We arrived at the pond, which I knew to be deeper than it looked.

"Ummmm, maybe we should get the police involved?" Kate said, wringing her hands. "I'm scared of water."

"Then I'll go in," said Alexia.

And with that, she plopped in.

She came up almost immediately, holding a soaked cloth, tied tight around its inner contents.

Carolina gulped, stepping back.

We quickly unwrapped it to find a knife-

"I knew it," Kate muttered.

- and a laminated note addressed to Carolina.

The plastic coating twinkled at me, as if Xavier himself was winking, because he knew what she would do with the note.

'Dear Carolina,
Yep, I'm dead. I know. Go ahead, cry, I'll wait. I'm dead, I can afford to wait! So now that you're done, please get rid of this gross knife. It's too nice to be in my apartment! And just so you know, I killed myself because I didn't want to live. It's not you or anyone else. I don't want to live and I don't wanna die. Everyone thinks they know exactly who I am, but they don't. They all think I'm too happy to do this. For god's sakes, my parents forced me to move here when I was eight! How happy could my life be? This'll put a shock into those namby-pamby ninnies, eh?

Love, Xavier Clark at his Deadest

P.S., I'm still dead.'

I clapped a hand to my mouth. Even in his last moments of life, Xavier was Xavier, forever optimistic and funny. Forever loving me. And Carolina. All of us, really.