Framed

Fourteen, Part One.

"The sirens are still blaring in the area." J.P. observes aloud as he logs onto his computer, a MacBook Pro with a Death Star sticker on the front of the computer, where the glowing apple is supposed to be, and searches for the Twitter account of the local news station. 

"Well how long do you think it'll be until someone finds us here?" Lauren asked, seated in one of the chairs in the room, looking at the sole window to the outside world. The computer lab was secluded to the greatest extent within the school, being wedged outside the counseling building and only accessable by a small door that was in the middle of the staircase between the technical second floor and ground floor of the school. So basically, J.P's classroom was on level one and a half. 

"They should have found us already." LaFontaine answered, a grave look on her face as they peeked over J.P's shoulder at the Twitter feed. "And if they haven't, we'll be found soon."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because two people are dead, and we're probably the only ones missing from the scene."

-

Lauren had no idea who Dua was until her name started getting plastered over the local news' social media accounts, naming her as one of the dead. Apparently she was in Lauren's grade. 

Lauren had no idea that she was even a student there. It was a sinking feeling, to know that someone was dead that you didn't even know about. She had people who she was special to - friends, family. And now they had lost her, a life slipping through their fingers so quickly and shockingly. 

The only thing that really troubled her as much as her previous thought was that with her luck, she would be the one blamed for it all. People would peg the loss of Dua's life on Lauren's shoulders. It was a burden nobody would want in life, let alone Lauren. 

She sat in one of the chairs near a computer monitor, and let her head rest on the keyboard, making the monitor interpret the password as a keyboard smash. She closed her eyes, trying to process the new information from J.P. as he spoke it aloud to the others in the room. 

"They're on their way."

"How do you know?" LaF questioned, the only response to any of the computer expert's statements so far. 

"Because someone is live streaming it right now, and the officers are heading towards us...be ready, because they think it's us at this point." He logs out of his computer and takes a seat next to another monitor, the one next to Lauren. He nudges her softly with his elbow, messy brown hair ruffling as he moved. LaF takes a seat not far away from the two of them, but still is somewhat separate from the two. 

And that's when the door bursts open. 

-

"They knocked the door down." Lauren tells Zayn, "and I look up to see more weapons than I can count pointed in front of my face...so we just put our hands up and let them take us out of the building."

"Those two hours were just interrogations?"

With a shiver, Lauren nods. She hasn't seen Camila yet, since the Latina is currently talking with Mani and Louis, who has tears running down his face. "Interrogations are never fun. But J.P. and LaF brought up the security tapes in the video room, and once they reviewed the footage, it's obvious. We weren't there at the time of the murder, or anywhere near them, really. Cameron and Dua died in completely different sections of campus."

A silence passes between Lauren and Zayn. Silence is a companion that seems to be squeezing its way into a lot of their interactions lately.

"Harry and Lucy are missing." Zayn says in a hushed voice, left hand brushing over the tattoos he has on his right one. "They weren't found on campus." 

"They missed us earlier...is there any way that they could have overlooked one or both of them?"

Zayn shrugged, an almost indiscernible rise and fall of his shoulders.  "That's what we're hoping. But if we're honest with ourselves, we have to admit -"

"It doesn't look good, does it?" Lauren's voice, hollow with worry, replied. The potential worst case scenario was staring her in the face. She may as well acknowledge it. 

Zayn nodded. "Louis...Louis isn't in good shape right now. That's why Mila and Mani are with him. If we learn anything - anything at all - people should be there with him."

Lauren nodded somberly, letting the silence loom down on them again. Eventually there's a point where there is nothing else to say. There's the point where you open the door for silence and let it walk in as it pleases, because nothing else seems to fill in the places that it inhabits. 

She turned her head to the side and watched Camila, who had her arms around a sobbing Louis, Mani also joining in on the group hug. Camila's eyes were a soft brown, the kind of chocolate color that made Lauren want to tuck herself into the blankets of her irises, nap and never wake up. 

She would have said something, but her mouth wouldn't open. The airflow she let tunnel in and out of her lungs didn't form the sounds she wanted to say, the words that she couldn't speak. 

For now, they were alive. For now, Lauren still had time to tell Camila how much she meant to her, how much she wanted to hide from the world as long as she was hiding with her. 

"I would bleed for her." she finally whispers, and Zayn's eyes shift to look at her when he hears her voice rasp. 

Lauren looks like a mess, he thinks. His best friend looks like she hasn't slept in nights, eyes blushed red with exhaustion, though not in the hangover kind. Her hair is matted and ruffled from the stress of being blamed initially for the two deaths, and the interrogation that was after it. Her T-shirt fits loosely on her, the print drooping from her body, as if she's lost a few pounds. He watches as she pulls her jeans up, mutters about forgetting a belt. He remembers that the jeans fit on the first day of school. It's the pair that was a bit tight on her when she scraped her knee over the summer, making a tear in the denim. 

It's the first time that he's really seen how exhausted she is, and all that comes to mind for a response to her is, "I think you have been already."