Family Friends- A Noah Schnapp Fanfiction

*twenty six*

     A/N- once again, this is going to be terribly unrealistic bc i've never been interrogated. Sorry.

     A few minutes later, a woman named Kathleen came into the room and introduced herself. She explained that she would be pulling the kids individually into a separate room to ask them questions about the past few weeks. Julia was called in first. Nobody talked the whole time. Kaller and Jordan were subtly playing chopsticks. Jordan won every time.
     Noah was called in next. This was the hardest one for me to wait for. Although Julia was in for the longest, (I timed it at 9 minutes and 34 seconds) Noah's questioning felt like hours. He finally came back after 7 minutes, looking unfazed as if nothing had happened. He sent me a quick, small smile as Kathleen called in Jordan. Her questioning was quick. Only 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Kaller went in next: 4 minutes and 4 seconds. Then Chloe. This one was also hard to wait for. I could practically picture Chloe sitting with her back straight, her head high, and a straight face. The part that hurt is that I knew she was breaking inside. She came back after 6 minutes and 23 seconds. I knew that there was nobody else left.
     "Samantha," Kathleen smiled as she let Chloe back in. I stood up, trying my best to appear calm and confident. I didn't do anything wrong. Why shouldn't I be calm and confident. Chloe grabbed my fingers quickly as we passed eachother. It was such a simple way of sending good luck. I followed Kathleen through a hall and into a small room. It wasn't like how I expected. I expected to be in the position of the serial killer in all of the mystery films: sitting at a table in a blank room opposite a police officer. Instead, I was led to a chair that looked like it belonged in a principal's office. The whole kind of looked like a principal's office- or maybe a guidance counselor's. Across from my chair was a desk and two chairs, One of which was occupied by a tall man. He reminded me of my english teacher: he was bald with square glasses and he looked like he smelled like loose leaf paper. I also saw Officer Jack in the corner, but was too tense to turn to say hi.
     Kathleen sat in the chair parallel to the tall man and pulled out a clipboard. "Ok, Samantha, this is Clay Beck," Kathleen said in a friendly voice gesturing to the man. I smiled gently and he nodded at me. "He'll he recording this conversation- Only audio. Are you ok with that?" I nodded. It's not like I had any choice. "Can you please say out loud that you consent to being recorded?" Kathleen asked. She seemed a little annoyed that she had to ask, but she didn't dare show it.
    "I consent to being recorded," I said like an automated voice playback.
     "Great," she smiled looking down to her notes. "So, Samantha. How old are you?"
     "15. A freshman," I answered.
     "Are you liking high school?" Kathleen asked. She definitely didn't need to ask this. It was obviously just a way to gain trust and increase comfort.
     "Yeah, it's nice," I responded.
     "Mhm," Kathleen nodded in a forced cheery tone. She looked back at her clipboard. "So, tell me. When did you meet James Nicholas?" Nice. Here's the important stuff.
     "Last year," I answered. "He came to Scarsdale last summer, and we saw eachother a few times."
     "Were you close friends last summer?" she asked. I shook my head.
     "No, we only really became friends this year... A few weeks ago."
     "And this was at the Schnapp's house? That you met again?"
     "Yes, it was the day that Noah came home from Atlanta. We had a barbecue and James and Andrew- his cousin- came over."
     "What did you guys do at the barbecue?" Kathleen asked curiously.
     "Ate, swam, talked," I answered. "Nothing out of the ordinary."
     "Noah and Chloe have a pool, right?" Kathleen smiled. I nodded trying to smile back. "That's so fun. What time did you leave?"
     "10, that's my curfew."
     "And do you know when Andrew and James left?"
     "No, but Andrew snapped me soon after I got home, so I think around the same time."
      "Snapped?" Kathleen asked a little confused. I forgot she wasn't a teenager. She wasn't old- thirty at most, but she probably didn't have snapchat.
     "Oh, he sent me a snapchat," I explained. "A picture. I could see his bedroom in the back so he was home." Kathleen nodded.
     "When you were leaving, did James say anything to you?" I tried to remember.
     "I think he just said it was good to see me again," I recalled.
     "What about Noah or Chloe? What did they say?"
     "I think just goodbye," I shrugged. "Oh wait, Noah and I hugged and stuff since he just got home." Kathleen jotted something down eagerly. Okie dokie.
     "Did James seem jealous of this?" I shook my head.
     "I mean, I don't think so. He didn't have anything to be jealous of." Kathleen nodded, but it seemed like she wasn't convinced.
     "Now, let's jump forward to the party. You hung out with James quite a bit, no?"
     "Yeah, we hung out in the backyard but then Andrew kept calling him, so he left," I told her.
"How much time would you say passed between James leaving you, and you finding Julia." I thought back to the party.
"Maybe ten minutes," I responded. Kathleen nodded and I could tell the puzzle she was forming in her mind was coming together. She was so easy to read.
"Ok, now I want to jump to the dance," she told me. I nodded nervously. Here we go.
     "Can you tell me everything from that night, starting with the drive to the dance?" I proceeded to list off the events, starting with the car ride there: how James and started to touch me in places I didn't want to be touched. I continued to talk about taking pictures and seeing the same kind of pen pen left at the party. Then I talked about what he told me in the bathroom. I finished with hanging out with Noah the rest of the night. I left out the dancing part.
     "What did you and Noah do?" Kathleen pried.
     "Just hung out. Talked," I said. I could tell she saw right through me.
     "Anything else?" she asked. Somebody must've told her.
     "Well, we danced," I said trying to make it sound like a casual detail. Kathleen nodded.
     "So maybe James did have a little something to be jealous of." I felt myself repress and sigh. Even I didn't know if that dance meant anything. Even I didn't know how I felt about Noah in the first place. He's my best friend, but the past few weeks have felt so different. He seems less like a brother to me and more like a-

I couldn't bring myself to finish that sentence. I couldn't bring myself to think of this any more.
"No, I don't think James has anything to be jealous of. Noah and I are just friends."

Those words broke my heart.