"How long have you know Tate Langdon?" I stared at the wall behind the officers head, hearing the slow tick, tick, tick of the clock above the door. I could feel his eyes on me, though I couldn't see him.
"Look, you're not in trouble We're just trying to get to the bottom of a very difficult situation. Your co-operation could help us save someone." I let my eyes drop to meet the officer's, my gaze unflinching.
"I just moved here from Boston. I barely know they guy." I sat back in my seat, crossing my arms and keeping up the eye-contact.
"That's not what other students have said. Many of them have insinuated that the two of you had some form of relationship, possibly as more than friends despite Langdon's public relationship." I gasped, smirking at the officers before sitting forward in my seat and bringing my hand to my throat.
"I knew he was with Leah. She was a dumb bitch and he's a track-star asshole." I thought I'd played my role perfectly, but by the way the two glanced at each other, I guessed they'd found what they were looking for.
"Thank you for your time, Ms Harmon, that will be all." The door was opened from the outside and I was led back into the reception area. I tried to ignore the looks the receptionist was giving me, as I mulled over everything that had been said. Why had they let me go?
I'd told them that Leah's a bitch and Tate's an asshole and I barely know him. No. That's not what I said. I told them Tate's an asshole, and Leah was a bitch. I'd all but signed her death certificate. Shit. Holy fucking shit. They'd never mentioned that she was dead, so they probably haven't found out yet. But I'd pretty much told them as much. I have to get out of here. I don't know how, but I have to get out of here. Loosening my posture as much as the tension in my muscles would allow, I strolled towards the door, making sure to leave my school bag on the chair so it looked like I was coming back. The police officer on guard stood as I approached.
"I just need to use the bathroom, it's right down the hall," I smiled, reassuringly, and noticed his glance at my bag on the chair by the office before nodding slowly.
"Alright, be as quick as you can, Miss." He allowed me to pass and I smiled again before ducking out the door and walking, slowly down the corridor. If I started running too soon he'd hear the clatter of my shoes on the linoleum. I felt tears well in my eyes because I didn't know where I was going. Tate had never showed up at school this morning, and I'd had to run to make it in, missing first period and making myself look all the more suspicious. I pressed my back against the nearest row of lockers and tried to control my breathing for a moment. The hand on my mouth had me fighting, and the distorted clown mask looming in my face made me scream against the clammy palm over my lips. He pushed me harder against the lockers, before scooping me easily off the floor and dragging me into the boys locker room. This is it. Some psycho thinks I killed Leah and is planning to get revenge, and no one would come to my aid. They all think I deserve it. Maybe I do.
"I'd beg for my life, but I don't want to give you the satisfaction. I didn't kill that super-bitch but I would, given the chance. So get it over with." My assailant dropped to their knees in front of me, sliding a hand up my thigh. I pushed against their chest, and the grunt that followed as they hit the floor told me they were male. He sprung up again, pulling me up by the arm and pinning me to the grimy, locker-room wall.
"Don't." He hissed, before pulling his mask off. Tate.
"You asshole!" I growled, shoving his chest but pulling him back against me. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and I pressed my face to his heart.
"Nice to see you, too," he breathed, whispering a chuckle into my hair.
"A head's up would have been nice, I thought you'd run off without me. I was totally wigging." I brushed my fingers against his cheek, pressing my thumb into his dimple.
"We need to get out of here. There's only so long you can be in the bathroom," he reminded me, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah, about that, how could you see me? Or hear me, or whatever? I thought they'd have the school on lockdown."
"Nah, not yet. Though, after your little tip-off, they might be re-evaluating they're security level." His reminder of my blunder made me blush and I nodded.
"Well, if you'd picked me up and driven me to school like we'd planned, I wouldn't have freaked out," I crossed my arms defensively, looking away. He cupped my jaw.
"I'm sorry, but my mother and Larry needed to talk to me. They sorted everything out, but there were a few things I needed to take care of. It's sorted now, but I need you to come with me somewhere we can talk. It's too risky here," his eyes darted from side to side like we were being watched, and I didn't doubt his assessment of the situation because he was clearly better at sneaking around the police. I couldn't work out if that was a good thing.
"Okay, did you bring your car?" He gave me a pointed look and I nodded.
"Right, we're laying low now." He nodded and took my hand, pulling me through the rows of lockers and benches to the back of the room where he'd propped a back-door open with a basketball. He kicked it out the way and dragged me into the sunlight, moving quickly across the lot and down the suburban street towards the park. I took over now, squeezing his fingers more tightly with mine and leading him to a shady grove of bushes and trees and sitting, cross-legged in front of him.
"So talk." I left the subject open to him, and he rested his hand on my thigh before beginning.
"It won't be long before the police figure out something's off, with or without a body and with or without an alibi. There's a good chance they'll charge me either way, simply based off the opinionated testimonies of the other kids. It turns out… no one really likes me in high school, and none of them really trust me either." I guided his hand higher and lower, leaving him to stroke soothingly against my tights.
"Why doesn't that surprise me? No matter how much of an asshole you pretended to be, I could tell you were different from the moment I saw you. There's nothing to say they wouldn't work it out eventually, either," I pointed out and he nodded, thoughtfully, his blonde curls falling into his eyes as his head fell into his fist, resting propped on his knee.
"So I don't have a chance, if I stay here. Constance has sorted me out a car, and it's one that won't be traced as suspicious because it doesn't have any link to us, and it's not stolen. We made sure of that. She's given me cash too, enough to keep me going for a good long time. Fake passports, everything. I'm leaving today." The lump in my throat became hard to swallow around, and I bit back tears as best I could despite the fact I wanted to let them fall. He needed to feel guilty, or at least sorry, for leaving me and not caring.
"I see," my voice wavered as I shrugged out from under his hand, backing into a tree and balling my fists at my side.
"Violet…" he trailed, crawling towards me with a quizzical expression his face, head turned to the side as he stopped short of climbing into my lap. He let his hand hover cautiously over my ankle, and I turned my head up and to the side, looking out at the swing-set through the leafy gaps in the bushes.
"What?" I asked, inserting as much venom and ice into the question as I could. He flinched backwards, and I felt good and bad about getting this reaction from him. It showed he cared, even if it was only a little bit.
"Why are you upset?" He asked.
"Why am I upset? I'm not upset." I turned to look at him, resisting the urge to smooth the frown lines bunching his eyebrows into his forehead.
"Violet, I really find it difficult to understand emotions, even yours. I don't understand this. Why are you upset? Please help me make you feel better," I detected the pleading in his voice and sighed, because I always gave in when people I cared about seemed upset.
"Okay. I'm upset because you're not."
"I'm not what?" His frown deepened as he slowly enunciated each word.
"You're not upset! You're leaving me forever and you're not upset!" I was yelling and crying and I wanted to punch myself in the face because I wasn't that girl and now I was doing just that.
"I'm…" he trailed, sitting back on his heels and biting the nails on his left hand. We sat in silence for a few agonizing seconds before his intake of breath made me realise he had clicked with some new realisation. "Oh!" He exclaimed, rushing forward and straddling my thighs, wrapping his hands around my face and lifting my gaze to his. I held it, unflinching, though I didn't want to have to look at him.
"Violet, Violet," he whispered my name, pressing kisses into my neck. His hair tickled my jaw and I wriggled in his grasp. His weight was reassuring as well as restraining against me. "When I said I was leaving…" he trailed, pulling his face away from my neck and boring his blackened eyes into mine, capturing me more with the simple gesture than his restraining presence against me ever could be. "When I said I was going, leaving you behind never crossed my mind." Everything felt hot at his confirmation that I meant nothing to him.
"You're making it worse, Tate," I mumbled and he shook his head violently from side to side, his curls creating a gust of air that smelt like his shampoo.
"I don't understa-. Violet. Violet. Leaving you behind never crossed my mind because I just assumed you'd be coming with me. I know I shouldn't have because we've only known each other a little while, but I just… I'm sorry, Violet," his teeth were gritted and I wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't come, so I just sat there opening and closing my mouth like a fish out of water.
"Tate," I trailed, my voice soft and surprised but I knew it had made a difference, because he looked up and smiled through his tears and his messy hair and his quivering lip. I didn't know what to say because, truthfully, I didn't know. I didn't know if I could give up my family, my high school career, possibly even my identity, for the creepy kid next door I met just a week ago. When I laid it out like that, everything seemed so crazy. Of course I couldn't go. I wasn't on trial for murder, I was barely a suspect. The most I could be charged with is accessory, and even that would be shaky without Tate. But now, looking into his devastated face I wasn't sure him leaving without me was even an option. I wasn't sure he'd leave without me, even if his life and his freedom were on the line.
"Say something, Violet," he pleaded in a small voice which broke on my name like a child's would.
"I don't know what to say, Tate. I don't know what to do with this whole crazy situation." I answered honestly, punctuating my words with a shrug of my shoulders. He sighed, shifting his position so his weight wasn't pressing down on me so harshly. His expression changed and set and I knew I was right. He wouldn't leave without me, he was too invested in this, in whatever this was.
"I can't go without you, Violet. Whatever you say, goes, because I'm hopeless without you." His words dripped with honesty and I nodded, grazing my fingers up and down his sides before balling my fists in his shirt.
This boy. He'd harassed me, stalked me, shoved me, broken into my home, soaked me on the side of the road, killed for me, told me all his secrets and made my pulse race like nothing else. I was in too deep and I knew that if I didn't go with him, I wouldn't survive. I needed him and he needed me and this was fucked up and scary but it was just ours.
"So what are you saying?" I asked quietly, because I had to be sure.
"I'm asking you to come with me, Violet. Run away with me."