The heartstopper

Chapter 29

If you were to ask Charlie, he'd tell you that the interrogation wasn't too bad, they weren't in trouble, they didn't do anything wrong. How Charlie really felt was that the interrogation was the worst thing ever. The room was cold and drafty, even though the rest of the hotel was much more humid. The lady kept a very stern expression on her face and asked for direct answers which were hard to give.

When asked where they had come from before they found the body, what the lady wanted him to say was brief and missing many details. It was misleading. They had gone from the left end of the floor on their way to the elevator. They were alone, Nick and Charlie and hadn't been seen by anyone who may have recognized them for hours.

That's what she wanted to hear. Not the actual, extended version of the story. Not a summary of their day, or an explanation of why they were where they were.

Charlie was relieved when he got the okay to leave. It turned out that Nick had already gotten dismissed so he had to walk back with the male officer, officer Peterson, or at least he's pretty sure that was his name.

They walked back in silence, relief flooding over him once they'd reached their room. Nick was waiting inside, worried. He didn't want to wait back in their hotel room, where their friends were waiting for their return. He wanted to be waiting outside of the door for Charlie to exit and then they could have walked back together, having some privacy to discuss the interrogation process.

Nick had already told the friend group to not ask questions as they couldn't discuss it. It would all be revealed in due time. He knew they knew what had happened to a certain extent, he wasn't going to deny it any longer, they knew their facade was bullshit.

---

"I bet it was one of the stupid -insert homophobic slur here- that killed my brother!" Some girl cried. The time was approximately six forty-five and people were a mess, as usual.

"I bet it's some old French guy wanting to see us suffer!" Someone else claimed.

"Fuck the French!" A voice yelled. That was definitely not the right thing to yell in the middle of the French hotel. Those who understood what he had said had moved from their spots, looking like they were about to punch a bunch of teenagers.

The yelling was happening just outside of the restaurant, they were standing in the hotel lobby, catching the attention of people who were trying to head to dinner. Many people who were eating their dinners in the restaurant had gone silent, after hearing the yelling.

Not all of the yelling being heard throughout the hotel was from their classmates, people were stressed and on edge. There was a couple on the second floor who were constantly having screaming matches as their young child cried right in front of them.

In addition to them, there was a lady on the fifth floor, staying in the room right above Nick, Charlie, Tao and Isaac's room. By the sounds of it, the lady's husband was having an affair with another woman and she had just found out. The yelling had only started at some point that afternoon but it was constant and they kept slamming the door and stomping all over the room. Based on their voices, they sounded like an older couple. They spoke English so the squad was able to understand most of their screaming matches.

There was whispering from the table diagonally closest to the table where Tao, Isaac, Tara, Darcy, Elle, Nick and Charlie sat, seated in the corner.

"What do you think about Elle? I mean, she only transferred to Higgs earlier in the year," One of the girls at the table spoke in a hushed tone.

"She does seem like the type, doesn't she?" Her friend said back.

"I bet she has a criminal record, probably killed people at her old school,"

"I think she went to Truham before,"

"The boys' school?"

"Mhm! Then she showed up at Higgs with no friends,"

"I bet she singled out Tara and Darcy, why else would they become friends?"

"Maybe they pitied her," One girl offered.

"Tara's always been really nice, probably felt bad for the new girl,"

"You think the three of them are dating?"

That's when the group of seven stopped listening.

"...Why are straight people like this?" Tara questioned, sighing as she rubbed her face with both of her hands.

"Someone get me some anti-homophobia cheese, please," Darcy said, slamming her head down onto the table.

"Does anyone know their Instagrams? I am about to send a strongly worded DM," Tao grunted.

"I think the one girl is @ Mik__la, her name's Mikayla, you could probably find the others tagged in her posts," Darcy piped up, propping her head up from where she had previously slammed it onto the table.

"Thank you," Tao took out his phone and started typing.

"Tao, you can't deal with all of our problems by sending strongly worded DMs," Elle exhaled. Unfortunately, it was true. She's had her fair share of nasty DMs sent to her, giving a reaction will only make things worse.

Tao placed his phone, face-up on the table.

"Just a quick one," He pleaded, looking Elle in the eyes. "Come on, Charlie gave me permission to murder Nick if he's even slightly mean to him!" Tao exclaimed, slightly too loud. He probably shouldn't have confessed that in such a public place.

She rolled her eyes. "Just a quick one." She answered with a slight grin.

"Yess!" He celebrated, continuing to type out his wordy message. Several minutes later, the strongly-worded DMs were sent out and the group of girls, -and one boy- read their messages, looking up at the friend group who sat in the usual seats, looking a bit too smug. The message may not have been what Elle would have considered 'quick' but Tao quite enjoyed writing out his messages, making sure to get Elle to correct the spelling, making sure that they didn't have anything to poke fun at, but also not using perfect grammar to not seem too snobby. He put thought into his strongly worded DMs.