Betrayed [h.s.]

Chapter Eleven

I sit at the table, thinking of names and scrawling them down on a piece of paper.

Harry leans in front of the large window, peering out to the green grass, wind blowing through it.

The temperature has dropped slightly, considering winter is on it's way, no less than seventy-one degrees, though. But I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow would be over eighty degrees. Texas temperature, as usual.

"What did you get?" Harry asks, still looking out the window.

"So far I got Rebecca, Hayley, Penelope, July, Eva, Gretch-"

"They're all your friends, correct?" Harry interrupts, spinning around to face me.

"Correct," I reply.

"Okay, go on."

I nod and continue, "Gretchen, Carol, Madeline, May..." the list goes on and on, until I finally take a breath and am certain that I haven't missed one. Harry stops from his slow pacing and looks at me.

"Now, we have to narrow them down," he says, taking a seat. "Start with Rebecca. How did you meet her? When did you last speak to her? How well did you know her?"

I take a deep breath for the thousandth time today. "Rebecca, I met her in highschool. She was a really close friend. I told her almost everything." I pause. "The last time we spoke was about a week before the wedding."

Harry nods, listening closely. "And did she seem angry in any way?"

"No, she was actually very excited."

"Hmm," he hums. "Alright, we can scratch her out."

So I do.

***

After hours of talking it through we narrow them down to: Lisa, Rachel, Smith, Samantha, Eva, Gretchen, Gavin, and Hayley. Long list, I know, but that was the smallest we could go. Besides, I actually want to find this killer. The more suspects the better.

Lisa is girl who I used talk to, but not often. She always blew me off when I'd ask her to hang out, so that's why we- more like Harry- suspected her.

Rachel, I invited her to the wedding and she was there, but she didn't seem there. She was one of the bridesmaids, and if I remember correctly she wasn't as excited as the the other girls there. She seemed more distant.

Smith is a guy who used to be my best friend. One day he tried to make a move on me and I instinctively slapped him. He was my best friend, it just didn't seem right. I'm not even sure why I invited him, maybe because i thought it would be nice to see him again. However, he still would have a motive to kill him.

Samantha has guts that I'd like to shred apart. As soon as me and Zayn got together she tried anything and everything to break us up. How she showed up at the wedding, I have no idea. Gavin, her old fuck-buddy, must've invited her.

And that leads me to him, Gavin. He was sweet, had a temper, but sweet. I've talked to him about three or four times. I invited him because he seemed pretty cool, and I hadn't found out yet he was Samantha's fuck-buddy. Well he used to be, anyway. With that being said, they might've formed an alliance.

Hayley- a girl I met through Smith. Out of all of them, she was the only one who showed up at the funeral, but not wedding, which is kinda suspicious. So, automatically, she is put down as a suspect.

Finally, Eva: Someone who I knew fairly well. She always had trouble with her relationships, and I was just that friend who helped her, but when the time came for her to help me, she was never there. I remember she told me, "You're so lucky to have Zayn. I'd kill for man like that." She was always the jealous type; one of the reasons why her past relationships never worked out.

"Do you know where any of these people live?" Harry asks.

"Yeah. Lisa and Rachel go to college together at UTSA, not too far from where I live."

"We'll go talk to them first, then." He grabs his keys, swiftly walking past me, to his car.

I hurry, taking long strides to catch up with his fast pace. He turns the transmission on and pulls out of his property.

***

I knock on the door lightly. We wait for about ten seconds before Harry grunts impatiently and knocks on the door even harder.

Someone shuffles behind the door and finally the door opens revealing a small blonde.

"Can I help you?" she asks opening the door just enough to expose her attire- a Mayday Parade t-shirt, with black converse, and ripped skinny jeans- leaning against the doorframe.

Harry clears his throat. "Are you Lisa?"

"Yes," she says carefully.

"We'd like to ask you some questions, if that's alright with you?"

She stays silent for a moment. "Um.. yeah, sure." She opens the door wider, letting us pass through.

Harry gives her a small nod, and I smile politely.

"You can have a seat there." She points at the couch adjacent to her, taking a seat herself.

"Now, Lisa, can you tell me what you did on the first of June?"

She contemplated this for a while, trying to remember, I suppose. "I was away that day- actually, that whole week. I was at a convention in Dallas." She paused, eying me. "May I ask why you're here?"

Harry tensed beside me, but I can't blame him. It was quite rude of her to say that. "We're here because of Zayn Malik's death," Harry stated.

"And what, you think I killed him?" She raised her eyebrows, flickering her gaze to me then back at Harry.

"No," I said Calmly.

"I was away that day, how could I have killed him?" She asks frantically, sitting up straighter in defense.

"Look, we're not saying you killed him," Harry says, and she slumps a little. "But Nicole did invite you to the wedding and you didn't show up."

"Because I was away," she says again, clearly trying to prove a point, which only makes Harry sigh.

"When Nicole would ask you to go out with her, did you reject her?" Harry asks, and I am tempted to drop my jaw- why wouldn't he believe me?- but I restrain myself.

"Me and Nicole haven't talked for at least six months now. I don't know what this has to do with anything." She shrugs.

"Just answer the question, please."

"Because she was always with Zayn, I just thought maybe she didn't really want to hang out, and she just did it out of pity."

"That's not true," I defend myself. Harry shifts his gaze over to me. "Well, partly, but not all of it." I shake my head. "I didn't do it out of pity. I did it because I thought it would be fun to hang out, the way we used to."

Lisa stays quiet.

Harry can see the tension between us and says, "Thank you for your time Lisa. We really appreciate it." Harry stands. I rise with him. "If we have any further questions, we'll be sure to contact you." Lisa nods.

We make our way towards the door, opening it. I glance back at Lisa who's about to close the door. "Lisa?" She looks up at me. "If you want, we can go out for a drink sometime." I say hoping to ease this tension between us.

She gives me a tight smile before she closes the door.

"Scratch her out?" I ask Harry.

"Not just yet," he says, suspicious.

-

(A/N: idk I think I'm gonna give this book another try :) )