"How did the watch come in your possession?"
"I don't know, sir. I've never even seen that watch before."
"You've said that before, but that watch fell out of your pocket, and I saw it with my own eyes. You must have an explanation for that," the officer, Officer Walsh, insists.
"I really don't know where it came from. Maybe it fell out of someone else's pocket?" I suggest tiredly.
We've been at this for the past hour, with the officer asking me the same question, and me answering the same answer. And honestly, it's starting to become tiresome.
"We emptied the tape of the hallway's camera, and that watch clearly fell out of your pocket."
"Is this an interrogation? Am I being held here? Or am I free to leave whenever I want? I'm assuming that this is a friendly questioning since I'm a minor, and you didn't read my Miranda rights nor did you ask me if I want a lawyer present," I say while looking him straight in the eye. "I'm also assuming that you don't have anything on me since this questioning is not being videotaped meaning that there's no case against me."
"I'm guessing you're either a law student, or you watch too many criminal shows," officer Walsh says looking impressed before he sighs. "No, you're not being held here, but you're the only lead we've got right now, and if you don't help us now, we will have no option but to bring you in for questioning with a warrant. I want to help you, but I can't do that if you don't tell me the truth."
Officer Walsh rubs his hands over his face and sighs for the millionth time before looking at me. "Let's take a different route. How long have you been studying here?"
"I'm a freshman, so I've been here for a little more than a month."
"What is your relation to Alexis Knight? Did you ever meet her?"
"The dorm I'm staying in used to be hers last year, and I only know that because her friend fought with me for staying in Alexis's room on my first day here. And no, I've never met Alexis before," I say, wondering when I'll finally get to go back to my dorm.
"Do you think that perhaps you found the watch in the dorm and kept it with you? Is this why you had it on you? You don't have to be afraid, you can tell me the truth." Officer Walsh says, his voice dripping with hope.
"No, I didn't find the watch in my dorm, I told you I've never seen it before in my life." I insist, getting fed up with being asked the same question.
Another officer enters the room and leans down to whisper something too low for me to catch before throwing me a look and leaving the room.
"Fine, you can go now. It looks like you have someone powerful on your side. If you remember anything, please don't hesitate to come and tell us. We'll have officers stationed all over the campus." He turns around to leave, but I quickly stop him.
"Can I go home for the next two days, or should I stay here on campus?" I ask for I'm afraid that if I just leave, they'll think that I'm running away because I have something to hide.
"I don't see why not. If we need to bring you in, we'll call you."
Standing up, I feel the officers scrutinizing gaze on me. I know what he's doing, he's trying to analyze my behavior to see if I'm hiding anything. Unfortunately for him, I'm not hiding anything, so what he's doing is useless.
Opening the door, I am surprised to see Mint standing in front of me looking mad.
Cursing my luck, I sigh and ignore how mad he looks. "You won't believe what just happened. The officer let me go and told me that someone powerful wanted me out. Who could that be?"
He looks at me with that same mad look before answering coldly, " it was my mom, I called her, and she pulled a few strings. These officers won't bother you again."
"Thank you so much, I was so afraid that they'd try to pin her murder on me or something," I sigh in relief, giving him a grateful look. However, when he continues standing there looking mad, I decide to finally ask him what's going on.
"What now? You can't believe this whole me being a suspect thing. I mean I wasn't even a student here last year, so it wouldn't even make sense for me to be a sus-"
Grabbing my hand to stop me from walking, he stands there silently observing me before shoving something into my face.
"What are you doing?" I whisper shout at him, not wanting to draw any attention to us.
Still, he remains silent but looks at the phone to tell me to look at whatever is on there.
Sending you only notes was becoming a bit old fashioned for me, so I'll alternate between the notes and messages now.
Anyways, see how easy it is for me to plant evidence on you?
This time it was something that wouldn't get you arrested, but who knows what I will plant next? Maybe it'll be the murder weapon?
xoxo
-S
"Who's that?" He asked.
I just stood there, disbelieving. Did he just ask me that?
"Who sent you this message?" He asks again, this time angrily.
That honestly made my blood boil. How could he open my phone, read my messages, and get angry at me? We haven't even been friends for a full day, and he's crossing so many boundaries.
"How dare you read my messages?" I ask him calmly. I will not let this anger me.
As if, haha! I'm not going to be surprised if smoke starts coming out of your ears in a few seconds.
"I didn't mean to snoop around or anything, but the message popped on the screen while I was looking at the time, and I just read it," he seemed to have realized what he said before because the anger on his face got replaced by guilt immediately.
"No, that's not an excuse. You're not a close friend of mine to give yourself the right to read my messages. And even if we were close friends, you still shouldn't read my messages," I will not back down on this one. If we'll be friends, he'll have to respect me and my privacy. "Even if you were checking the time and a message came up on the screen, you shouldn't have read it. You disrespected my privacy, and I can't be friends with you if you'll do this again."
"You're right. I shouldn't have read the message without asking you first," he says looking defeated.
"It's not only about the stupid message. It's about your principles. It's about knowing that you can't mind your own business. Next thing I know, you'll be searching through my stuff," I laugh sarcastically.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I promise that I'm normally not a nosey person, so please don't be mad at me," he pleads, looking at me with puppy eyes.
"I'm not mad," when I see the look on his face, I...change my statement. "Okay, maybe I am mad, but I have a right to."
"I know you do, but you also have to look at it from my point of view," he argued. "The first thing that my eyes fell on was 'see how easy it is for me to plant evidence on you' and I couldn't just not read further. Look, if you don't want to tell me who that is, it's okay, I get it. We've just become friends an hour ago. But if you're in danger, you have to tell someone...anyone."
"I don't know who it is," I mumbled quietly, but I guess he sensed that I didn't want to elaborate, so he didn't ask anything regarding the message.
"What happened in there? With the officer I mean? What were they even talking to you about?"
"When you stumbled into me - thank you for that by the way - I stumbled into the officer and a watch fell out of my pocket. And since no one respects privacy here, he kept inspecting the watch along with this other officer until they saw the engraving in the back."
Ignoring the hurt that crossed his face, I continue, "Surprise, surprise, the watch turned out to have been Alexis's"
"But...how did it get into your pocket?" He asks looking confused. "Right, excuse me for being a little slow. It was whoever sent you that message, right?"
Nodding, I stand there feeling helpless. Why did no one tell me that those mystery stories are not fun? I don't think that I'll ever look at those novels the same again.
"So what will you do now?" He asks.
"I think I'll go home, I need to get away from here for a while."
"Come on, I'll walk you to your building. Your roommate must be worried." He said quietly, and we both started walking towards the direction of the dorms.
This, whoever is sending me those messages, is really out to get me. They planned everything, but what's really bugging me is how that watch got into my pocket. How did they someone do that without my noticing?
I'm pretty sure that it wasn't there when I left the dorm before the speech. If it wasn't there then, that means that someone slipped it into my pocket while I was walking towards the auditorium.
Our best chance would be to replay the events from the moment we left the dorm. We need to bring whoever's doing this down.
Right, I left the room with Lena, and we walked towards the auditorium without interacting with anyone. Then, I stood in front of the entryway for a while before someone bumped into me. After that....wait, someone bumped into me and didn't even stop to help me up.
Bingo, the boy must've slipped it into your pocket.
But are we sure that it was that boy?
Who else would've done that? Unless it was one of your friends? Maybe Joanna or Mint? But we both know that it can't be them.
Does this mean that the person who's sending those messages is a boy? I think that it's only logical unless it's not only one person. What if the person, who's sending me the messages, is getting help from someone else?
Feeling the beginning of a headache forming, I start massaging my temples in hope that I'll ease the pain. This - everything that's happening - can't be healthy for me.
That's why I need to go home. I need to just go into my room, light my candles, and try to act as if the past month and a half didn't happen. I also desperately need to study, or else, I fear that I'll not do well on my midterm exams next week.
Coming to a halt in front of my building, I turn towards Mint. I really need to stop calling him that.
"So I'll see you when you come back? You don't have to say yes if you don't want to," he says in one breath as if hoping that if he speaks too quickly, I'll pity him and agree.
"Yes, I'll see you when I come back." I smile at him and wave before entering the building and leaving him standing there.
Making my way into my dorm, I prepare myself for all the questions that Lena will bombard me with. And true to my thoughts, she throws multiple questions at me the moment I open the door.
Before I start explaining everything again, I inform her that I'll be going home, which she agrees to without any hesitance. I think she could see how tired I feel, mentally, and physically.
So, while packing my bag, I recount everything that happened since we parted in the auditorium with her gasping almost every five seconds. It's also worth mentioning that I excluded all the parts that had to do with the messages and notes.
By the time I finished my story, she kept trying to convince me that one of Alex's friends - not Riley according to her - slipped that watch into my pocket because they're still bitter that we're staying in this particular room.
Oh, how I wish things were that easy.
Zipping my bag up, Alexis's journal catches the corner of my eyes, after making sure that Lena's not looking, I slide it into my bag.
Seeing that the person sending the messages is clearly capable of doing anything, I wouldn't want to leave it here. I'm pretty sure that if I do, I'll come back to an empty dorm. Besides, I want to read all the entries by the time I'm back here again.
This way, I'll truly be able to face the person.
Yesss, game on! Who says that we can't retaliate as well.? That person clearly needs to learn a lesson.
Hey you guys!
Soo, do you think that Rory overreacted when it came to Mint reading the messages? Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on who S could be.
Don't forget to vote and comment and let me know what you think if you liked this chapter.
Till the next chapter!