Vice [h.s]

Two

"So the interview... how do you feel?" Vanessa asks, taking a sip of her drink.

We're seated on the patio of Niall's restaurant, Sidewalk Grill, meeting for our scheduled lunch date and waiting for our order to be taken.

"I mean, I'm not particularly excited, but I'll do anything to try and help them find what asshole killed Derek," I respond, folding the menu I had been aimlessly eyeing over for the past ten minutes; I don't have much of an appetite right now, "There's no evidence so they're relying on me to give them whatever information I have... I don't know honestly I just want closure."

"Do you have an idea of what they're going to ask you? You don't think they're interrogating you as a suspect, right?" She questions, furrowing her eyebrows in wonder.

"Not a clue. Brandon made it very clear they don't have any inkling that would lead to me being a suspect. I just don't think anything I say will help them with the investigation," I sigh, my body feeling tired and heavy with the weight of this new development, "I literally was so in shock that I- I blacked out, V."

"I know... I don't know how you will be of much help then, I mean it makes sense interviewing you as his girlfriend but still... are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know. Brandon said something really fucking weird on the phone last night," I say, remembering the conversation.

"What did he say?"

"He told me to be cautious about who I let into my life, especially right now, and to not talk about the case with anyone. He said that suspects like to 'linger around' and 'attempt to make a personal relationship' with someone who may have been close to the victim, so they have more insight as to what's going on in the case," I say, emphasizing specific phrases he used to describe it to me.

"In all honesty, Tate that makes sense. You probably shouldn't get close with anyone until the case is solved. You should probably watch out for that Harry guy you're hanging out with," she says with a slight chuckle, a smirk present on her lips.

What the fuck? I haven't told her shit about Harry. For all she knows he was some random dickhead that showed up to my dinner party with Natalie. There's no way she saw... what happened... on my balcony. It was in the middle of the night and we were on my balcony. Why would she even say that?

"Haha you're so funny V! I don't 'hangout' with him. He's... with Natalie, anyways. He's no more than my neighbor," I say, too quickly for my own good.

"You've never been a good liar Tatum Black," she laughed, a smirk on her lips, "I saw that kiss the night of your dinner party, it was very-"

I cut her off. How in the fucks name did she see that? I thought she was asleep on my couch, with Niall, where I last saw them before walking onto my balcony. What the fuck?

"It was no more than a drunken kiss V, I... was vulnerable, he was drunk, and it was a mistake," I sigh, pressing my fingers to my temples.

"A mistake? Are you sure? I saw the way he-" she begins, raising an eyebrow.

"I have a dead boyfriend," I cut her off, pointing a finger at her.

"Oh really? You're pulling the dead boyfriend card?" She asks, eyebrows raised.

"Yes, yes I am," I respond, a smirk on my lips.

"Classy, real classy Tate."

Niall came and took our orders and we finished out our lunch day, thankfully with no more mention of the Brit with the ship tattoo.