“I’m Sloane,” I introduce myself.
His eyes widen with recognition. “Oh, yeah, I remember you, you were at the party. Ty’s friend.”
“Yeah,” I say, happy that he remembers me. If he remembers me, maybe he’ll remember Miles. “I have a question for you about that night actually.” I dig around in my bag for my phone to show him a picture.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hear a voice from beside me. It’s Colton Austi. “Cam, let’s go.”
“Wait, wait,” I whisper. “I just want to talk to you guys about that night.”
Colton crosses his arms and huffs in irritation. “You want to talk about how you murdered my brother?” He says it loud enough to earn a few looks from other students.
“I did not push Ryan,” I bite out.
“But you wrote that note?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then it had to be you.”
I sigh and pull up the photo of Miles. “Do you recognize this professor?” I ask him.
“No.” His eyes remain on me.
“You didn’t even look,” I say. He makes an exaggerated show of looking before once again saying no. I show Cam next. “You were at the door all night. Did you see this man walk in?”
“I don’t think so,” Cam says. “He doesn’t look familiar. Why?”
“Because he’s the only person who knew about the journal that page came out of, and right now my journal is missing. I thought maybe—”
“I should post all over my social media that you’re a murderer,” Colton interrupts. He doesn’t care about my explanation. His mind is already made up about me.
“Um, okay, well, that would be considered, like, libel or slander or something, because it’s not true?”
“You did the same thing to Ryan.”
“And I regret doing that, but what I said was true.”
Colton grits his teeth, and nods at Cam again to follow him. “You won’t get away with this,” he says to me before walking away with Cam in tow.
I stay seated in the library trying to collect myself, wondering how I went from being a normal college senior to a murder suspect in one short month. The Netflix series about my life is now looking like one of those serial killer documentaries where my friends would all give interviews, saying things like “She just seemed so normal!”
I let my head hit the table with a thud.
“Shh!”
Chapter 9
“They’re saying it was an accident,” Ty says on the other end of the line as I walk into work on Friday.
“They? Who’s they?” I ask.
“The school, the police, I don’t know, just whoever makes these decisions. Someone came forward and said they thought they saw him walking along the railing or something for a dare, and they have no other evidence to go off.” Ty is quiet for a moment. “Though Colton is going around saying some crazy shit... like that it was you.”
I wonder if she knows about the note. If the whole campus does. “Me?” I feign shock.
“Yeah, but I think he’s just looking for someone to blame. He’s grieving, obviously.”
“Right, obviously,” I say, setting my bag down behind the bar just as Tristan walks in. “Ty, I have to go.”
