Framed

Fifteen.

"I'm just happy they let you off," Louis said as they found themselves in Ally's house after the school was evacuated. "The whole thing with Austin's fingerprints is so mind fucked, that someone would do that."

"We're dealing with a bona fide killer." Camila's sullen voice echoed in the room. "We have to expect anything now."

"LaF just messaged me on WhatsApp." Zayn told the group. "They think it's a mix of adrenaline and some other chemical that's not been identified. Cyanide is in the mix as well."

"Seems to be his trademark." Liam said in passing. "Since we find cyanide in pretty much everything they kill with."

"Probably just an extra bit. To finish someone off." Camila responds, and Lauren trudges away from the impromptu think tank to the couch, and lets herself fall onto it, the plush cushions of said couch supporting her weight.

"I honestly don't want to talk about it right now." Lauren tells them, letting her eyes close as her head rests on the decorative pillow. "Let's talk about anything else, really."

"It's something we really need to discuss, though." Zayn points out, other heads among them nodding in agreement.

"Later. Please."

"Can you guys go to Ally's room, please?" Camila asks the other teens in the room, since Ally's parents were not in the house at the moment. "I need to talk to Lauren about something,"

"And I'm not moving from here, so you all need to go." Lauren adds in, waving an arm from where she's still laying on the couch. "Let me and Camz talk for a bit.

To the surprise of both girls, the group heads off to Ally's room, although begrudgingly so, and Camila takes a seat at the foot of the couch.

"Hey." Lauren says, trying to break the ice.

"Taylor mentioned some things, before the evacuation happened." Camila begins, figuring they may as well just get into the topic without beating around the bush. "How did you really break up with Alicia?"

Lauren took a ragged sigh. "It's more complicated than a teenage Facebook status. But what happened is that I caught her one time, with someone else. She had promised to drive me to the beach after school and when I looked through the window, she was with another girl in the backseat...my reaction was awful. I yelled and I punched the car at some point, and honestly the only thing that calmed me down was the frightened look in her eyes. I forgave her, but it only took two to three more days for her to break it off entirely. I never apologized, never got the chance to. We didn't talk for the rest of the year, and she transferred that past summer."

"So what Alicia said to Taylor..."

"Was probably a lie. What did she say to you?"

"She accused you of constant paranoia, constant temper outlashes, just being a really shitty person to Alicia. But she didn't mention anything physical."

"I would never do anything physically abusive to someone I love - or loved. I only punched Austin that day because he was coming onto you."

She punched Austin. That had seemed so long ago, Camila thought to herself as she remembered the incident. And now? Someone had stolen the guy's fingerprints.

When LaF had messaged them on WhatsApp and told them "Welp, back to the drawing board," they had really meant it. Their prime person of interest, Cameron Dallas, was dead. And the possibility of fingerprints was nearly out of the question.

There was the shoe print in the mud, which J.P. was working on identifying, and that could pan something out. But the odds of it occurring was slim. They truly were back at square one.

"So Taylor lied to me."

Lauren nodded. "She did, although I don't know why."

"Disappointed but not surprised. She has a vendetta against you, Lolo." Camila says, swinging her legs to and fro as she sat.

"Vendetta or not, I wasn't expecting her to try to get my girlfriend to turn against me in the time I need her most." Lauren said, watching Camila's converse laces slowly untie themselves as she let her legs dangle. "Crazy to know someone wants me incarcerated that badly."

"Babe. You've known that this whole time," Camila smiles at Lauren's oblivity, and the ice in her eyes stars to thaw. "No offense, but it's been kinda obvious since I first met you."