Page 27 of Feel Free to Scream

“No one gave me anything,” I insist. “And even if theyhad, I don’t see how it has anything to do with a girl trying to kill herself in a pool.”

“What makes you think she was acting in her right mind?” the officer retorts, with a smug smirk. “A girl almost dies, and you’re protecting your rich friends, huh? I see how it is.”

How the hell did this turn around to make me the bad guy?

“Look, maybe there was alcohol, or drugs, or whatever. I don’t know. I was there with a couple of friends, and hardly talked to anyone else. What I drank, I helped myself to.”

“That’s your statement?”

“It is.”

“And what’s your name?”

I really don’t want to tell him.

“Is there a problem, Officer?”

Cross.

I’m relieved to see him, if only because my interrogator seems pissed.

Ignoring the dark-haired hunk, the officer keeps his attention on me. “I’m going to need you to come down to the station tomorrow, ma’am. Record your statement. Until then.”

He walks away without a parting glance.

Cross takes a step towards me, his gaze scrutinizing. “You okay?”

I nod. “I think…that guy was trying to make me tell him bad things about the party. I didn’t, though.”

“Didn’t you?” he asks, those mercurial hazel eyes unrelenting. “Because the only thing one should say to a dick like that cop is ‘no comment.’ You seemed to be having a nice chat.”

I shake my head. “I told him about finding the girl, that’s all. When he pushed about the party, I said I only drank what I took. No one served me anything. He was trying to push. I didn’t let him.”

He pauses. “I heard what you did for Charlotte. The CPR. That’s the only reason why I’m telling you this now, Keller’s pet. Don’t go down to the station tomorrow.”

“I can’t just ignore the police.”

“You’re not under arrest. They have nothing on you. You’re nothing but a weapon for those wanting to harm us.”

“Maybe that’s how it works in your world, with the lawyers you can afford and all that, but in mine, I do what the police tell me to do,” I snap.

Cross sighs. Deeply. “Have it your way.”

And then he just walks away, past Lily, who watches us in horrified silence.

12

CLAIRE

Urgh.

A rat died at the back of my throat, somehow making it drier than the Sahara in the process. I can only conclude he was trampled by the herd of kangaroos jumping in my brain.

My eyes flutter open, and I immediately regret it, the light setting them on fire. I close them again.

“Ugh, kill me,” I groan.

“That bad, huh?” Lily sounds far too awake. “I thought you only had, like, three or four drinks. Here, take this.”

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