"Hey there."
Trevor said as soon as Maria opened the front door.
A smile spread across her face immediately her eyes landed on him.
"Hey, did you get it?"
Trevor raised the white bag in his hand, shaking it lightly.
"Sure did." The clanking noise coming from the bag confirmed Trevor's words.
"Okay, I'll let you in now." Maria said as she opened the door wider. "So, you wouldn't have let me in if I didn't get the beer?" Trevor said, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course." Maria said in a playful voice.
They both laughed and headed towards the living room. Trevor placed the drinks on the round table and flopped back on the sofa.
"Your house is very..."
"simple?" Maria said as she sat down right next to him.
"I was going to say nice. I like how well arranged it is."
Maria looked at him and tilted her head.
"was that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Yes?"
Maria giggled. Every since their arcade date, Maria found herself spending more and more time with Trevor. He made her laugh and he was fun to hang out with. They mostly went on dinner dates, the bar and the arcade.
"you suck at giving out compliments."
"yeah, I've been told one to many times."
Maria reached for the white bag on the table and pulled out two cans of beer.
"stalewood?" Maria asked as she examined the beer.
She handed a beer to Trevor. "yeah, it's really good. You haven't tried it before?"
Maria shook her head.
"you should try it, it's great." Maria opened up the beer and took several gulps of the bitter liquid.
"oh! It's actually pretty good." "see? I told you."
Trevor opened his beer and took a sip of it.
"Okay, so something sparked my curiosity." Trevor said as he placed his can of beer back on the table. "What did?"
" the fact that you invited me over for a drink. On a weekday."
Maria raised an eyebrow at him. "is there anything wrong with that?"
"No, no nothing's wrong. It's just that you have never invited me over to your place and you always decline whenever I ask you out on a date when it's a week day." Maria crossed her legs and took a few more gulps from her beer.
"I just felt like drinking with someone." Maria said.
"As embarrassing as it is to say, I don't actually have any friends. You're the only one I could call." "are you trying to say that I'm the only friend you have?"
Trevor asked as his lips began to curve into a smile. "Well.....you're not wrong…" Maria replied, averting her eyes from Trevor.
He leaned forward, the tip of his nose grazing her earlobe as he whispered into her ear.
"But I want to be more than just friends."
His was voice sent shivers down Maria's body.
"Trevo-"
the sound of Maria's ringtone cut her off sharply. It was pretty late and Maria knew exactly who was calling and why. She reached for her phone which was on the far end of the sofa.
"Detective Maria."
She was silent for a few seconds. "The Winstons?" Maria said, her eyes widening. "Yes...Yes…..alright I'll be there in 10."
She hung up and quickly rushed into her room. Maria threw on a grey polo shirt and beige colored pants. She picked up everything she needed and headed back to the living room.
"Work?"
"Yeah." She replied giving him an apologetic look.
Trevor smiled.
"I see why you always decline during weekdays."
"Yeah, I could get calls at any time."
Trevor nodded.
"I understand."
"Thanks."
They both headed outside and said their last goodbyes.
"Are we still on for Saturday night?"
Maria nodded. They got into their cars and drove off.
Maria pulled over in front of the Winstons house. She looked around and saw Oliver's car parked among the patrol cars. 'I guess he's here already' Maria thought. She got out of her car and headed towards the front door. Oliver stood there, speaking with Catherine. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying.
"Mrs Winston."
Catherine turned. Her face softened when she saw Maria. More tears streamed down her cheeks as she embraced Maria.
"I am so sorry for what happened." Maria said as she remembered what she was told on the phone. Cather withdrew herself and wiped her teary eyes. "I-I don't know what to do. She can't be dead, she can't be." Catherine said shaking her head, tears pouring out of her eyes. "everything's going to be fine. I'll go examine the body."
She walked into the house and Oliver followed.
"Have you seen the body?" Oliver shook his head.
"I got here 3 minutes ago."
"Oh. Where's the body?"
"Mrs Winston said she found her in the bath room."
They both walked upstairs and went towards the room filled with men and women clad in white overalls. Getting in, they walked to the bath room. Their eyes landed on Amelia's lifeless body.
"Oh my God….." Maria said.
Oliver walked over and crouched right beside it. He examined the body thoroughly before getting up. Maria walked over to were he stood and looked down at the corpse.
"Looks like suicide. There are several cut wounds on her wrists." Maria nodded when she saw the wounds.
"Why would she kill herself?" Oliver said.
"Maybe she couldn't handle the fact that all her friends died right in front of her. It must have haunted her."
"Yeah….." Oliver looked at the coroners men.
"You can take her away now." Maria and Oliver left the room, walking back to the front door slowly. Catherine stood there, her face emotionless and blank.
"Mrs Winston."
Catherine turned to see Maria and Oliver standing next to her.
"Is she?"
Maria nodded sadly.
"She's dead." Catherine placed a hand over her mouth as she sobbed. She knew her daughter was dead but she couldn't bring herself to believe it. They watched as the men clad in white overalls carried her body away. Maria and Oliver had a small talk with Catherine before leaving.
Catherine waved the detectives goodbye before shutting the front door. She looked around the big house. It felt so empty and lonely now that Amelia was gone. Catherine still couldn't believe that her little girl was gone. She looked at her body and realized she had blood all over.
"Oh..."
she stared blankly at the blood stains. Catherine walked up the stairs slowly towards her room. Her whole body felt so fatigued that it made walking hard. Taking off her bloody clothes, she hopped into the shower and turned it on. She looked at the bathroom ground and remembered how she found Amelia on the ground, lifeless. She wanted to cry, but her eyes were swollen and they stung. Catherine let out a loud scream and fell to the ground, sobbing. She stayed in that position for minutes, crying and cursing. Exhausted, she stood up and got out of the shower. 'Oh! I need to call Harold!' she thought. Catherine put on a robe and picked up her phone, dialing her husband's number. It rang for several minutes and directed her to voicemail. She let out a frustrated sigh and dialed his number again. It rang for some seconds. Click.
"What do you want Catherine? I'm really busy now."
She ignored how rude he spoke to her.
"Our daughter is dead Harold." There was silence for a few seconds.
"Is this some kind of sick joke Catherine?"
"Do you think I would joke about something like this?"
"I don't know."
Silence.
"I'm telling you our daughter is dead Harold."
"Please Catherine, you're probably drunk now. Get some sleep."
"You think I'm joking?! I found Amelia on the bath room floor lifeless! She killed herself Harold!" Catherine said as her voice became choked up. Her eyes stung as tears poured out from it.
"I'll be there tomorrow."
Harold said. Catherine hung up the phone and threw it on the bed. She flopped back on the bed, curving herself into a fetal position. Everywhere felt so cold and lonely. She closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep immediately. Hoping to escape this cruel reality.
Oliver decided to stop at a bar on his way home from the Winston's house. 'I should've invited Maria to come drink with me' he thought. Oliver didn't like drinking alone. It was fun, especially if he was with his friends. He remembered his college days. He would always go out to a club with his friends. They would all drink so much until they couldn't stand. They were young and reckless, living their life on the edge. Everything was going well until Oliver saw people die right on front of him. And one of them was his best friend. It was at a house party. Thugs rushed in and started shooting randomly. Oliver could recall jumping out of the window and running as fast as could with his friends. They stopped when they had gotten far enough. Oliver looked around, but couldn't find Jimmy, his best friend. He was about to run back to the house, when the others stopped him. Oliver could only hope that Jimmy had gotten away safely. The next day Oliver heard that Jimmy got shot in the stomach by a stray bullet and bled to death. Oliver was devastated. He stopped attending parties after that. 'Why am I remembering all this now' he thought. Shaking the thought away, he got out of his car and headed into the bar. He ordered a glass of martini as he sat down. Oliver's eyes wandered from the glassware arrange neatly on the shelves in front him, to the bar, which was filled with a lot of people. It was usually filled up during the weekend which made Oliver wander why it was so filled up today.
"Your martini sir."
Oliver turned to see the bartender placing his drink in front of him. "Thank you." Oliver said.
He picked up his glass of martini, swirling the glass softly. This made the spherical ice cube roll around in the glass. He took a sip of it, savoring the strong taste.
"are you alone?" Oliver turned to the direction of the voice. A dark haired girl sat beside him. She was staring at him with a smile plastered on her lips.
"Yeah, I'm alone." Oliver replied, not wanting to seem dismissive.
"I can keep you company."
Oliver gulped down the remnants of his drink and stood up. "That's sounds great, but I have to go now." He said as he gave her a small smile.
She looked disappointed but Oliver couldn't care that much. As he walked towards the entranced, he spotted a familiar face. 'Kenna?' he thought. That was definitely Kenna. There was no way he would mistake her for someone else. She sat with a dark skinned guy, laughing heartily. Different emotions began to rise up within Oliver. Curiosity, then jealousy. He didn't want to jump in to conclusions. For what it was worth, he trusted Kenna. But her recent behavior made him doubt her a bit. He walked over to them slowly. They both stopped talking when they saw his walking towards them.
"Hey boo bear!" Kenna said in a chirpy voice.
Oliver sighed. 'She's definitely drunk.' He thought. Oliver shifted his gaze to the man sitting next to her. He averted his gaze, not wanting to return Oliver's stare. "Come on, we're going home now." He said as he pulled Kenna out of the chair.
She stumbled a bit, holding on to Oliver for support. Kenna held on to Oliver as they made their way out of the bar. The drive home was long and quiet. Kenna looked out the car window, finally sobering up. Oliver snuck a peak at her. "Are you going to tell me what you were doing there?"
"It's a bar Oliver. I went there to drink, obviously."
Oliver scoffed.
"Don't play dumb, you know exactly what I'm talking about. What were you doing with that guy?"
Kenna bit her lip in an attempt to stop herself from smiling. It made her happy when he acted all jealous.
"I don't know him. I was drinking on my own, when he came over to talk to me."
"Yeah, it seemed like you really enjoyed talking to him." Oliver said, his eyes not leaving the road. Kenna said nothing as she stared out the window. That was the last time either of them talked through out the ride home.