Hailie took her brown bag and was about to go out, when Debra came downstairs, looking as much wasted as Hailie was feeling. She thought that delaying this news wasn't a good option. It was better to confront Debra right now and just go through it. Otherwise Hailie would think all day about upcoming conversation.

"Debra!" She took a deep breath and stepped in front of her. She blinked a few times, surprised that Hailie would want to talk with her.

"Please, don't even start, Hailie. I know that I've acted completely stupid. Gosh, I feel like a typical mean girl from all those movies, which are actually my guilty pleasures, but anyway, I was awful to you. I have no idea what has gotten into me. You're my roommate, you've let me stay in your house after being kicked out from the sorority and I've treated you like trash. I shouldn't have, not after..." She looked at her bruise. It was poorly hidden under concealer. "Forgive me, please?"

Her words took Hailie by surprise. The last thing she expected was Debra saying sorry to her. Yesterday she indeed acted horribly, but now she felt really guilty about it. Hailie could read it from her face. She crossed her arms, looking at the floor, then again at Hailie.

"I, uh, yesterday's been quite weird," she said, trying to figure out what to do next.

She couldn't kick Debra out after her apology. It felt wrong to do so. Everybody makes mistakes, right? It seemed like Debra regretted hers.

And the atmosphere at the party, it was odd. No wonder that some people couldn't take it anymore. Besides, Debra was dumped by Lucien. It probably hit her hard.

"Party was my idea and it ended up as a catastrophe. I'm sorry for what happened to you, even though I don't know specifics. And I'm sorry how I treated that policeman, who came with you. That was lame and he's actually cute. Weird of me, I'm never mean to cute guys unless they deserve it."

Both of them chuckled. Debra knew how to loosen up the atmosphere between them.

"Well, if you're sorry, maybe you would like to come with me to the police station and apologize to him yourself? I could use a ride, cause I'm low on petrol."

She was thinking about it for only a few seconds.

"Sure, let me just get my keys and bag."

"I'll wait outside."

Sun was hidden behind dark clouds as if it was going to rain later. Everything seemed to be blurry, because of the roads shrouded in mist. The weather outside was just perfectly fitting Hailie's mood. She covered herself tighter with a long brown coat, letting out breath.

Her again?

Creepy lady from the house across the street was staring again. Hasn't she got anything else to do than stalking others? Hailie would've been bored after only ten minutes of observing, but the lady just couldn't get enough. She was better than a professional monitoring. Living spy, except she didn't try to hide it from anybody.

She was staring also yesterday.

Maybe she saw something?

Hailie was wondering if she should come and knock on her door. Not only to ask some questions, but also to kindly ask the old lady to stop creeping her out. She did the first step, but Debra slammed the front door and left the house.

"Let's go!" she yelled, stopping by her red car. "Are you going?"

"Yeah." Hailie looked again at the old lady's window, but she was gone, and the curtain was closed.

"Alright, police station it is." Debra started the engine. Hailie was never in her car before. It was tidy enough, and actually sweet with scented bag and stickers on the dashboard. "May I ask who did this to you?" She pointed at Hailie's bruise.

"I wish I knew. Some guy punched me in the face. He had a car accident and now he's dead."

Debra clucked, thinking about it.

"He got what he deserved. I have no respect for men, who are beating women. The most vicious creatures."

She couldn't not agree, although the first part of Debra's statement was too radical for her. Death was so final. Hailie didn't wish it for anybody.

Maybe except Jayson.

"This is all like my ex-boyfriend. He used to beat the crap out of me, even after our breakup."

Debra gazed at Hailie, but she was staring through the window at houses they were passing by. All quite the same, just like in her hometown.

"I didn't know." Debra was wondering what else to say. Hailie was always quiet. She knew practically nothing about her life. A walking mystery. "I hope he got what he deserved."

"I hope one day he will."

Life and death were both hard to understand. They've took out the guy, who hit her once, but they're letting Jayson to live, even if he's the worst man Hailie has ever known. 

"Honestly, men suck. I should've never been angry at you because of Lucien. What a jerk. Men aren't worth us, aren't worth fighting over them and acting like brain washed idiots."

"Girls rock." Hailie smiled and finally looked at Debra. She was driving calmly, not the way Hailie imagined. Actually, she wasn't at all like she used to see her. Sorority girl, babbling all the time about nothing and having no care in the world, while all along she was just a party girl, who wanted to have fun and try everything in life. That wasn't bad. Different, but fine.

Debra parked her car smoothly and close to the police station entrance. She was tired after yesterday's party and after a night full of crying about breakup, but she managed to get out of the car gracefully, not showing tiredness at all. She took her roommate under arm and both of them walked inside. It gave Hailie goosebumps as she remembered the last time she was at  police station. It didn't bring any good memories, even if that was a completely different  place  than the one in her hometown. She lost her trust in justice and capability of police officers after Jayson's case. But maybe Shane could restore that trust? He was the type of guy, who fitted here perfectly. Uncorrupted and good.

"Miss Hailie! And-" Shane didn't end the sentence. His green eyes got wider, while he was staring at them without blinking.

"Hello." Debra waved at him, trying to play it cool. "Officer Blackwell, I'm sorry about my behavior yesterday. I came to apologize in person, besides, maybe Hailie could use a bit of my help." She gave her smile.

"That's fine, all's forgiven." He didn't think that Hailie might came here with Debra, but that didn't matter. If she trusted her then it was fine by him. "I just need to ask you a few questions. We can do it at my desk." He pointed to her a chair to sit on and took a thin file. "Is this the guy, who hit you?" Shane showed her a picture of a boy, whom Hailie remembered way too well.

"Wait!" Both of them gazed at Debra, who narrowed her eyes while staring at the photo. "I saw him yesterday, took him for a dealer. Some guy gave him money and you know, what else would he have paid him for? That wasn't my business, I'm not into drugs or anything like that, but I stumbled upon the guy, who paid that dead man, later in the kitchen. He looked like he was searching for someone, but maybe he was just looking for more vodka or a place to get high."

Hailie instantly stood up, her eyes bewildered.

"What did he look like?" she asked, before Shane could.

"The man, who paid?" Hailie nodded as an answer to Debra's question. "Well, he had brown hair, a little longer than officer's, which didn't look too good on him. Even that amount of hair gel couldn't help there. He was well-built, the silhouette of a sportsman, besides he was dressed as one. You know, trashy sports top and the latest shoes, although the color of his clothes didn't match our college's colors. Later, when I had a chance to see him up close, I noticed hazel eyes and something he probably likes to call a beard."

Hailie's jaw slowly dropped open. No, it couldn't be. It wasn't possible.

"Are you sure?"

"Completely. I know what I saw, even if I was drinking."

Hailie turned to Shane, who wrote down everything Debra said. She gave a pretty good description of the guy. Hailie came closer, so that Debra couldn't hear what she was saying.

"It's not him," she said incredulously. "It's not Jayson."

Debra's description wasn't matching Jayson's look. He had black hair and he always kept them short. Even with the assumption that he could change his hairstyle and further dye hair, there was yet another thing. Jayson's eyes were blue and cold, not hazel. And Jayson would never dress up as a sportsman, not after losing his scholarship and entire career due to their fight.

But if it wasn't Jayson, who paid the guy responsible for an assault on her... Who was it?