Kingston

40. Juliet

'Juliet, hey!' Conrad greeted me in surprise after I turned up at his dorm room after we were done in the drama studio and pounded quickly on his door. 'Everything okay?'

'Is your roommate here?' I asked, quietly.

'No, just me,' he replied.

I pushed my way past him into his room and studied it briefly, noting the soccer banners above his bed before I quickly turned to him.

'Has something happened?' he asked, worriedly.

'Okay, Olivia is going to start questioning Axel about you, so you have to be prepared,' I told him.

'Questioning Axel?' he replied, twisting his face. 'Juliet, I'm not following.'

'I was in the drama studio with Olivia, Brynn and Shane and Olivia and Brynn mentioned you dragging Chloe out of the common room that night,' I explained. 'Olivia said Chloe was about to tell her some gossip she knew about you right before Brynn stormed in and started the argument they were all in the middle of when we walked in and you dragged Chloe out.'

'Okay, this is all scrambling my brain,' Conrad groaned, shaking his head. 'What does this have to do with Axel?'

'They're suspicious, Conrad!' I exclaimed. 'They want to solve this murder case themselves! They're questioning students to find out stuff and Olivia is going to quiz Axel about you! Does Axel know anything?'

'No!' Conrad exclaimed.

'I'm serious, this is not the time to lie to protect my feelings,' I told him. 'If you've told Axel about us, and more so, that Chloe caught us, you have to tell me!'

'Why the hell would I tell anyone about us?' he cried.

I closed my eyes softly and tried to let the comment pass, knowing he hadn't intended to sound so harsh.

'Shit,' he hissed.

'It's fine,' I said, exhaling. 'I'm more concerned with keeping this between us so nobody finds out that Chloe had this over on us. Do you realise how bad that would look?'

'Yes, I do, I totally understand,' Conrad said. 'I promise I haven't said anything and I won't. If Axel comes to me asking questions I'll play dumb and just make something up about Chloe stealing some weed from my room or some shit.'

'Okay, good,' I sighed, with relief.

'Thanks for looking out for me,' Conrad said. 'So you've been hanging out with those three again tonight?'

'We have to work in the drama studio every night,' I told him, as we both sat on his bed.

'So...those guys wanna' solve Chloe's murder, huh?' Conrad questioned. 'What else do they know?'