The Trouble with Love

❝ i thought i had you figured out ❞

Thank you all so much for 1 MILLION reads<3

(unedited)

Come on, come on,
Don't leave me like this,
I thought I had you figured out.
Something's gone terribly wrong,
Won't finish what you started.

"Haunted" -Taylor Swift

"What is your relationship with Ashton Sinclair?"

Despite the fact that the interrogation room was below freezing, I felt like I was about to break into a sweat. "It's complicated," I answered, feeling a slightly blush paint my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kaden resisting the urge to bash his head into the table. So maybe I was taking the casual cluelessness a little too far.

The police officer who was interviewing me, a middle-aged woman in her thirties that didn't look all that intimidating- though that was probably to try and put me at ease. The police had a strategy to get me to tell as much as I did to get them to think I was innocent. "Are you dating?"

"It's not official. He asked me, but we kind of got interrupted before I could answer," I replied truthfully. I had decided to try and be as honest as possible, and to give slightly longer answers if possible so it wouldn't look like I was trying to hold back information.

"What is your relation with Jacen Winston?" the woman asked next.

"Jacen?" I repeated. "He's part of Ashton's friend group."

"Are the two of them close?"

I paused. I had a feeling this had to do with something Jacen had confessed. Or maybe just the fact that Jacen had confessed. What could I say? I didn't know what Jacen had confessed, so I had no idea which one was the right answer.

"They're alright, I guess," I said finally, before the hesitation made her, and the other people watching behind the glass, suspicious. "I mean, Ashton's brother is dating Jacen's sister, so they get along, but they're not like best friends or anything, I don't think."

It was partially true, like most of the things I had said in the interview.

The woman nodded and leaned down to write something in her notebook. Then she glanced back up. "Thank you, Ms. Evans. We ask you to stay for a little in case we have any additional questions, but you're finished as of now."

I stood up and gave her a small, polite smile before walking out, Kaden following close behind me. As soon as we were a considerable distance from the couple police officers waiting outside, he let out a relieved sigh. "I swear I just aged ten years," he muttered.

I turned to look at him. "I wasn't that bad, was I?"

He shook his head. "You did fine. But that doesn't mean I like watching you get interrogated by the police for possibly being linked to murder."

I glanced at the police officers down the hall. My interview was over, but I knew at least one of the other rooms were occupied. Ashton, Jacen and Nathan were all in the process of getting questioned. Nathan had been the only one of the Elite they had been able to find that wasn't already at the police station.

Unfortunately, he didn't know what happened to any of the girls either, as worried as he was.

"What did Jacen confess?" I asked, dropping my voice to a whisper. It was bad to ask here, but it was the one thing Kaden hadn't had time to brief me on before we got called into the interview room. I didn't want to be caught by surprise and not know what to say again.