It's Only Gossip

29

Carrie's back and I'm awake, but where's Ash? My guesses are that he's dived into something he couldn't get out of. Typical.

"Where's Ash?" Carrie asks frustrated.

I shrug which causes her to roll her eyes.

"Well we might as well start." She sighs.

"Totally," nervously I agree.

Carrie glances at me for a split second, but as soon as I notice she looks away. What's up with her?

She grabs a piece of paper from the sofa and sits on the floor. She gestures me to do the same so I do.

Carrie slowly bites her lips, still intently staring at the piece of paper she asks, "how would you describe Elisa?"

"She's nice," I run my hand through my hair.

Carrie raises an eyebrow at me, "hm that's useful." She laughs.

I laugh too, not daring to make eye contact with her. Why am I finding this so hard? After all, I'm just describing my friend. What's the harm in that? I look across the room just hoping that somehow a trial of thoughts magically jumps into my mind.

"Well, she's um..." I'm still not looking at her, but Carries patiently waits. "She's funny and bubbly. Even though her death stares are deadly, she honestly wouldn't hurt a fly. Seriously, she'd run the other way!"

We both laugh. There's something different about her laugh, something strange. I'm going to choose to ignore it because what I don't know can't hurt me.

"I heard that Elisa wants to become an actress?" Carrie tries to prompt me into listing reasons why my best friend would assist a serial killer, what an amazing prompt.

"Yeah?" I don't give in.

"Well, don't you ever think that pretending to be someone you're not would be the best experience for an actor?"

"Obviously but not to the extent where you commit a crime!" My voice becomes a bit shaky, I don't know how, it just does.

"Don't underestimate the extent somebody would reach to fulfil their dreams, some people will kill to make their dreams a reality." Carrie pretends to be all wise but I don't buy it one bit.

"Being involved with murder, multiple murders, only blocks Elisa from reaching her dream so excuse me if I don't follow."

I may sound harsh but it's true. Seriously what's her being an actress got to do with her being involved with a murder? That's just ridiculous, at least think of better and realistic motives. This isn't English literature to be interpreting the curtains are red which symbolises her anger. There's no direct link.

Carrie's clearly annoyed because she hasn't said a word yet and I don't think she's going to. She can't exactly expect me to be cool with this. I promised Elisa that I wouldn't tell anyone what she's been up to so I won't.

"Listen Carrie, it's not Elisa so let's investigate our other suspects." I say slowly.

"If it's not Elisa then who is it then?" She throws the paper on the floor and stands up. "We have no other suspects!"

"Are you sure about that?" A familiar voice asks.

No it can't be... We both turn around to face the one and only, Elisa.

"What are you doing here?" Now I'm standing while my eyes tries to warn her of Carrie's presence.

Carrie remains silent, it's almost as if she doesn't want Elisa to know she's here.