Tweetie

48

Hazel sat, her mind boggled once again as she surrounded herself with work. Photos from the older crimes at the Southblock Hotel, eye witness accounts gathered by Archie, student files, a shoe. It didn't make sense. The motives didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. Anything at this point could have been possible if she argued her point enough, what she needed was viable evidence, unarguable and clear.

"Hazy... I really can't drink this many coffees."

"You can if you believe in yourself."

Archie laughed, slumping back into his seat with a file in his hand about the Daniel Thompson case, going over and over the same information time and time again. They were both exhausted, the bags beneath their eyes were dark and heavy, neither had slept well in a long time. They just worked through the whole night without stop.

Hazel's eyes never stopped moving, they moved from one sheet of paper to the next in an attempt to make sense of something. It felt like something was missing. Literally. Her pile of evidence seemed to be shrinking, or was she forgetting? Was she misplacing things again? Putting them somewhere and forgetting later? Was her memory really getting so bad?

"Archibald," Hazel finally lifted her gaze to him, "have you seen those records of drug crimes in the South? I can't find them."

"Hm... I think you took it to the kitchen with you when you made the third coffee."

"Did I?" She turned and glanced over towards the kitchen, scanning the messy counter filled with mugs and teaspoons, some unopened letters, papers from files scattered around. A mess. "Oh man... That's gonna be impossible to find."

She wasn't given much more time to think about it as she watched her phone vibrate against the coffee table, shaking everything and forcing her eyes to turn with a tight feeling in her stomach from the fright. The number was unknown, one she hadn't seen before. Yet, she picked it up anyway, not caring for the dangers.

"Hello?" She hummed, her voice questioning and quiet while she still looked over everything she had, ignoring the missing evidence while Archie spared a glance to her to quirk an eyebrow up.

"Tweetie, hey."

"Fox?" Hazel sat up, letting her head fall to her shoulder, "you have my number?"

"Yeah, Ryan gave it to me," he said, his voice calm and silky. "Sorry to call out of the blue, you weren't doing anything, were you?"

"No not at all," she turned away from her work in an attempt to convince herself that she wasn't lying. "What's up, Foxie?"

"I've been meaning to speak to you about something," he admitted, his voice still clear as day even through the phone. "It'd be good to do it face to face, but I'll be at practice all day tomorrow. I was wondering if you would come to practice at some point so we can talk for a while? Would that be okay? It's just, the others are always around, so I never really get the chance."

"Yeah of course," she immediately agreed. "Honestly, if you ever want to talk without the others, you can totally just drag me out of the room, I don't mind."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Tweetie."

Hazel walked, her bag swinging as she smiled to herself. The sun was shining, for once it came out and the dull, drowsy day felt so much brighter. At first, she had left her house with the same dread as always, saying farewell to Archie and leaving for her bus. But as the sun rose and the sky turned blue, she felt her hopes rise, bringing her a sense of awe at the thought that despite the fact that they were in the cold season, there could still be some warm sunny days... It was a little concerning though. Global warming was and still is an issue. Forests are falling, ice caps are melting... Think of those poor animals...