MY BONES SHAKING, my palms sweating and my breath is going flat as I sit all alone in one of the interrogation rooms, staring at the empty desk in front of me. I've never been interrogated before and I'm terrified of saying something wrong. Especially since the officer in front of me is looking at me extremely strangely, as if he is trying to figure me out. He has extremely red hair and a beard that doesn't match the rest of his face at all. Are mustaches like his really still in fashion? Bronwyn could answer that question for me. 

"Miss O'Donnell?" 

My head jerks up. "Yes?" 

"I've already asked you two questions, but all I get is silence." 

"I'm sorry. I'm nervous. Where's Dean?" 

"Mr. Avens is after you. First, I'd like to ask you a few questions." 

"Why is he not before me? Aren't his statements more important?" Not that I want him to have to deal with this officer as well. He kind of scares me. 

He frowns. "I want to make sure Mr. Avens is telling the truth about you." 

I raise my eyebrows. So he believes my word more than Dean's? 

"Let's start from the beginning. For the record, please tell us your first and last name, your age, your birth date, where you live, and your job." 

"My name is Sydney Ree O'Donnell, I am nineteen years old, my birthday is October eighteenth, I live in an apartment with my best friend at the University of New Haven, and I am currently a freshman psychology major." 

"You want to be a psychologist?" 

"Does that have any relevance for this interrogation?" 

"Just answer the questions please, Miss O'Donnell." 

I take a deep breath and force myself to nod. "Yes, I want to be a psychologist. Preferably a child psychologist. I would have loved to have a caregiver when I was young, someone I could have talked to. I want to help children to understand themselves and those around them, even if it's not always easy. I also burn for psychological facts. I could find a fact for any situation, it's always been that way." 

If it bothers him that I talk so much, he doesn't show it. "How exactly did you meet Mr. Avens?"

"Does it matter?" 

"We can also skip the question and come back to it later. Either way, in the interrogation process, I'll find out how it happened. You can't hide anything. Not anymore." 

The air in the small gray room suddenly becomes even stickier. 

"Tell me how that scene happened earlier when we took Mr. Avens with us." 

"What's wrong with two people kissing?" 

"Nothing at all. I'm just wondering how it happened." 

"Not that my private relationships are any of your business," I nervously play with a blonde curl, "but I've developed feelings for Dean over the past few months. And when I knew that he was leaving, I wanted to do something that we've forbidden ourselves to do all the time. What he actually forbid." 

"Mr. Avens didn't have the same interest as you?" 

Doesn't he think it's weird to talk about my love life? Because I do. 

"Dean doesn't think he's good enough for me. He thinks he needs to get his life together before he can get involved with me." 

"So you think he would get involved with you if his life was different?" 

I just nod. 

"Do you know what this man did?" 

"Allegedly did." 

"You believe in his innocence?" 

"I'd put my hand in the fire for him. Dean didn't kill Hollyn, and I'm not the only one who believes that." 

The slightly shorter officer with the bald head writes something down in his papers while the redhead runs his hand over his mustache. Again, he looks at me in that strange way. It feels like he's scanning deep inside me, trying to find all my secrets. 

He leans over a little and if I'm not wrong, he smiles a little. "You're in love with Mr. Avens." 

How is it that a police officer who knows me for just ten minutes can figure me out? I'm certainly not going to respond to his statement, even if it's damn true. 

"But you're naive, too."

"I believed in his innocence even before I was in love with him," I emphasize. "One has nothing to do with the other. You'll see it yourself when you interrogate him." 

"I hope so," he counters quietly. "I'd still like to talk to you about Kolin Queens, Xander Reed, Hunter McRae, and Gavin Reyes." 

My favorite people. 

I feel sick. 

"What do you want to know?", I barely manage to get out. 

"Let's start with Kolin Queens. My information is that you were close friends for a long time, then it turned into something more. Right before you moved to New Haven, you two separated your ways." 

I wonder where he got that information ... 

"That's right. I guess it just didn't work out between us the way we wanted it to." 

"How is your relationship now?" 

I think of Kolin's constant questions about dating, his dislike toward Dean, his bullshit idea of forming a wannabe gang to go after Dean, and his very last words he threw at Dean. "It could be better," I reply vaguely. 

The officer smiles. "I understand what you mean. It's always difficult to still get along well after breakups. What can you say about Xander Reed?"

"Nothing good," I mutter. "We met once ─ and that's when he tried to touch me." 

"Really?" 

I nod. "Dean was the one who stepped in." 

"Interesting," he counters as he runs his hand over his mustache. "How do you feel about Hunter McRae?" 

"Don't know him and don't want to know him." I can't possibly tell the officer about how Hunter helped find the video camera and warned Dean about tonight. 

"And Gavin Reyes?" 

What am I going to say? "I've talked to him a few times. Let Dean explain more to you about him. I'm sure you'll change your mind about him. Dean is a good person. I can only say it again." 

The officer turns off the radio in front of me and his tired eyes suddenly look strained and doubtful. "Let's hope you're right."

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