Kingston

38. Shane

I changed out of my uniform after a slow day of classes and into some comfortable clothing. My plan was to go and see Hanna and find out what had happened with the detectives the day before so I was rushing around but I knew my plan was to be delayed when Axel entered the room.

'Hey,' he said, dropping his things to his bed and strolling towards me. I had always loved the way Axel looked in school uniform; I'd always daydreamed about ripping it right off of him.

'Hey to you too,' I replied, grinning from where I was sitting on my bed putting on my sneakers.

He leaned down and kissed me and I laid back on the bed and pulled him with me. After a whirlwind of feeling overwhelmed and sad and confused, it was nice to finally get a moment of normality and be alone with him again. I had eased off so Olivia could have him to help her get through things but I did still worry that it would make him gravitate back to her.

'How are you feeling?' Axel asked me, as he gently nudged my nose with his.

'I don't really know what I'm feeling,' I sighed. 'There's so much going on.'

'I talked to the detectives today,' he said, and we both sat up to talk properly. 'They asked me a load of questions but I didn't really have anything to give them.'

'So you obviously didn't tell them anything about us and Chloe seeing us and you running after her etcetera?' I questioned.

'Of course not,' he sighed. 'We agreed I wasn't going to, right?'

'Right, yeah, I was just checking,' I replied.

'I would come clean about talking to her not long before she died but it just means having to tell them everything and I'm not ready for that to come out yet,' he told me.

'Olivia wouldn't find out,' I told him. 'You could ask the detectives to keep that information confidential.'

'Margo is in the room when you're questioned and I can't bear to think of how she'd react upon finding out I'm sleeping with my roommate and cheating on my girlfriend,' he groaned. 'Plus, look what happened to Gabriella over Chloe catching her sniffing a little cocaine. Chloe caught me cheating on her best friend and uncovered the huge secret that I'm actually g...'

'Gay?' I finished the sentence for him. 'You're not ready to say it out loud yet I see.'

'My point is, I would definitely become a suspect,' he sighed.

'Not necessarily,' I said. 'After you spoke to Chloe she returned to the dorms because Hanna had an argument with her. She's volunteered this information to the detectives so they'll know Chloe was still alive after you ran after her and begged her.'

'They still have no idea about what happened when she died, Shane,' Axel said. 'She could have talked to a hundred people after she spoke to me, but what about when she finished talking to Hanna and everybody else she may have spoken to? She left the grade 12 wing again because she was found in the lobby. There's still room for it to have been me.'