Out of Focus |finished|

13- mulan and john watson

Malachi and Elder's room was clean when Simi followed Malachi inside. Her jaw dropped and she looked over the room, surprised that everything was different from the last time she'd been there.
Even Malachi's bedspread wasn't messy. There were just a few things missing; Elder's books on his table, his travelling bags and his bed looked naked with no bedspread.

"I cleaned yester night," Malachi turned to Simi and smiled sheepishly, "because I couldn't sleep."

Simi nodded but was confused at how desolated Elder's space looked. "Where are Elder's things?" she asked.

Malachi face-palmed himself. "I should have told you. Julia came here the night we fought with her dad's car for everything."

"At night? Why didn't she come in the afternoon or morning?" Simi sat down on Elder's bed and turned to Malachi who had deposited himself on his study chair.

He just shrugged to Simi's question. He'd also found it strange that Julia had come for her brother's stuff at night and alone. He had to help her carry most of Elder's stuff to Mr. Benson's Pajero while the students who were awake watched him, a solemn look on their face.

Malachi had thought he would be distraught but carrying Elder's stuff out of the room made him think of the bigger picture; he wouldn't be reminded every day of his loss.

"Anyway, back to business." Simi took out the photobook and moved to Malachi's study desk.

Malachi let out a sigh and opened the photobook and took out all the photos that they had thought suspicious. He spread them on the desk horizontal in the order of how related they were to each other.

"What now?" he asked Simi with his eyes still going over the photos.

Simi pointed to the photos of the students. "Well apart from Ama Rawlings, we know these four other students also died and they'd all talked to this girl who may have been dealing them Chill."
Her hands moved to the photo of the back side of the unknown girl.

"Probably. What about this?" Malachi pointed to the photo of the SRC president fondling a girl who was passed out drunk.

"My roommate knows him so I could get her to set a date with him for me."

Malachi nodded. "What happened with her? You guys were fighting the night I came over."

"Oh just girl stuff, nothing serious," Simi brushed it off with her hand.

Malachi turned to look at her and she gave a smile that made his heart leap a little. A habit his heart had begun to learn whenever Simi smiled at him.

He turned and pointed to another photo. It was the one of his classmate in bed with a male lecturer.
"I think we should start with him. Jamal. I have one class with him so I could talk to him on Monday."

"I have my Chemistry class with him. He came to talk to me the day after El's funeral."

Malachi turned in alarm to face Simi. "What did he say? Did it seem like he was threatening you?"

"Calm down John Watson." Simi chuckled.

"He told me that he was sorry about what happened to El."

"Sounds suspicious to me. So we talk to him first?" Malachi asked Simi.

"I think you should talk to him alone. If both of us do, he might get scared and not talk. Also, try and see if he knows anything about Chill. "

Malachi nodded and did a little pout with his lips. "Makes sense."

"And while you're doing that, I'll go and talk to this lecturer." Simi pointed to the photo of the female lecturer.

There must have been a reason why Elder put a rather mundane picture of the lecturer in the photo album.

"I can't believe all this real. Do you think we're being childish?" Malachi asked Simi.

He wanted to find out who killed his best friend but he was also doubting himself. Did he and Simi really have the guts to search for a killer? Wasn't he putting Simi in danger?

Simi hit him playfully on the chest, "Hey, you gave a whole speech remember? Don't chicken out on me now."

"Roger that Mulan." he put an arm over a squirming Simi who was now trying to doge from him.

Half an hour later of an argument over the photos of the Teaching Assistants, Malachi and Simi agreed that the TAs in the photos giving question papers to girls would not go as far as killing a student to cover their tracks.

Malachi thought it was possible but Simi had countered that they'd just be going on a wild goose chase. Finally, they had come to compromise and Simi's argument won.

After hiding the photobook in his room, unaware that there were secret cameras installed everywhere, Malachi accompanied Simi back to her hostel.

He left the hostel and took a shuttle to the eastern part of campus. The Weekend. The number one place most students hanged out during the weekend and if he was lucky, he would see a classmate who probably knew something his best friend's death.

Discussion Area
Did you guys realize the Sherlock Holmes reference I dropped?!
On the subject of boys rooms not being clean, it isn't all boys. I for instance, *coughs*, always keep my room clean. Mostly.
And also, SRC is short for Student Representative Council. In case you were wondering.
Thank you for reading! Don't forget to click that star button there and I've added the cast and playlist sections so let's go check it out!