The Degenerates - Under Edit

f i f t e e n

I steadied myself on the lounge with a book, whilst Trey threw a crew neck jumper on, running his fingers through his hair before opening the door.

"Good afternoon, my name is Constable Drew Harris, and this is Constable Steve St Lauren. We do not mean to disturb you,"

"Hey," Trey extended a hand to the burly constables, "what can I do for you?"

"On behalf of Alsbury PD we have been instructed to alert nearby residents that we will be conducting a thorough search of the area for missing brothers," Harris said, looking down at his notepad, "James and Brad Chadwick."

The man would have been nearly fifty, and his partner not much younger. St Lauren, clasped his hands in front of his torso, "This may mean some noise disruption, maybe cordoning off some areas nearby, closing off routes in and out of your home. But we will try our best to keep the residents undisturbed."

Trey nodded, and I tried not to keep my eyes off my book for too long.

"We appreciate it. But we do have to ask, if you could try your best not to disrupt the investigation as it goes on, we don't want to miss anything,"

"That shouldn't be a problem," Trey answered with a toothy grin, "We'll stay out of your way,"

The men's eyes averted and found their way to me, I gave them a small smile, to which they didn't return.

"Great," St Lauren answered.

"Well, we'll leave you to it. Thank you for your time," Harris said, nodding at me.

Trey went to close the door, when Const. St Lauren placed a hand on the wood. "What did you say your name was?"

Trey paused, "I didn't," but he grinned anyway, "Trey."

"Well, good evening, Trey." The policeman gave a small, tight smile, leaving Trey and I alone.

I swallowed my anxiety and closed the book on my lap, which by now was flipped to a random page.

"Change of plans," Trey said, "Be honest, we left yours, came here. Because I live here."

I nodded, "Heard nothing, saw nothing."

"Exactly,"

"Trey, I can't help but sense a coldness from those two constables, I think you need to be careful."

Trey sighed, "Leave it with me,"

I suppressed my urge to argue, but I gathered that Trey already knew this. He knew more than he was letting on, and he was already four, five steps ahead of me. I was faced with a huge internal battle; help Trey as much as I could by trusting him, or watch my step and let every man for himself. Whilst I was under the impression Trey was well ahead of the game, I couldn't help but notice the small flash of defiance when he told the policeman his name, or worry when he shut the door.

"I found something, when I went into the Frat today." I told him, and he found a seat next to me on the lounge.

"Neijla, why did you go in there anyway?"

"Because I'm suspicious, Trey," I declared, "I'm insatiably suspicious. Everyone around here is hiding something, and James, and now Brad, are paying the price."

I looked up at him and made eye contact, his eyes darkening, "Are you suspicious of me?"

Yes. "Yeah, I am."

But I'm distracted by the way you can make me weak at the knees by one single look.

"I don't blame you,"