Reese had changed clothes again.
Now he was wearing a white crew top and blue jeans and there were no traces of wine or blood on him. He chatted with a police officer sitting across from him, even chuckling at what Reese said.
Reese was in full-on charmer mode. But Magenta, Blue, Shelby, and Jasper knew differently. They would fight to see justice prevail. They wouldn't let Reese charm everyone onto his side. Reese needed to be revealed as the bad guy he was.
Reese said, "Ah, the trespassers have arrived."
He gave them four a nod, and a salute.,
"You!" Magenta called, seething in her anger.
"Me," Reese tittered, dusting off his shirt.
"Alright, we need to settle this. I would like to hear the perspective from each of you," An older officer walked into the room. He pointed at the four of them as if they had committed the crime.
They sat down with the officer individually who introduced himself as Officer Dan. He was the anti-donuts type of police officer with everything in order. But he smelled like cigarette smoke, which made all the students except Reese turn up their noses.
"I'm telling you, Officer Dan, it was Reese! He drugged my friend, took her to his party room, and sexually harassed her!" Shelby said.
"Do you have any evidence of any of this happening? For example, samples of the drug, taxi receipts, time stamps, and witnesses? Can you tell me more about what happened before this event?" The officer questioned.
"We had dinner at The Bridges, me and my best friend Magenta. Then on the way back to campus we suddenly fainted. When I woke up I was being restrained by two people. And I found out from them that Reese took my best friend." Shelby said.
The police officer scribbled something on his notepad.
Reese's story was entirely different.
"Someone put a drug in my water, and I passed out near my party room. I was going there to decorate for a birthday party with friends. When I unlocked the door, somehow those two were in there. It looked like they had a fight or something. There was broken glass on the floor, and wine all over the ground too."
The investigation opened officially that day, and their parents were contacted to take them home for the rest of the semester until Christmas while the investigation was still open. They would study from home too online.
"Mag, what happened? Why are you calling so late?" Cathy asked.
"Mom!" Magenta's tears streaked down as she recounted what happened. Her mother, working in the embassy had known many traumatizing cases but the one involving her daughter scared her the most.
Cathy wanted Magenta home and safe nearby as soon as possible. She tried to comfort her daughter, heart squeezing as she was not able to be close to her daughter physically at the moment.
"Honey I'm so sorry I'm not there with you. It sounds scary, but I'm glad you have your friends with you. I'll organize a flight now. Stay safe."
Blue, Magenta, Shelby, and Jasper all lived in the same area which was partly how they'd become close over the years. Magenta and Shelby's parents were best friends now after having met when the girls first started school. Blue and Jasper's parents were best friends since a long time ago.
--
At the airport, Magenta breathed in deeply the fresher air before they would be in a compressed tight space.
Magenta wasn't good with smaller tight spaces. When she was a kid, at five she got stuck in a lift with her parents and two others. It was the scariest experience in her life so far until this whole Reese thing occurred. She never wanted to experience anything like that again and anything that reminded her of getting stuck in a lift freaked Magenta out.
Blue stood behind her, zipping her bag and giving the bag a small shake.
"You got your money and forms filled, passport," Blue confirmed after Magenta asked for the third time.
Magenta couldn't feel her fingers. She was going home for the first time since the summer when she went to visit Ireland with her family. So she had not gone to her home city Rose City since then. She was scared of the impending flight and also the trauma from what happened with Reese was hovering over her like a ghost.
Blue soothed Magenta with his knuckles brushing over hers.
"Hey, look at me," Blue said.
Magenta glanced at Blue, a thousand thoughts running through her head. How could he be this cute in his Pacman rawr hoodie? How would her mother react to what had happened? How would she be able to be first in class if she wasn't there in person for all her classes? How would this all work out?
Blue skimmed his hand through Magenta's hair and he said, "I know you don't like being claustrophobic. I'll give you all the space you need."
Magenta smiled, genuinely, because she could believe Blue when he spoke and said nice things to her. After all their pranking, she was grateful to have someone who knew her and who she was familiar with, someone to walk by her and stand by her in times of joy and in times of trouble. She felt like her eyes were slowly opening after a long slumber of pranking times.
"Thanks, Blue," she said.
"But I fart sometimes in my sleep, so you might wanna sit a seat away from me," Blue whispered.
Magenta gave his shoulder a smarting thwack, laughing at his words.
On the plane, Blue asked if they could play twenty questions and Magenta said yes. Blue was trying to ease her nervousness as the plane would start its ascent soon. Magenta hated the part when the ears popped and the liftoff came so quickly and unpleasant feelings would settle in her stomach every time.
"Favorite color? Mine's blue." Blue started with a simple question.
Magenta bit her lip before she said, "Actually my favorite is blue too."
Blue made an O with his mouth and he said, "What! No way. I thought it would be yellow. Lemons, hello?"
"Yeah I love yellow too but blue is so beautiful because of the sky and oceans," Magenta explained.
"Oh yeah, makes sense, I am quite beautiful," Blue preened, making Magenta laugh again.
Magenta asked, "Fave food?"
"Sushi!" They both said at the same time.
"Sport?"
"Running!" They both said again.
"Wait, I thought yours is soccer!" Magenta said.
"Soccer is my second favorite," Blue said, his eyes twinkling.
"We need to go running together sometime!" Magenta said.
"That's a cool idea. Finally got our phones so we can text each other," Blue dangled his phone into view.
"Oh, you're an Android." Magenta said, pretending to be disappointed.
"You're an Apple?" Blue said.
They showed their thumbs down to each other before pressing them into a thumbs up.
The plane's ascent started, rattling everyone on board. But Blue and Magenta kept playing the game. The game continued and they got to know each other better through the flight. By the end of the time and towards the end of the flight, Magenta fell asleep, resting her head on Blue's shoulder.
Shelby and Jasper were a few seats down the plane, so they couldn't see each other at the moment. But they were also sharing a wonderful moment, watching the plane view outside and the wisps of clouds in the sky.
It was a beautiful night, and as Blue looked at Magenta's peaceful face, he wished this would never end and that they could stay like this forever.