U N E D I T E D

As quickly as the gunfire began, it had stopped. 

The left side of the car lurched forward, sending me flying into the window of the passenger side. Henry grabbed my leg tightly to stop me sliding away too much. I didn't register the noise until after the car had stopped moving and my ears began to ring.

The sound was a deep, hollow explosion that echoed through my chest and popped my eardrums. The world span as I slid out of view of the windshield. I just hoped bullets couldn't go through car doors.

After a minute or two, I slowly poked my head up. Lightly squeezing Henry's hand.

"Is everyone okay?" Henry began.

I could hear in only the tone of his voice how secretly mad he was and Henry never gets mad. It was my fault this time, though. It felt ten times worse knowing this was my fault. It's usually something Spencer does.

"Is it over?" Spence said, "Is he gone?"

I mumbled a quick answer and hopped out of the car. Not ready to face Henry. Instead, I crouched low and inspected his tyres. Spencer stumbled out with me, holding onto my shoulder for support. I would have usually pushed him off but I just couldn't find it in myself to do so.

I saw Henry's bare feet in my peripheral vision, still shoeless from Spencer's prank which he was probably still mad about and even more so knowing that we've ruined his car.

"We can't do this anymore." Henry started in an eerily calm voice, only hiding his anger underneath a thin mask of calm. "One of us will get hurt. I told you guys this was too dangerous-"

"How was I supposed to know he had a gun!" I yelled, hating myself for yelling at Henry but not finding the willpower to stop. "It's not all my fault! This isn't my fault!"

"Har, stop shouting." 

"Shut up Spencer! For once in your life just shut up." I turned to Henry who had crossed his arms over his chest. "This isn't all on me-"

"I'm not saying it's on you. I'm saying that this has gone too far," He shook his head, "Har, he had a gun, you could've gotten seriously hurt. This isn't a game. Please."

I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face. Henry didn't say another word, instead turned around and pulled out his phone. 

I hated it when he was like this. Silent and seething. The only time I had ever seen him this angry or upset was when Spence dragged him into cheating off a test paper and he got caught. I looked back to Spence sat on the floor next to the car, poking and prodding at the deflated tyres.

I sat down next to him, pulling my knees up to my chest. "Maybe Henry's right."

"Fuck what he thinks."

I snapped my head over to Spence, seeing his wide grin spreading even further along his cheeks. I raised my brows, cocking my head to the side. He had a mischievous look to him, one that always got us in trouble.

"Huh?" Was all I could manage. The alcohol was making its grand entrance.

"Harlow that shit was so cool!" He slurred. "I've never felt more like I was going to die."

My eyes widened, maybe the whole gravity of the situation hadn't hit me yet. Spence pulled a strand of my hair and I swatted him away.

"You're talking like a lunatic." I laughed despite the situation, I felt light and airy. "We probably were gonna die."

Spence's eyes grew heavy and he lowered his voice, tucking on my jacket. "Just because we failed this time doesn't mean we have to stop trying. It's like Coach says in football-"

"-God not this again-" I moaned. 

"- each failure is a step to success." Spence finished. "You've got to admit, we were like super spies. Or cowboys! Yeah, we're basically cowboys ridin' into town and this town ain't big enough for the both of us." He finished with a slurring southern accent that forced a giggle from my mouth. 

I was hysterical, almost. Riding the high of adrenaline, the relief of living and being alive made me giddy and mixed together with an equally giddy Spencer, we couldn't help being a little hysterical. 

"Why stop now, Har? Aren't you still mad about your car?"

"Furious," I said pointedly, looking at Spence.

"And aren't you mad about getting your face smashed?"

I threw him a glare, ignoring the pounding bruise on my head and stopping myself from hitting him, he promised not to bring it up again.  

"I swear Spence sometimes I think you have a death wish." 

He scoffed, playfully nudging me with his shoulder, I brushed him away, being more gentle than I wanted to. "More like chronic and terminal boredom. This is the best I've felt in a long time. I feel so alive, this may even be better than football. Or sex-"

I smacked his hand, cursing myself for getting Spencer addicted the feeling of danger. 

"Okay you're right," He paused, "sex is way better."

I elbowed him in the ribs and he huffed out a breath of air, but it didn't stop him wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and throwing me a teasing smirk. 

"Since we both agree-"

I rolled my eyes, "Don't be so fucking disgusting. Spence, way to ruin the night."

"Oh, that's what ruined the night?" He laughed, loud and so boisterously, I'm sure it woke the city. "Not the guy that literally tried to kill us moments ago? Not that? Huh?"

"It's always you, Spence, always you." I smirked and thought over it for a moment, "I don't think he was trying to kill us though."

"Oh really?" He backed away from me, "Why the fuck would you think that? He literally shot at us. With a gun. Or did you miss that part?"

I smacked him across the head, "Ow.""I know he shot at the car, you idiot. But I'm sure if he wanted to kill us he could have."

"How do you know that though?" Spencer wined.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that only the tires were shot at? If he really wanted to kill us then he would've shot through the windshield and just have been done with it. But he didn't. He shot at the tires and got away."

"So this was a warning then?" It was Henry, he sighed and perched on the sidewalk next to me, "If what you're saying is true, then this must have been a warning. I don't think we'll be so lucky next time."

I didn't say anything else. I let my mind wander over everything that happened last night, trying to make sense of it all.

I thought over it until the tow truck came. Henry fell quiet and was still definitely mad. Spencer had passed out and was drooling on my shoulder- I shoved him off- and I couldn't decide what to do next.

-

"What the fuck is going on?" 

Henry looked up from his phone, the past night seemingly forgotten. It's one of my favourite parts of Henry, as stupid as it may seem, he doesn't hold grudges. He shrugged but his eyes were weary. 

"The fire last night, Matty's parents want to sue for damages." Henry turned back to his phone as everyone started filing into the Hall. 

My stomach dropped. Of course, Henry didn't care about the fire, he didn't care that the cops were littering the school, pulling students out of class and lining the walls of the Hall.

 He didn't care because he wasn't responsible for the fire. The only thing he would be worried about was underage drinking, if anything about Henry landed in the papers, I'm sure his father would have a heart attack.But still, he only shrugged before craning his neck back down to his phone.

I steadied my expression, regaining control of my stupid fear as I took my seat next to Spence and Aubrey, Henry followed and sat with us too. I wasn't surprised to see Ratty Matty and the entorage of his family surrounding several uniformed officers and the principle on the stage.

I tried not to look at Ratty Matty's face, nor did I want to look at his parents but once the assembly began it was hard not to. They stood with grim expressions glancing at each and every student. 

I refused to meet his parent's eyes. Fuck that.

Just looking at Ratty Matty made my stomach coil and I was forced to remember the horrid box under his sink. Crumpled up used tissues with fuck knows what on them and the ominous scratched out picture of Aubrey and I.

I felt physical vomit travel up my throat and forced it back down. 

I rolled my neck, trying to release some of the tension that had built up, wishing I had just skipped this shit show. I needed to distract myself before my heart began pounding harder than it should.

I turned to Aubrey, "Have you spoken to Ratty?" 

She crossed her arms and turned her head away from me. I clenched my jaw to stop me from getting too angry. "Aubrey?"

She defiantly twitched her head, "So typical wanting to talk about Matty. I really should've known."

I raised my eyebrows, stunned and getting angrier by the second. "What the fuck?" I harshly spat.

She tutted, keeping her voice low. "Don't talk to me."

I had caught Spence and Henry's attention as they threw me cautious glances. Spencer even had the audacity to smirk, expecting me to explode on her. To be honest Aubrey should've known I would get pissed.

"Why the fuck are you so pissy?"

"Is there a problem, Miss Greene?" 

I whipped my head up to the stage, not realising how loud I had become. I looked at the principal, not surprised she knew me by name. I had even caught the attention of the whole school, as they all whipped around to see the commotion- or lack thereof.

"Nope."

I held the principal's glare, meeting her challenging eyes head-on and holding it until she looked away. 

"I would hope not." She continued her speech, and my eyes watched as the crowd's attention began filtering back to the principal. 

One head remained unturned, a prickle of annoyance sprouted in my sides, the feeling of being watched. 

Automatically, my eyes connected with blue ones across the hall. 

Very familiar ice-blue eyes had my stomach flipping, as they stared at my own. His gaze was curious but at the same time, something deep inside me told me it was a silent threat. I knew exactly what those kind of looks meant. 

But then the familiarity hit, knocking the air from my lungs. He knew. He watched me coming out of Ratty's room last night. I remember his scrawny arms reaching out to me. Shit. This was bad. Worse than bad. 

"Mr. Hampton." The Principal called again and instantly like a switch was flipped the blue-eyed boy snapped his knowing gaze away from me and towards the sound.

The Principal's voice was shocked, not holding the same malice when addressing me, but rather a concern. "Mr. Hampton, please face the front."

The Jocks around the blue-eyed boy snickered, and teasingly bumped shoulders with him. 

"Yes, Ma'am." He replied. 

Once the attention was removed from Hampton, his sly eyes slowly filtered back to my own and the corners of his mouth were turned upwards.

That was it. That was the last straw. I narrowed my eyes, wanted to shout and ask him what the fuck he thought he was doing. Instead, I threw him the finger and grimaced when his shoulders began to shake like he was holding back a laugh.

He was lucky I didn't give him two middle fingers; I'm sure that would've really gotten the point across. I wanted to march over there and slap some fear into him, but what confused me more was he was the only guy in here to actually not be afraid of me, apart from Henry of course.

I really had lost my touch.

It seemed like the boy was satisfied, which made me all the angrier, as he finally placed his attention and his eyes back on the stage. 

I looked back at the stage, connecting eyes with Ratty Matty who I can only assume had watched my entire silence conversation with the jock and I was surprised when he looked annoyed.

"I'll be passing over to the Detectives, now."

The Principal stepped away from the podium and allowed the two men to take her place.

Spence nudged me, "Isn't that Officer Moore?"

I squinted my eyes, "Only if he gained 20 pounds and grew a moustache."

He shrugged, "Last I heard his wife left him."

"That would explain the weight gain. But I thought he was a Deputy not a Detective?"

Spencer shrugged, but didn't say anything else.

My heart dropped, it did look eerily like Officer Moore and I could only pray it wasn't.

But of course knowing my luck, the lead Detective on Ratty Matty's stupid Investigation would be the only cop within the entire police force to know me by name and hate my guts.

If this were any other day, and if I wasn't feeling morally responsible for the accidental burning of Matty's room, I wouldn't have given two shits about Officer Moore's presence but since I didn't feel normal and hadn't punched a single thing today, I almost felt nervous. Which was very unlike me.

"I'll get straight to the point, kids. We know you most of you were at Mr. Lewis' residence last night, we know that there were... drinks involved however, this investigation is on the suspected arson committed against Mr. Lewis." He scanned the crowd.

"I'll get straight to the point," Officer Moore grabbed a clear evidence bag from his partner, "we need to identify the owner of these shoes, we will need to bring them in for questioning."

Spencer gasped, "Are they...?"

I nodded looking to the shoes in the bag, unmistakenly, "Henry's shoes."

Officer Moore continued, "In the mean time, there will be a private room within the school where you can go and write a statement, this will be purely confidential and any information we receive will be on a pure volunteer basis." He nodded to the Principal.

I looked over to Henry, his face was white as paper and he looked like he had seen a ghost. 

"I didn't start the fire." He whispered, helplessly.

Of course I already knew that and seeing Henry's wide, fearful eyes made the guilt in my chest bubble up to the surface, ready to spill all my dirty secrets. 

I pulled my lips to a tight line.

"We know that." Spencer said, nudging him with an elbow, the closest Spence could ever get to comforting someone.

"No one knows they're your shoes but us, you don't have to tell them anything." I stated and it was true, they had no way of knowing they were Henry's shoes. Their whole investigation was purely riding on a confession. And fuck knows I wouldn't be confessing to shit anytime soon.

"What about DNA and stuff, though." He whispered, looking helplessly over to Spencer, who when confronted with Henry's upset face, instantly looked to me.

My mouth opened, I was horrible at comforting people. But then Henry turned his head to look at me, searching for reassurance with his glassy brown eyes I felt all my hard edges soften.

"I'm sure they don't have that."

But I wasn't sure at all.

(2584 Words)

I swear I'm always saying how I'm gonna be posting more often and then it never happens lol.

I hope to get more chapters out soon, for real-sies. Keep posted, if you follow me then you'll know exactly when I update.

Hope this chapter makes up for some lost time! Its quite a long one. Next chapter is gonna be great though.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And as always...