The Mystery Of Eastbrooks High

Chapter Nine: Persons Of Interest

THEIR KITCHEN WAS PERFECT. Austin's eyes that were roaming around, inspecting every inch of Norah's house stilled at the sight of their kitchen. It was small, modern, and had all the things a kitchen needed to become a kitchen. Not flowing with extravagance like the kitchen back at Austin's house. Everything was neat and organized.

Norah's little brother, Julian, stepped in and turned the kitchen lights on, and handed Austin a water bottle. Austin accepted it with a grateful nod and chugged down its contents, finally feeling better. His mouth and throat had been so dry.

Austin's phone vibrated with a series of texts from Sabrina. The texts were frantic, worried and demanding. He snorted at the spelling mistakes, correcting them because he knew it got on her nerves, before replying to her questions. Beside him, Norah was peering at her phone too.

"Sabrina's coming here," Norah said, locking her phone and setting it on the granite countertop. "Is she?" Austin asked. "Yeah, she seems quite concerned about us. Apparently, she's in Westbrooks."

"Yeah, she's on a date. Remember the cashier she found cute in the bookstore?"

Norah's eyes lit up with recognition, "Oh, her? They looked cute together!"

Austin shook his head, "She's in her panic mode right now. I have no idea how she heard about us with Ruby, but she's super worried now. She refuses to answer any of my questions, demanding to know everything."

Norah nodded in a 'Ohh' manner, her mind drifting elsewhere. Austin still couldn't process things well. Everything was a blur after Ruby died, except for his conversations with Norah. Everything else was just too rushed. His interview with the officer at the site, at the station. After the interview, Austin insisted on dropping Norah at her house, knowing it would provide him with a feeling of peacefulness. After what he had just witnessed, he wanted to make sure she reached home safely.

But as soon as his car stopped in the driveway, Norah had dragged him into the house. "You're pretty tired, thirsty and hungry. And you need to clean up too," she had said, staring at his bloodstained clothes. "Just stay here and clean up, eat, drink. Your mind needs to cool down a bit. Your parents would bombard you with questions the moment you enter your house, so just stay here, cool down," she had told him, dragging him by his hand into the house. He wanted to laugh out then and there, his parents wouldn't be that worried to bombard him with questions. His dad, maybe. But his mom would experience a mild relief at not losing their only heir to the company.

Her little brother, Julian, had lent his clothes, and here Austin was, standing in the middle of Daniels household in a casual T shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

He offered to help Julian, who was starting to cook dinner. Julian said no at first, telling that he was their guest. But Julian agreed after Austin said that he liked cooking, and that it would help him get his mind off what had happened. Julian opened one of the cabinets, lifting a black cover, revealing a set of knives. Austin didn't ask anything about it as Julian handed him the knife, and Julian seemed to be grateful about it. Julian looked over his shoulder at his sister. Norah was sweating, her eyes panicked.

"Hey, you okay?" Austin asked, concerned. "Yeah, yeah," Norah nodded her head thrice, in a rushed manner. "Do us a favour and get out of the kitchen will you? I'm scared that your really bad cooking skills would affect us too," Julian said with a sarcastic tone and a huge smile, but his eyes were worried and glinting. His eyes darted to the hall and back to Norah, as if signalling her to go back. Austin decided to not ask about that either. He didn't want to pry. Instead, he said, "Is she bad at cooking?"

Julian relaxed at the question and barked out a laugh, "The worst. She managed to set fire to the kitchen once. She'd been barred from this place ever since. Eres una idiota, hermana," [You're an idiot, sister.] Julian shouted the last part, and that elicited another shout from Norah. Austin laughed at that, the laugh sounding fake to him. Every word, every expression and every sound he made were forced out of him, pretty fake. His insides were a mess, his mind was spiraling towards a dark place, and the only thing holding his mind together was the constant effort to pretend being fine.