Drunken Murder || Luke Hemmings ✔

VI

That Monday at school was hell. Everyone avoided Ashton, Calum, Allie, Michael, and I like we were the black plague. I don't blame them. I mean, who'd actually want to hang around the person that supposedly killed one of the most popular people in the school? Most people around here wouldn't, but then again, I was. But, Ashton was right about what he said the other day. Everyone here did think he was the one that killed Stephanie, even though we knew that he didn't.

Ashton didn't sit with us at lunch that day, so we all just sat there in silence the whole lunch period. He was probably hiding in bathroom, since he was a lot safer in there than he was if he had actually came to lunch. The teachers didn't give a shit about what anyone did during lunch, so Ashton would've been pretty much screwed. Allie had come over and sat with us about half way through the lunch period because her friends were pissed at her for not breaking up with Ashton. I understand why they'd be mad at her, but I didn't get why they kicked her out of their table. It didn't seem like it was that big of a deal. I could be wrong about that, though.

Thankfully I got out of English for the second Monday in a row (Mondays were always the worst in the class) because the police had brought Calum, Ashton, and I down to the station for questioning. Michael didn't need to come along with us, since he wasn't at the party. The fat that they were actually going to question us did surprise me a little bit, since the police haven't really done anything at all to try and solve the case. It did make some sense, being that this was the only lead they had.

They sent each of us into a different room to be questioned (I assumed that they only would've had one room for questioning). The officer who was sent into the room, who just happened to be the chief of police (Officer Brunswick), asked me if I wanted anything to drink before pulling a hard wooden chair, which was identical the one I was sitting on, over to the table so he'd be sitting straight across from me.

"So Luke, you were at Kevin Lavigne's party this past Friday night, correct?" he asked me after I told him I wasn't thirsty. I nodded my head yes.

"Do you recall seeing Mr. Irwin and the now deceased Miss Orbitz that night at the party?" I nodded my head yes again.

"Could you please explain what you remember happening that night?" Officer Brunswick asked me. I began to explain what I remembered, leaving out the fact that I had been drinking, not wanting to get in any trouble since I was only seventeen. I just hoped Calum didn't mention anything about that either because he was seventeen too.

"So after you saw the two of them leave the party, you didn't see Mr. Irwin again until the next morning?" he asked once I had finished.

"Not until I went to the diner he was at to pick him up sir," I replied. He nodded his head and jotted down a few notes on a piece of paper before standing up and heading over to the door. Officer Brunswick walked out of the room for a couple of minutes to talk to the other police officers before walking back into the room.

"That's all we need for right now. We'll get in touch if there's anything else we need to ask you about," he said, holding the door open for me as I walked out of the room and out into the parking lot, where Calum and Ashton were already waiting.

"Took you long enough," Calum said. Ashton just stood there staring at the ground while twiddling his thumbs. His face was fairly red, and there were some wet spots on his grey Rolling Stones shirt. It was pretty obvious that he had been crying while they questioned him.

"Whatever. Let's just go home."

"But what about Ashton's car?" Calum asked. I pulled out my phone and texted Allie, asking her if she could drive it home for us. She replied right away, saying that she would.

"Allie's going to drive it home," I answered.

"But she doesn't have her license..." Ashton muttered

"She's does her her permit, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah..."

"Then Allie should be fine!" I exclaimed as began to make my way back to our house. Calum rolled his eyes and Ashton just shook his head as they followed me home.

I immediately went to bed to take a nap when we got home. I was completely tired from all the questioning and explaining I had to do. I didn't realize how tired I was because I didn't wake up until my alarm for school went off the next morning. My homework definitely wasn't done, so I was going to be in a TON of trouble today. Oh well, I'd just have to attempt to do it so it would qualify as done on the car ride to school.

"Hey, where's Ashton?" I asked Calum, who was eating some toast when I had walked into the kitchen. I glanced over at the clock. It was seven o'clock, so we only had twenty minutes before it was time to leave.

"Still sleeping I think. He didn't come out to his room last night after we got home. Allie had to go in there and practically beg him to eat dinner," Calum replied, sounding a bit worried. It wasn't like Ashton to not want to eat dinner.

"I'll go upstairs and check on him. If he's not actually going to school, he could at least drive us because I am NOT riding that horrid bus," I said, turning around and heading back up the stairs to Ashton's room. When I opened the door, I didn't see anyone in the room. The bed was made, so he either was already up, or he hadn't gone to sleep last night.

"Ashton?" I called out. When I didn't receive an answer, I walked over to the bathroom to knock on the door. The door slowly creaked open after the first knock. (Which was barely even a knock, in my opinion). I peaked through the opening to find Ashton laying on the floor in front if the shower in a puddle of his own blood. My knees went weak, and I fell onto the hallway floor. Thankfully the trashcan was right by the bathroom door because I grabbed it as the small contents of my stomach spilled out into the trashcan. I recovered a little bit after sitting there for a couple minutes, and reached over and grabbed Ashton's wrist to try and find a pulse, even though my hands were shaking. I was silently praying that he was alive when I was interrupted by Calum.

"Hey Luke did you find Ashton and wake him- Holy shit," Calum said, appearing behind me as I was still trying to find a pulse. "Is he?"

"Yeah, I think Ashton's dead."