Privilege

Chapter 23

After finishing up his morning classes, Niall meets up with Jordan and Stacy in the far back of the library building, safely tucked away from curious eyes and gossip-hungry rich teens; Niall had to do a little convincing regarding Jordan as the boy said he didn't trust Stacy- though, eventually, he did agree to work with her.

“I brought my list of suspects,” Stacy informs them when they've huddled around a small round table and she yanks a piece of paper out of her black and white tweed bag. She slides it towards Niall and he grabs it, studying the paper closely while Jordan looks over his shoulder with curious eyes. It's well worn with notes in the margin and a coffee stain at the top. Clearly she has been working on this better than Niall himself- which once again, is quite surprising. What else is surprising, is that Niall recognizes several of his former dorm mates on her list, his brows jumping high under his hair-line when he sees the names: Louis - which she had crossed out - Jeremy, Linh and...Liam?

“Liam?! Really?” Niall says as he tears his incredulous gaze from the paper, directing it toward Stacy instead, “What would his motive be? What would the motive ofany of these people be?”

Stacy sips at her steaming cappuccino before meeting Niall's gaze, “Jeremy was Josh's roommate - everyone gets into a row with their roommate, who knows if one of those spats went a bit too far and Jeremy decided it would be easier to just get rid of Josh?” she explains coolly, before licking her lips and continuing, “And as for Linh? Well, he’s Jeremy’s best friend which is quite self-explanatory as to how he could be in cahoots if Jeremy indeed needed an alibi or whatnot- and Liam, well... he’s just too nice to be true,” she says lightly, tucking her hair behind her ear, revealing a huge, round earring; Niall gets a bit distracted by it, before pulling himself together.

“I’m sure they all have alibis,” he says firmly - he simply refuses to believe that the murderer had lived under the very same roof as himself. Stacy opens her mouth with an annoyed expression, but before she can say anything, Niall turns to Jordan who'd been unusually quiet - considering the boy lived for these kind of mysterious, suspenseful situations, "Jordan, can you fill us in on the past year?" Niall asks, gently nudging the redhead in his side.

Jordan’s gaze flickers around as he shrugs a little, eyes falling on Niall, “I don’t know if we have to go back to last year, I mean, what about Whit?” Jordan asks, shooting Niall a meaningful look that makes the blood rush to his cheeks.

“What about Whit?” Niall asks warily as he tries to chase away the rather embarrassing and disturbing memories of the large, intimidating guy.

“Yeah, what about him?” Stacy repeats the question, her thin eyebrow lifting in intrigued interest - she has obviously picked up on Niall's squirming and blushing.

“It’s just, he was really into you wasn’t he? And then you pretended to date Josh; he must have been heartbroken and pissed,” Jordan says, his grey-brown eyes boring into Niall's wide-eyed gaze. It does makes sense, to some extent at least, while Niall doesn't believe that Whit would go as far as to murder Josh for a stupid, thoughtless scheme, but then again, Niall doesn't know what the guy is capable of; he swallows heavily as the thought of Jordan’s newest suspect swirls unpleasantly in his belly.

“Ohhh! A love- murder mystery, that’s more like it!” Stacy exclaims with a fucking grin as if she's actually enjoying this and Niall can't help but shoot her a disturbed look which she counters with twinkling eyes and a mischievous smirk; seriously, is there something wrong with every single rich kid in this Godforsaken school?

“Wait, guys, I don’t think Whit did it - I mean, sure Josh and I fooled him, but it'd be a little too drastic of measures to take, right?" Niall nibbles his lip anxiously, gaze flickering from Jordan to Stacy, "Besides, Whit seems too mellow and calm a guy to do something like…that," Niall insists, looking down at his hands.