"Styles, meet FBI Agent Caroline Forbes. She will be on your case and with you every day until she gathers more evidence and can turn you in, or you confess," the Sheriff informs me as I glance from him back to her, and she gives me a polite smile...
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Three years ago...
The sound of Abigail's noisy heels clicking on my hardwood floor echoes in my house, her voice even louder as she talks on the phone while I try not to eavesdrop.
"I'm telling you, Caroline, I'm going to be fine," she assures, pacing in my living room. "My new apartment is supposed to be finished and ready in three weeks... No, I didn't care to live in those stupid dorms anymore. Pebblebrook is small enough, the dorms at the college are even smaller— I know I moved to a small town and should've expected that, thanks for the reminder."
As I bring in more of her boxes of belongings to the front of the staircase, I can't help but laugh at my best friend as she rolls her eyes from listening and growing tired of explaining herself to whoever is on the other line.
"Well, if you came down here like I've been begging you to, you'd see that this new apartment complex is really cool, that I can actually afford it, and that my temporary living situation while I wait for the complex to be done being built is totally fine."
Abigail notices me standing patiently, a box in hand, staring at her for guidance. She directs which pile the box belongs in, so I put it with the one of her clothes as she complains on the phone, "Yeah, yeah, I know you're busy."
"I told you who I'm staying with. He's my friend, the one who isn't from school. He's letting me stay over at his house. You should come down here to see his place because damn!" She shouts, looking at me and mimicking her first reaction when I brought her over here to this house I inherited the for the first time.
"I just got all my stuff in here and I already feel like a princess," she snorts, flipping her long curls over her shoulder as I laugh again at her constant jokes over my inheritance, starting to carry some of her boxes up the stairs to the guest room I've lent her momentarily.
I remember the first day I met her, walking out of the usual community cooking classes held at the Pebblebrook College campus when some student, a blinding blonde, ran into me as I was leaving to return home. The girl, late for a lesson in the medical building, caused me to drop what I had just made in the class. Ever since then, her overly loud personality and my opposite introverted one somehow collided, and she and I became unlikely friends.
She's the first friend I've ever had.
"You know why I also keep telling you to come here?... Honestly, this guy is perfect for you!"
She scoffs after a moment, "Oh please, are you talking about that fucking guy from your unit or whatever that doesn't pay any mind to you whatsoever— No he doesn't! Caroline, I've known you my entire life, and as your younger sister, I know that you and my friend here are a good match."
