The Kerryville Killer

Chapter 4: 2 Sugars Please

(Michael's POV)

"Two people dead." I say, trying to swallow my coffee. "The news are saying both murders are linked and that the killer could strike again at any moment."

It's a Saturday morning and my friends and I have all met up at our local café for some meaningful conversation and a nice caffeinated drink. We always meet up here on the weekends and we weren't going to let a few murders stop our tradition.

My hands trembling, I struggle to put my mug back down onto the coffee table in front of me. Looking up at Daphne, Ellie, Sofia and Veronica, I notice that Ash has been in the toilet for a long time. "Can someone go check on her." I say, gesturing to the girls. "She might be in there smoking again, and we just made her quit."

"I'll go." Sofia says, heading over to the bathroom. "If I'm lucky I could get a quick puff."

"But you don't smoke?" Ellie says. "Right? You stopped all that."

"Yeah, yeah. Completely stopped. I was kidding." Sofia awkwardly laughs and heads off into the basement to find Ash.

I turn to Veronica and see her eyes light up as she notices a certain someone walking into the café. Daniel Price, Ariana's ex-boyfriend. "Umm, I gotta go talk to Danny. He wanted to know stuff from that night." Veronica rushes over to him and crosses her arms.

(Veronica's POV)

"We need to talk." I say, giving him a stern look. "After what happened to Ariana, I can't help but think back to what happened between us. You didn't tell anyone, right?"

"Of course not! No one knows. Not even Phillip." Daniel tries to convince me. (Phillip is his long time best friend.) "I didn't even tell Ariana."

"Yeah, did you actually sleep with one of Daph's friends?" I ask him. "Or was that a lie too."

Daniel goes bright red as he realises he's been caught. "You see... I kinda... Well... Yeah, okay. I slept with Bianca, but you can't be mad! This was way after you ended things."

"Shh!" I smack his arm to try and keep him quite. "I don't want the whole cafe knowing! Look what we had... What we did... That was all a mistake! A big, big mistake that I really don't want people knowing! Especially with all that murder investigating going on."

Daniel frowns. "Oh yeah, did you hear about that girl, Luci? How could anyone murder a girl in a wheelchair!"

I am so over talking about these murders. I agree with Daniel and try to end the conversation before things get too dark. He smiles at me and waves me off, before I go sit back down with Michael and the others.

(Sofia's POV)

"That's not your business!" Ash yells as I walk into the bathroom.

"Is everything okay?" I ask.

Upon hearing my voice, Ash quickly hangs up her phone and shoves it into her pocket. "Sure, everything's fine!"

"It doesn't sound fine?" I ask. "Wanna talk about it?"

"No. Leave me alone." Ash bumps past me and enters back into the cafe.

I try and ignore this and I follow her back upstairs to see the others. Along with my usual friends, I notice that since i've been gone, Chase (Michael's huge crush) has joined our little table in the cafe.

"Hey, Chase!" I wave at him.

Chase and I have known each other since I can remember and have literally been inseparable since birth! Well that was until the start of college when I got addicted to cigarettes and he got addicted to anti-smoking rallies after both his parents almost died from lung cancer. I can't believe something as silly as me picking up a small stick of burning paper could end our friendship.

"Oh.. Hi Sofia." He awkwardly says. "Long time no see."

As I join my friends on the sofa, I notice Michael staring intensely at Chase. He really should just say something to him, I mean I know that Michael is shy and stuff but so is Chase! And if neither of them say anything to each other then nothing will ever happen! Ugh.

"So, Chase." I loudly ask. "Did Michael and I miss anything in drama yesterday?" Maybe mentioning Michael in a conversation will spark something between them.

Just before he is about to answer, Elle Salsano obnoxiously walks into the cafe.

"Chase!" She yells, running over and jumping onto his lap. "How are you! Everything good? You good? How're you feeling? I'm great to be honest! Great like pastry! I love pastry! Ooh i'm gonna get some pastry, come with me!"

Before anyone can say anything, Elle pulls Chase away with her and gets in line to buy some pastry.

"What on earth just happened." Ash says, looking around at everyone. "Did that girl just say she's great like pastry? What does that even mean?"

"There goes my shot." Michael says, slumping down in his seat. "Ugh, I'm not in a coffee mood today. With these two murders I just wanna stay in bed."

(Daphne's POV)

I try and reassure Michael that everything will be okay with a calm hug. This relaxes him and he begins to sink into the large, red sofa.

*RING RING*

"Brb, I gotta take this." I tell everyone, checking my phone. It's my sisters boyfriend, Chris. Why's he phoning me? Maybe it's to talk about what happened yesterday in the hot tub. "Hey, what's up?" I smoothly ask.

"Daph, hey, glad I got a hold of you. Your mother isn't answering." Chris says, sounding rushed. "It's about Peyton's birthday. I don't know what to do for it?"

My sister, Peyton, always makes a huge fuss over her birthday and wants the whole day to be amazing and dedicated to her. Last year she rented 5 horses just for the sake of it. She can't even ride a horse! She just stood next to them and posed.

"Just throw her a party." I say, wanting the call to be over. "Everyone loves parties."

Chris groans a little then continues. "Well obviously I was gonna throw a party I just don't know who to invite, what the theme and colour scheme would be, ya know, stuff like that."

I roll my eyes, why does Chris overthink everything. It's just a party. I guess it shows he cares, and Peyton would want everything to be perfect.

"Okay, stop worrying. Leave it all to me. I've got a few ideas and can probably get people to help so don't you worry; I've got this." I end the call and get back to my friends who are deep in conversation about which supermarket they go to.

It's nice to know that even 2 murders don't stop us having mundane and pointless conversations.