Naked Came I, Chapter One

Emeline Vance showed up at my house at five on a Thursday morning.  She rang my doorbell, standing in the air that was much too cold for April and the rain that was coming down slightly.  
It wasn't like it was a big deal.  I had been awake since four, watching early morning news with Alexei.  The news was just about to come on, anyway, but I had to answer the door before I could see it.  
"Em?  What are you doing here?"  I asked when I saw her standing on the porch of my house.  
She looked at me with eyes as big as flying saucers.  She was wearing a white men's button down shirt over her green t-shirt.  
"Did you see the news?"  She asked.  
"No… why, should I have?"  
"Can I come in?"  I opened the door wide enough for her to get inside.  She was shivering, so I poured her some of the coffee I had made almost an hour earlier.  
"Sorry I'm still in my pajamas."  I sat on the countertop, drinking warm chamomile tea.  I was never a coffee person, but my brother, Alexei, was.  "I was going to take a shower in a little bit.  What's up?"
"You have to watch the news, Andrea."  
"O-kay."  I got down from the countertop, going to the den where the TV was.  
"Lex, was anyone I know on the news?"  I asked my brother when I got there.  
He turned around, looking somewhat dazed.  "Huh?  Oh, um, no, but some teacher who taught at my middle school was busted for having an affair with an underage student.  Can you believe these people?"
"Alexei," I bend over to face him.  "You need to see if anyone who goes to TCS is on the television, and if they are, you need to tell me.  I'll be in the kitchen with Emeline."
He nodded.  "Who was in the kitchen?"
"I just said that."  Alexei tended to space out… a lot.
I got back into the kitchen, where Emeline was still sipping her coffee.  "So, what's up with the BC dinner jacket look?  Lost your sweatshirt?"
"It's not my shirt."  She took a long gulp of her coffee.  "It's Daniel Caulfield's."
I was confused.  I'd never heard of a Daniel Caulfield before.  
"Who?"  
"Go watch the news."  She pointed back to the den.  
"I don't want to keep going back and forth, Emeline.   Can you just tell me why I need to watch the damn news?"
Right as I said that, Alexei called, "Andy, come in here!  I found the person you told me about, I think."
I ran to the den, sick and tired of being played like a pawn.   I felt like I did on the track team during freshman year, running back and forth for a full two hours.  
"Yep, it's some kid who went to TCS.  He was in your grade, too.  He jumped off a bridge because he was crazy."
An older male reporter with big glasses that made his eyes look like they were under a microscope was interviewing a woman about the kid.  He had apparently dove off of a highway overpass into oncoming traffic and a semi-truck had run him over.  
"Yeah," The woman sounded like she was from Newfoundland.  "He just jumped off of that there bridge in front of the car.  We all saw him and the traffic stopped.  Some man got out of his vehicle and shot a call up to 911.  They were here in a few minutes to get the body."
The camera shot back to the news desk where a woman in a power suit sat, making the fact that she was reading off of a teleprompter completely obvious.
"The student who was run over has been identified as Daniel Caulfield.  Though his motives are still unknown, he was bipolar and this could have been a side effect of that, uh," She squinted, loosing her place.  "Disorder.  The most puzzling part of the case, however, was not the boy's motives, but the fact that he was holding a pair of women's panties when he jumped off of the overpass."
"Holy. Crap."  Alexei muttered.  "He totally banged a girl and then proved his love by killing himself."
"Why would he do that?  If she loved him and he loved her, wouldn't he want to stay around for a while?"
"Hm…" Alexei thought for a while.  "Your logic is pretty foolproof, however, aren't women flattered by men killing themselves for them?"
"No!  Why would you think that, Lex?"
"I don't know!"  He shrugged.  "I don't know things about women!"  
"Okay!  Then don't tell me things I already know about."  
I sat there watching the report for a little longer, and then it hits me like a rock.  Well, not exactly like a rock, but more like an acorn.  
"Oh my God.  Emeline is wearing that kid's shirt."
"What?"
"I think…" I hesitated.  "I think that he was holding her panties."
"So you're saying that HE banged her?  Whoa, a little too much information there, Andy."
"Lex, I didn't even know that she had a boyfriend.  How was I supposed to know this?"