(Filler)
I'd been following Vincent's trail for some time after the murder of the two girls. Suspicious activity had been occurring around the workplace of my housemate, Thomas. Tom worked at T's Pizza as a nighttime security guard while I had been working as a self-employed investigator as well as Tom's assistant mechanic. I had no prior experience in murder cases. But with Vincent, he didn't leave much to debunk that wasn't already blatantly obvious. As far as the mechanics went, I was only ever able to construct a working facial mechanism.
There were times when Tom and I would take a break from our respective "jobs" and just be teenagers. Tom was older than I was, so it was hard to find space in our schedules when we were both free, but we managed. I was still in school, and since I'd become friends with Tom, he got pretty lonely during the day, and I was equally as such at night. Weekends were still our only real free time, and nothing too interesting happened on Sundays, aside from homework cramming, so Saturdays were pretty much it.
"Hey, Ro," Tom called from his bathroom. "C'mere a sec."
Tom had a pretty big house, which didn't surprise me much, considering his role in the T's Pizza company. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, full kitchen and dining room, a living room, a back yard leading into the woods, and a whole studio we used as a workshop. It was all pretty fancy for an eighteen-year-old working the night shift.
"What is it?" I asked, walking in as Tom was figuring out his new tie; he'd always used a clip-on in the past.
"What do you say we go to a party this Saturday? I've got an old friend hosting one at her place while her parents are out of town. You down?"
"A house party?"
"Yeah, why not? We could both use a little distraction."
"I don't know, Maz. I've never really been to a party before, let alone with people I don't know."
"Oh, come on, Ro! It'll be fun, I promise. Besides, you've met my friend Mindy before; nothing bad will happen."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Okay, nothing totally illegal."
"I'm guessing that means there's gonna be alcohol involved."
"Yeah? Nothing wrong with that. No one's going to pressure you into drinking if that's what you're worried about."
There are a few other things I can think of that would be pretty bad.
"Okay. I guess you're right."
Tom smiled. "Alright. I'll let her know we'll be there." He pat me on the shoulder as he left the room. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah."
Saturday came faster than I would've hoped. Tom said to dress nicely, but I didn't really have any "party clothes," so I just put on a sweater, an oversized button-down shirt and ripped jeans. Tom, having an actual job and friends, dressed like he knew what he was doing.
"Ro, you wear that like every day," He gave me a look when he saw what I was wearing. He actually had a pretty decent fashion sense, and was wearing a tee shirt tucked into his jeans with an old leather jacket.
"I don't have any other clothes," I muttered.
"Rollan. I've seen your closet; you just never wear half the clothes you own."
"You bought half of them for me."
"And I'm pretty offended you never thought to try them on."
"Maz, we're going to be late if we don't leave soon."
