Looks That Kill [on hold]

4. Seven Suspects

SADIE COVINGTON walked into Stonewall Academy's main office, followed by Ashley and Aiden.

Detective Pratt stood by the Principal's office door, holding it open. Sadie, Ashley, and Aiden walked into the office where seven chairs were lined up in front of the principal's desk. They looked at each other hesitantly but sat down in the first three seats. Not a minute later, Rebekah, Georgia, and Julien had sat next to them.

Sadie watched as Rebekah settled uncomfortably next to Ashley, Julien sitting next to her. Aiden looked at Georgia longingly as she sat down next to Julien. Poor boy, his girlfriend hadn't talked to him in a week and didn't even greet him at school today.

She wondered if they had broken up but Aiden hadn't said anything, and if they had the whole school would have probably known by now. Sadie looked at her watch, it had been six minutes since they got here, six teenagers sitting in silence.

"Let's begin without Hunter," Detective Pratt stated, closing the door behind him.

He sat behind the desk observing each person, trying to interpret their expressions and body language. Sadie mentally rolled her eyes, these detectives always thought they could figure everything out.

Before Detective Pratt could even say another word, Hunter burst into the office.

He looked destroyed. Sadie hadn't seen him since the night Scarlett died, and she was a bit taken aback by his appearance. Hunter had the biggest bags under his eyes, he looked like he hadn't slept in days. He quickly took a seat next to Aiden, ignoring everyone's stares.

"Pleased you could make it Mr. Caldwell. Now, I've asked you all here because I know you seven were all Scarlett's close friends or appeared to be close friends. You seven should come down to the station sometime this week so we can speak to each of you. You should know that we aren't ruling anyone out as suspects yet, and you seven are very high on our list."

Everyone's eyes widened.

"The town of Stonewall knows Scarlett Hill as the town's sweetheart. Everyone knew how she was nice to everyone, popular, didn't have a mean bone in her body, came from a good middle-class family, had perfect attendance, how she attended church regularly and made a vow to save herself for marriage. The town also knows she was dating Hunter and how the rest of you were her supposed best friends. Scarlett Hill was your ideal poster girl for the perfect teenager."

"Well, I'm going to uncover the truth. Every secret, every lie." Detective Pratt looked at them all in the eyes before he stood up and casually walked out of the office, leaving everyone shocked.

Sadie thought about what he had said. Every secret, every lie. It was clear that the police inferred that they had all been together that night, but what about after?

Sadie was the first to stand up, interrupting the silence, "So, what are we going to do?"

Everyone looked at her with a confused look on their face while Aiden said quietly, "What do you mean Sades?"

"I mean, you heard Detective Pratt. The police obviously think it was us, or at least one of us. We need to meet somewhere and think of what we are going to tell the cops, we need to get our stories straight."

"God, Sades. Maybe we should just tell the truth?" Rebekah said, a concerned expression on her face but her eyes seemed distant.

"Sadie, I can't believe I'm saying this... but I think Bekah's right," Ashley said looking at the ceiling.

"You all want to go to jail?" Sadie whispered but loud enough for all six of them to hear her.

Hunter hung his head low and looked at his hands, "Sadie's right."

Everyone looked at him, that was the first thing they had heard him say since last week. Sadie's eyes widened as she felt the butterflies in her stomach. Hunter agreeing with her would have made her day but under the circumstances, it didn't.

"Okay, so where should we meet?" Sadie said looking around the room.

"My house, tonight at seven. My parents are out of town." Aiden said walking out of the office before anyone could protest.

Sadie nodded and everyone else agreed before walking out of the office.

"Okay, see you all later," Sadie said to them in the hallway before walking taking her usual shortcut so she could stop at her locker and get the books for her next class.

She was about to open the door to her chemistry lab before she felt someone behind her open the door before she could.

"You could at least pretend to be sad, Crazy Sadie," Ashley glared at her before slamming the door in Sadie's shocked face.

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thank you for reading! the murder mystery has officially begun starring our very own, stonewalls' finest as the top suspects. please feel free to check out my new book, v is for vendetta, and my other book, the manhattan project! please vote & comment.