing by Milda Harris

really, really
nervous all of a sudden. I was afraid to meet them.
    I sat in my car, pulled my cell phone out of
my purse, and dialed. Ethan answered on the first ring, “Hey.”
    “I’m sitting outside your house,” I said,
glancing at his house, toward where I thought his window might be.
A dim glow emanated from it.
    “Come on up. I’ll be right down to meet you,”
I could hear the springs from his bed moving, like he was getting
up to head downstairs.
    “Your family…” I started.
    “It’s okay. Don’t worry. They don’t know what
we’re doing. I’ll just say you’re a friend. I have friends over all
the time,” Ethan said, hanging up.
    He had friends over all the time, huh? How
many girls was he dating? Was I ready to meet his family? I mean,
we were just friends. Were we even that? Wait. Had Ethan Ripley
just called me his friend? I got out of the car and walked up to
the house, curious to find out the status of our relationship.
    “Hey,” Ethan said, opening the door, just as
I was about to ring the doorbell.
    His hair was wet, like he had just gotten out
of the shower. It was more curly than wavy when it was glistening
with water. Was it possible for him to get more hot? I think not. I
walked past him into the entryway. I could hear the murmurs of a
little girl talking in the kitchen and a television on in the
family room, down the way. I glanced at Ethan, unsure how to
proceed. Did his parents let him just bring girls up to his room on
Sunday nights? Did I have to meet them first?
    “I already told them I had a friend stopping
by. They’ll leave us alone,” Ethan shrugged, guessing my
question.
    I walked in and he shut the door behind me,
before he started heading up the stairs to his room. I hoped his
parents didn’t think what I think they were thinking. I wanted to
create a good impression, you know, just in case. Then again, being
that none of them saw me walk in, maybe they just thought I was a
guy. Maybe. Was it wrong to sort of want to meet his parents now?
Wait a second. Or, was Ethan embarrassed of me? Was that a
possibility? I shook my head to clear it. We were investigating a
girl’s death. Priorities.
    As we walked up toward Ethan’s room it
occurred to me that there was one thing I wanted to do before we
went to his room to discuss strategy. It was something we hadn’t
done the last time I was there, “Can I see your sister’s
bedroom?”
    Ethan looked at me for a long moment before
he nodded and walked to the other end of the hallway.
    Liz’s room was decorated with pictures of
Paws and other animals. She also had a bookshelf in her room, but
although hers had a few books, there were a ton of animal figurines
that she must have collected since she was a kid.
    Ethan seemed uncomfortable, “It feels really
weird to be in here now.”
    “I know,” I nodded as I looked around. It
took awhile for my dad and me to even box up my mother’s things.
Who knew how long it would take for Ethan and his parents to pack
up a sister and daughter.
    We were quiet as we looked around the room.
Ethan just glanced, but I moved forward and into the room, to take
a closer look. I wasn’t thrilled about rummaging through a dead
girl’s things, but it had to be done. Maybe there was some kind of
clue in here. Maybe she had noticed something weird about Troy. Or
maybe she had left some kind of clue about her murderer. Or, if the
police were really right, maybe she had a stash of heroin in her
underwear drawer.
    I actually wasn’t sure what I was looking for
in Liz’s room. I just wanted to be thorough. I was hoping a clue
would jump out at me. Liz was the one girl we actually had access
to – her life was an open book because of Ethan. We could actually
go into her room and not be breaking and entering. The other girls
– Olivia and Melissa and now Vanessa, were not, except for what was
on the internet. I couldn’t imagine going up to their mothers or
siblings or even friends, as