Chapter 4

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Wren's POV

Finding Tori Jefferson was even easier than finding Mo. Tessa's side of our dorm room was littered with pictures and notes from Tori. After some searching, I found a post-it note stuck to one of Tessa's binders that gave away Tori's location. 

Tori's dorm number: 203

I was on my way to room 203 when Cameron approached me.

"Going to question Tessa's friend?", he asked.

"Yeah", I answered.

"Maybe I should go with you."

"Cameron I don't think you should come with me this time."

He looked taken aback at my comment. "Why not?"

"Well for one, this one isn't the campus drug dealer. This is a highly emotional girl. She isn't going to be so open about anything. Especially if there's a retired celebrity listening."

Cameron took a moment to consider my reasoning. "That makes sense... but if she isn't open to talking about it, what makes you think that she'll want to talk you?"

"I'm prepared for that."

"How exactly?", he inquired. 

"I'm going to pretend that I was Tessa's friend. If she think we're going through the same thing, then she'll be more open to talking about it."

"So you're going to lie."

"Yes."

"And there will probably be tears."

"On her part, yeah."

"Well good luck." He kissed me softly on the cheek and walked away. I smiled to myself and made my way to Tori's dorm. 

+ + + + + + + + + +

"Who are you?", Tori asked when I showed up at her door that day.

"My name is Wren. I was a really close friend of Tessa's... I heard that you were close to her too", I answered. 

"Yeah I was. We were really close. So I guess we're in the same boat right now." Perfect. I knew she'd buy it.

"Yeah, I guess we are. I heard that you were the last one seen with her that night."

"I don't know about being the last person with her, but I did see her."

"Did you notice anything different about her? Did she give any signs that she was about to kill herself?", I asked carefully.

"Not at first... Why do you want to know anyway?", she said fiercely.

I paused. I had to come off as a friend who was seriously grieving. "Umm... closure. I just want closure", I muttered. 

"Oh. Well then I guess you should know that Tessa and I had a fight that night. I didn't think it was that serious. And I didn't mean to hurt her. I never thought she would kill herself", Tori said. Her lip started to tremble and tears slid down her cheeks. 

I felt bad for her. I really did. But I was getting somewhere with this.

I patted her back sympathetically. "Would it help to talk about it?", I asked.

"Yeah actually", she began. "I had dragged her away to talk to her cause I was bored. She said that she had something to tell me so we went to a bedroom upstairs so we could talk somewhere quiet. Tessa told me that she was making plans to run away."

"Run away? Why would she do that?", I asked.

"I guess she just wanted to get out of this town. You know, go somewhere new. Have an adventure. Discover the Great Perhaps or whatever."

"If she was going to run away, why would she come to school this year?"

"She said that her parents forced her to. Her plan was that she would go here for a year to please her parents and then leave at the end of the year."

I thought back to the first day when I spoke to Tessa in our dorm."You so won't be my problem next year". She had known that she wouldn't be there next year. "Wow..."

"Anyway, I got mad at her. We planned to come here for college together. She never said she was going to run away and leave everyone who cared about her. I got mad that she didn't tell me or invite me to go with her", Tori said as another wave of tears flooded her face. 

"Where was she planning to go?", I asked.

"New York. Our dream vacation spot. We were supposed to go there together after we graduated college."

"New York... That's really expensive. Where did she get the money for that?"

"That's the thing. I asked her where she got the money. She said that she stole it. I don't know who from. Before I could get the answer out of her, her boyfriend stormed into the room and told me to get out."

"Sam Blanchard... What did he want?"

"I have no idea. He just looked really pissed. I didn't want to be in the middle of their fight, so I left. That's the last time I talked to her." She sobbed loudly. "I never meant to make her want to kill herself."

"I don't think it was your fault", I said. "Hey, let's exchange numbers and if you want to talk again, you can give me a call."

She agreed and 5 minutes later I left her room with her number and whole new load of information. 

+ + + + + + + + + +

I had met with Cameron and Lucas for dinner in the cafeteria that night. I enlightened them on my visit with Tori. 

"Wow, Tessa? A runaway? I never would have expected that", Lucas said.

"Me neither", Cameron mumbled. "At least now we know for sure that Tori didn't kill her."

"Yeah. But we don't know about Sam", I said.

"Who's Sam?", Lucas asked.

"Tessa's boyfriend", I answered. "Sam Blanchard."

"Oh I know that guy", Lucas said. "His dorm is next to mine."

"Do you think you could introduce me?", I asked hopefully. 

"Sure. What's your approach though? I seriously doubt he's just going to open up about killing his own girlfriend."

"Well I'm going to have to get to know him a but. Make sure he trusts me. But he won't tell me if he actually did kill her. I'll have to put puzzle pieces together."

"What puzzle pieces?", Cameron asked.

"You know, clues. I obviously haven't found them yet."

"Look at you", Cameron joked. "Maybe a career in criminology is right up your alley."

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Hey readers,

Hope your liking this story so far. I think its coming along pretty well. Please keep reading! Update coming soon.

That_Epiphany

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