Eclipse {Ravi Singh}

11

disclaimers: i dont own agggtm

ravi took 14 minutes to get to romers close which was four minutes less than the estimated time if someone was walkimg at a normal pace.
"What is it?" he asks, running a hand through his hair to get it out of his face.
"it is a lot of things, im not quite sure where to start so mari will." pip mumbles.
"You’re freaking me out."
"we're freaking ourselves out too. alright, you know we were looking for the drug dealer, from pips lead at the calamity party. he was there tonight, dealing in the car park and we followed him home. He lives here, sun. the road where andie’s car was found."
"one thats dangerous. two, how do you even know he’s the guy that supplied andie?" he asked.
"we didn’t for sure, we do now. But wait there’s another thing I
have to tell you first." pip pauses and glances at amaris.
"please dont get mad." amaris whispers her gaze on the ground.
"why would i get mad, moon?"
"um, because we lied to you, we told you that sal’s police interview hadn’t
arrived yet, but it did, like two weeks ago."
"what?" ravi asks quietly, hurt flashing through his voice and face.
"im sorry." amaris whispers still not meeting ravis gaze.
"when it arrived and i read through it, i thought you’d be better off not seeing it. mari agreed." pip says
"Why?" ravi looks away from the girl infront of him and to pip
"because it looked really bad for sal. he was evasive with the police and outright told them he didn’t want to say why he and andie were arguing on that thursday and friday. it looked like he wastrying to hide his own motive. and we were was scared that maybe he’d actually killed her and mari didn’t want to upset you."
"you think sal is guilty after all this?" ravi asks causing maris head to snap upwards, towards him.
"no, no i dont- we dont. we doubted it for awhile, and i was scared about what it might do to you. we were wrong to do that. im sorry, it- it wasnt my place. and we were also wrong to doubt sal. i- im really sorry ravi." amaris whispers the last sentence as she finally meets his eyes.
ravi stares into amaris eyes as he scratches the back of his head. "okay," ravi finally says after a devastating pause. to amaris the pause made her feel like she had really fucked up, like ravi was really mad at her and nothing could fix it. to ravi the pause was brought on because he had gotten lost in her eyes, he was admiring the way the pink in her glasses compliments her green eyes when he remembered where they were and what was happening. "its alright, i get why you did it. so whats going on?"
"we just found out exactly why sal was so weird and evasive in his
police interview, and why he and andie were arguing. vome on. This is the drug dealer’s house, look at his car, ravi." pip says when they stop infront of howies house.
"oh." ravi says his eyes still on the licences plate.
"oh indeed." pip agrees with a nod.
"actually i think this is a 'holy pepperoni' moment or holy shit moment if thats what you prefer, moon." ravi says glancing to his side at amaris who rolls her eyes as she shivers from the cool breeze the night had brought.
"Sal wrote that number plate in the notes on his phone, on wednesday the eighteenth of April at about seven forty-five p.m. He must have been suspicious, maybe he’d heard rumours at school or something. So he followed andie that evening and must have seen her with Howie and this car. And what she was doing." as pip talks ravi takes off his hoodie and hands it to amaris who smiles greatfull up at him and takes it.
"that’s why they were arguing in the days before she went missing, sal hated drugs. hated them." ravi says.
"so when the police asked them about their arguments, he wasnt being evasive to hid his motive. he was trying to protect his girlfriend, he didnt believe she was dead. he thought she was coming back, he didnt want her to get in trouble with the police because he told them she was dealing drugs."
"and the final text he sent her on that friday night." pip adds to her sisters words.
"'‘I’m not talking to you until you’ve stopped'" ravi quotes and amaris turns to ravi with a smile.
"you know, sun, your brother has never looked more innocent then right now."
"thank you. you know, i’ve never said this to a girl before, but...... I’m glad your sister came knocking on my door out of the blue."
pip purses her lips, "i distinctly remember you telling me to go away." she says interrupting ravi and amaris's moment.
ravi lets out a breathy chuckle, "yea and i distinctly remember amaris, yelling at me for that. seems like you fitz-Amobi girls are hard to get rid of."
"that we are. ready to do some knocking with us?" pip asks.
"wait. no. what?" ravis eyes shift between the two girls.
"oh, come on, dont be a wuss. you’re
finally about to get some action." amaris calls out with a playful smirk as her and pip walk to howies front door.
"gah, so hard not to point out all the innuendoes. wait, moon- guys what are you doing? hes not going to talk to us." ravi says coming up beside amaris.
"he will, pips got leverage." amaris says pulling the sleeves of the hoodie ravi gave her earlier over her hands.
"what leverage?" ravi asks as they come up on the front door.
"hush, sun." amaris whispers grabbing ravis hand and intertwining their fingers while pulling him somewhat closer to where their shoulders were brushing. some point during this pip had knocked on the door.
"hello, howie bowers, please may we buy some drugs?" pip says and amaris's eyes widen before she turn and stuffs her face into ravis arm so that it muffled her giggle.
"who the hell are you?" howie spits and amaris giggles again knowing that pip was going to respomd in a funny way.
"i’m the hell person who took these lovely photos earlier tonight."
amaris pulls her head from ravis arm and turns back to pip and howie while trying to keep a straight face.
"‘Interestingly I know this boy you sold drugs to. His name’s Robin. I wonder what would happen if I called his parents right now and told them to search his backpack. I wonder if they’d find a small paper bag of treats. And then I wonder how long it would take for the police to come knocking round here, especially once I give them a call to help them
along." pip says after showing howie the photos.
"What do you want?" howie grunts.
"I want you to invite us in and answer some of our questions."
"that’s all, and we won’t go to the police." amaris adds.
"what about."
"about andie bell. ‘You know, the girl you supplied with drugs to sell on to schoolkids. the same girl who was murdered five years ago. remember her?"
"well if he doesnt its fine, im sure the police will." amaris says adressing her sister although pip knew the words were meant for howie. ravi smirks at the ground shaking his head some, the Fitz-Amobi never ceased to entertain him.
"fine, you can come in." howie gives in.
"excellent," pip looks over her shoulder at ravi and mouths, leverage. ravi rolls his eyes and pulls both girls behind him as he crosses the thresh hold first. howie and ravi stare eachother down before howie receeds down the hallway ravi and the twins following.
"this way." howie says gruffly going into the living room and sitting on the armchair. ravi sits on the couch opposite of howie, his posture straighter than amaris has ever seen it. pip and amaris sit on either side of him.
"your the brother of that guy who murdered her." howie points his beer at ravi.
"allegedly." the three on the couch answer at the same time.
a moment of silence passes between them as the tensions rise.
"you understand that we’ll go to the police with these pictures if you
don’t answer our questions about Andie?" pip asks and howie lets out a small laugh.
"yes, darling, you've made that clear enough."
"call her darling again and I'll call the police right now." amaris's voice was dripping with venom as she sat forward glaring at howie.
"okay." howie says to amaris meeting her glare.
"good, I’ll keep my questions nice and clear too. When did andie first start working with you and how did it come about?" pip asks.
"I don’t remember. Maybe early 2011. And she was the one who came to me. All I know is I had this ballsy teenager strolling up to me in the car park, telling me she could get me more business if I gave her a cut. Said she wanted to make money and i told her that I had similar interests. Don’t know how she found out where I sold."
"So you agreed when she offered to help you sell?"
"Yeah, obviously. She was promising an in with the younger crowd,
kids I couldn’t really get to. It was win-win." howie answers pip.
"And then what happened?" ravi asks, tensing when howies cold gaze goes to him. amaris hooks their pinkies discreetly.
"We met up and I set her some ground rules, like about keeping the stash and money hidden, about using codes rather than names. Asked what kind of stuff she thought kids at her school would be into. I gave her a phone to use for business stuff and that was it really. I sent her out into the big wide world." howies smile sent shivers down amariss spine.
"andie had a second phone?" amaris asks.
"yeah, obviously. Couldn’t be arranging deals on a phone her parents pay for, could she? I bought her a burner phone, pre-paid in cash. Two actually. I got the second one when the credit on the first ran out. Gave it to her only a few months before she got killed."
"Where did Andie keep the drugs before she sold them on?" ravi asks secretly pulling amaris closer to him.
"That was part of the ground rules. I told her this little business venture of hers would go nowhere if she didn’t have somewhere to hide the stash and her second phone without her parents finding it. She assured me she had just the place and no one else knew about it."
"where is it?" ravi presses
"Um, think it was some kind of loose floorboard in her wardrobe. She said her parents had no idea it existed and she was always hiding shit there."
"So, the phone is probably still hidden in Andie’s bedroom?" Pip asks
"i don’t know. Unless she had it on her when she . . ." howie crosses his finger sharply across his throat and makes agurgling sound.
amaris glances up at ravi, his jaw was ticked and he was staring at howie like his gaze would be able to hold howie there.
"ok," pip starts, "so which drugs was andie selling at house parties?"
"Started just weed, By the end she was selling a load of different things."
"she asked which, howard, so list them." amaris spits at howie who rolls his eyes and laughs.
"do what she said, howie." ravi says still glaring at him.
"Yeah, ok. She sold weed, sometimes MDMA, mephedrone, ketamine. She had a couple of regular buyers of Rohypnol."
"rohypnol?’ Pip repeated, and amaris could hear her shock. "You mean
roofies? Andie was dealing roofies at school parties?"
"Yeah. They’re for, like, chilling out, though, too, not just what most
people think."
"did you know who was buying Rohypnol from andie?" pip ask.
"um, there was this posh kid, I think she said. dunno."
"a posh kid? was this posh kid a blonde guy?" pip asks and amaris knew she was asking about max hastings.
howie shrugs, and amaris pull out her phone waving it threatenly, "police are one phone call away, howie."
"Yeah, it could have been that blonde guy."
"How often would you and Andie meet?" pip asks
"We met whenever we needed to, whenever she had orders to collect
or cash to give me. I’d say it was probably about once a week,
sometimes more, sometimes less."
"Where did you meet?" Ravi asks.
"Either at the station, or she sometimes came over here."
"Were you...... Were you and Andie involved romantically?" pip asks.
Howie snorted, "Fuck no, we weren’t,"
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, I’m sure."
"Why are you getting defensive then?" amaris asks tilting her head.
"Course I’m defensive, there’s three kids in my house berating me about
stuff that happened years ago and threatening cops." he kicked a crunpled beer can and it landed on the blinds behind pips head, making amaris flinch and ravi jump up standing infront of pip.
"what are you going to do about it you’re a fucking joke, man." howie says standing up.
"right hes the joke not you. a sad man who sells drugs to kids for a living because thats the only job thatll take you." amaris sneers standing up next to ravi.
"alright, everyone, calm down. We’re
almost finished here; you just have to answer honestly. Did you have a
sexual relationship with –" pip was no stood up aswell.
"‘No, I already said no, didn’t I?"
"Did you want to have a sexual relationship with her?"
"no!" amaris flinches at howies sudden yelling, "She was just business to me and me to
her, okay? It wasn’t more complicated than that."
"Where were you the night she was killed?" Ravi asks pressing howie for more answers
"I was passed out drunk on that sofa."
"Do you know who killed her?" asks pip.
"yeah, his brother. Is that what
this is, you want to prove your murdering scum brother was innocent?" howie sneers and amaris sees ravi tense and look down at his knuckles. when amaris slips her hand into his, ravis eyes meet hers and the hostility falls away.
"ok, we’re done here," Pip said, looking over at amaris. "Let’s
go."
"No, no, I don’t think so." howie bounded over infront of the door and amaris breath hitches in her throat. reaching into her back pocket she grabs her pocket knife and cautiously moves it to the hoodie pocket, keeping out of sight but reachable.
"Excuse me, Howard." amaris could hear the fear in pips voice.
"No, no, no," howie laughs, "I can’t let you leave."
ravi steps forward lettging go of amaris's hand, "move." he demands as amaris grabs the material of her sisters shirt.
"I did what you asked. Now you have to delete those pictures of me." howie says looking at pip.
"ok, hes, that’s fair." pip showed howie as she deleted every photo she had taken that night, "Done."
howie moves out of the way and opens the door. ravi reaches behind him grabbing amaris and lightly pushing her and pip out of the house, him being the last to exit.
"You go around asking dangerous questions, girl, you’re going to find
some dangerous answers." howie says just before ravi yanks the door closed.
they were twenty feet from the house before anyone talked.
"well that was fun, thanks for the invite to my first blackmailing."
"your welcome, my first time too." pip says.
"yea it showed pip." amaris mumbles.
"but it was effective. we found out that Andie had a second phone, howie had complicated feelings for her and max hastings had a taste for Rohypnol." pip says as she recovers the photos. "just recovering those photos in case we need future howie leverage." she says and ravi chuckles.
"oh, fantastic, can’t wait. Maybe then I can add blackmail as a special skill to my CV."
"You know you use humour as a defence mechanism when you’re
rattled?" pip says
"Yeah, and you get bossy. and moon, here, gets quiet." ravi says dropping an arm around amaris's shoulders pulling her closer as she lets out a breath.
"fuck you, ravi. shut up."
"she also gets hostile." ravi adds looming at pip who shakes her head.
"i hate you, sun."
"mmm, sure."

a/n
i think i actually like this chapter lmao.