Deal With It

forty two

Maybe Daniel was purposely taking longer in the hope that I'd leave? I wouldn't though. I was staying right here and nobody could do anything about it. "Excuse me, miss? Do you need some help?" A middle-aged policeman approached me. Maybe they would throw me out.

"Oh, no, I'm just waiting for—" I started to say when Zach moodily walked out. "There he is!" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet. "I should leave now."

I scurried over to him and Daniel scowled at me, still not happy that I hadn't listened to him. I didn't understand why he wanted to keep me away from this anyway. I would find out who it was sooner or later, but I preferred for it to be sooner.

Zach walked right outside and I followed him, tugging onto the sleeve of his jacket before stepping in front of him. "Where are you going? I need some answers," I said.

"I don't have any,"

"Yes, you do!  How did you know about Tyler being there? Tell me. I know you told the cops who was behind everything, so why not me?"

"Arissa," he warned. "Everything will be clear once their investigation is over, I can't disclose information."

This was all so frustrating. I didn't understand what the problem was in telling me. It wasn't like I would approach whoever it was or go around spreading gossip. I just needed answers to free myself from the endless cycle of questions in my head.

He shook his head and made his way to his car which was only a few steps away from me. "It was Jake, wasn't it?" I boldly asked, placing my hands on my hips. He froze, facing me after a couple of seconds.

"No, it wasn't."

Was he lying? His tone was convincing but I was worried he was just covering for Jake. After all, he gave me in and because of that, I was assaulted. Anything could have happened that day but he didn't try to help me in any way. He was on their side.

But then he apologised, which definitely wasn't enough, however he informed me about Tyler and if it wasn't for that, it could have been much too late for him to survive. I felt confused, wondering if I could trust the person before me or not.

"Really? Then who was it?" I demanded an answer. Nobody else came to mind.

He chewed on his bottom lip, tossing his car keys between his hands as he decided whether he should tell me. "Gabriel," he finally answered. "The host of the party. It was him."

"Who the hell is that and why would he do it? How do you even know?"

"Tyler has more enemies than you know, Arissa," he said as he opened the door to his car. "I knew something just wasn't right when Tyler went to his house. All it took was a little searching." He sat inside his car and slammed the door shut, leaving me stood here before I could ask him more.

What on earth was he talking about? Why couldn't Tyler visit this Gabriel guy? What had happened between Tyler and Gabriel that meant it was dangerous for them to even be around one another?

I heard a few voices and looked back to see about three inspectors walking together, including Daniel. He seemed heavily involved in this case and was holding a thin bundle of documents in his hands. His forehead creased slightly when his gaze landed on me and he changed his route, walking towards me rather than to the police car where he initially seemed to be headed.

"Why are you still here?"

"Why are you constantly trying to get rid of me?"

"Well, this isn't really your scene," he pointed out our location and I rolled my eyes. "How is Tyler?" he tried to distract me by bringing him up.