The Way Things Change

Chapter 4

We walked out of the bathroom and I grabbed Dawson's hand and I immediately pull my hand back, regretting what I did, but as soon as I do he grips my hand even tighter and smiles at me. We walk towards the rest of the group and Nick's eyes immediately goes to our hands. I pull my hand out of his grasp and take a step away from him. He gives me an odd look but I ignore it and pretend I don't know why he's giving me that look. The same police officers from earlier come over to us and the younger one looks at my wrapped up hands but doesn't say anything. He tells us that we will all be put in separate room and be questioned individually. The whole group gets lead over to an area with a bunch of different rooms. Payton, Seth, Nick, and Katie got put into their own rooms, and there was only one room left so the police officer said "Are you two okay with sharing a room, we have no more?"

I immediately say "That's fine." Mentally slapping myself for answering that quickly. Dawson says

"Yeah that's fine." And I breathe a sigh relief glad that he was okay with that. The police officer directs us into a room and asks us to sit down, and that someone would be in there in a moment. The only thing in the room is a metal table and two metal chairs sitting right next to each other and then another two across from them. We sit down and the chairs are so close together that our thighs are touching. We sit in silence not saying a thing for about 30 minutes until someone finally opens the door. I straighten up in my seat and two people enter the room, the first one says "Hello, Emily and Dawson right?" She asks. I nod and so does Dawson. "I'm Detective Allen and this is my partner Detective Black." The detectives sit down across from us and say "It says here that you are were with Alexus last night?" She asks.

"Yes." I say and Dawson says "Yes."

"And where were you guys?"

"We were at a party." I said.

"Yes, and we have a video from that party and we will have someone bring that in here in a minute."

"Emily when did you leave?"

"Um around 10:30 I think." I told her.

"And why did you leave?" She asks.

"Um, Alexus had gotten too drunk, I tried to get her to come home with me, so she wouldn't have to stay there all night and not have a ride back, but she told some people something that I didn't want them to know." I say.

"And what was that?"

"She went around telling people how my family died." I say.

"And how did that happen?" She asks.

"Don't you have that in a report somewhere?" I ask.

"Yes but I want to hear your side of the story." She says.

"My mom and dad were picking my younger sister, brother, and I up from our grandparents house. He started to kind of swerve in and out of lanes so I asked him if he was okay, he had a hard time answering, I told my mom that she should take the wheel, and when she told him to pull over he said he was fine, it was about 10 feet later when our car went off the side of a bridge. Water was filling up our car and my sister and brother were banging against the windows, I tried to kick the windows, but it wouldn't work. My mother reached back and grabbed my hand, and she mouthed I love you, I remember not being able to breath, and I held on to my sister and brother while they lost consciousness. Next thing I know I'm waking up in a hospital with no family left. I've been living with my Uncle and my cousin Katie for a few months now." I say and try to keep my tears down.

"I'm very sorry for your loss." She says.

"Don't you mean losses? My parents, my sister, and brother, and now Alexus everyone I care for dies." I say.

"So please do your job and find whoever did this." I say getting angrier but the second.

"We will, but we need all of your guys help. We think it was someone at the party that killed her." Detective Black says.

"What do you mean someone at the party killed her?" Dawson asks.

"Did they not tell you guys where she was found?" Detective Black asks. We both shake our heads no and wait for them to tell us.

"Her body was found in the backyard the party took place in." Allen says.

"Well then this should be easy, just check the footage." I say wanting to go sit and cry knowing if I had stayed longer she wouldn't be dead.

"That was our first thought, but the footage stopped 1 hour before she died." Allen says.

"Are you serious?" I ask. "You guys have the footage of everything but when she was murdered?"

The detectives nod and someone knocks on the door. Someone pops their head in and hands a laptop to Detective Black. He puts the laptop where everyone can see it and pushes play. A video of the party starts. Payton, Alexus, and I are all talking in the living room and I look at the smile on her face, the one I'll never see again. Black skips forward and stops right when that huge guy confronted me.

"Emily what was happening here?" Detective Allen asks.

I move in my seat getting uncomfortable "Well this guy bumped into me and didn't say anything so I told him to watch where he was going, he started backing me into a corner, when Dawson came and said that I owed him a dance and the guy left me alone." I say. Allen nods and keeps fast forwarding and stops in the middle of me and Dawson's dance scene when Nick came up and pushed him backwards.

"What happened here?" Allen asks.

"Um Dawson and I were dancing and Nick got mad and he pushed Dawson back." I say. She pushes play on the video. The scene starts moving and Dawson and I are dancing really, really close when Nick comes over and pushes him away from me and starts yelling. We watch the video for a while two minutes when she pauses it again.

"Does Nick normally get mad like that?" Black asks.

"No, in fact I rarely see him mad at all, he is just really protective of me. He's basically my brother." I tell him.

"And if Alexus were to go around telling your secrets he would probably be a little mad about that." He asks with an unreadable look on his face.

I lean forward in my chair "I'm not sure what you're asking me." I say suddenly getting really protective of Nick especially if they're accusing him of murder. "Would Nick hurt Alexus?" Black asks circling the room, like he's stalking his prey.

"No." I say simply because he never would.

"What about Seth? He's your cousin too he must also be pretty protective of you." He asks. He looks at Dawson. "Or him for that matter."

"Excuse me?" Dawson asks. "What the hell does this have to do with anything!? You should be out there trying to catch her killer!" He yells and stands up.

"That's what we're trying to do." Black says. They're voices arguing fades out as it dawns on me what's going on here.

I stand up so fast my chairs falls backwards. Everyone in the room falls silent.

I look up at everyone and say

"You think the killer's one of us."

Author's Note: I know I know, I have not updated in two weeks! It has hurt me too. But I have been extremely busy with my final test and everything for school. I am done with those now! Yay! But I still have a week and three days left of school. I know I am not the only one ready for the pool, wattpad, and reading all summer!