Starry Eyed

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six

"The door's open!"

I couldn't possibly bring myself to open this door. My heart felt like it was being squeezed too tightly, bound by ropes I'd knotted up myself. Or maybe snakes. How many people had been in a situation as dramatic as this? Flanked by half a dozen police officers, innocent and still standing with a cop breathing down the back of your neck. This was the ultimate betrayal. It would take days of reconsidering my life to forgive myself for this.

The officer on my right wrapped his hand around the door knob, and I winced. Star was probably expecting Kim or Finn, or James and I. There was no room in her mind to expect her best friend and six trained proffesionals with shotguns in their pockets. Of course, they wouldn't be in use today. But just seeing the sleek black handles poking out of six pairs of jeans set me on edge. I doubted Star would be any different, judging by how upset she'd been when it was announced she was a suspect for the fire.

Black ash filled my mind as the door swung open, and the police officers spilled into the room. How subtle. Star was hunched over a leather binder in the corner of the room, one hand flitting across the page before her head snapped up towards the door.

I expected her to react in fear, ask why the officers were there or why her privacy had been so invaded. But this was Star Huntley we're talking about. She was nothing if not smooth.

Ever gracefully, she masked her surprise with an easy smile, as if she'd only been waiting for her friends to pay her a visit all along. She spoke, calm and smooth, not a hint of panic in her silk voice.

"Excuse my manners, officers, but don't you think that was a little too much? You nearly broke the door down."

"Star Huntley, I presume," the lead officer said calmly. They were both skirting around the strange atmosphere in the air as if they hadn't even noticed. But I could sense that tension better than anyone. "Officer Shadmon. These are my colleagues. It seems you know why we're here?"

She gave each of the officers a once over, seeming only mildly interested, with a mind half out of the conversation completely. Until she saw me. Our eyes locked, and inside my stomach heaved. Something sinister crossed her face. She was pissed. And in her eyes, she had the right.

"It's not what it looks like," I said quietly, as the cops turned to stare at me. I hadn't spoken much since they'd sought me out.

"You sold me out? For something I didn't do," Star spat. The bitterness in her voice was like a thick layer of ice; hard to crack, hard to melt, hard to do anything but slip and fall across. I went to protest, but the lead officer- Officer Shadmon, apparently- beat me to it.

"This young man didn't sell you out at all," he interrupted. Star's eyes narrowed, considering whether or not it was worth her while to listen. I prayed she wouldn't just disregard what he was saying completely. I was already stressed enough as it was. "Luca here was just told to guide us to your room. Star Huntley..."

In any crime thriller novel or straight-to-TV special, this would be the part where the officer told Star she was under arrest. But nothing that theatrical was ever going to happen. I hadn't had anything to do with the fact that six cops had arrived to hunt the principal's daughter down. I had just been the unfortunate passer-by who happened to be friends with her when the police needed help tracking her down. The face of the mission, but not the force behind it. I'd really struck out on this one.

"We understand you've already been through some thorough interviewing by your principal, but-"

"He's my dad, so you can't trust him, right?" Star stood up with a dramatic sigh, pushing her journal off the desk. It landed with a dull thud on the floor. "You want to interview me all over again, you think the fire and the murder were not coincidences, blah, blah, blah. I don't understand why I'm even a suspect in the first place!" Her gaze met mine again, sharp and dangerous, and I looked down at my shoes. Did she understand that I wasn't even part of this? That it was all an accident I was here today?