Out of Focus |finished|

28- phone calls and interviews

News of Bahija's death spread like wildfire in the school and when the police officially called Simi a day earlier to interview her, she went along with the confession letter.

Although she finally felt like she had closure, she couldn't help but cry when she thought of Bahija. How close they had been and how she of all people could be capable of such a despicable act. Every time she reread the letter, which was a lot, she felt as if something kept breaking in her.

"Should I get you water?" Malachi asked her while they sat in the police station waiting for one of the deputies to call Simi in.

"I'm okay," Simi replied, her voice croaky.
Since she'd shown the letter to Malachi, they'd barely talked.

Malachi had rushed out of Simi's room and gone to kick some stuff to let his anger out and returned to hold Simi as she cried. They had the closure they both desperately wanted but Malachi still felt as if there was something wrong.

"Do you believe what Bahija wrote?" he asked her.

Simi gave him a sharp look, "You can't ask me that. Not now."

"Sorry, I don't know what to think."

She was about to reply him when an officer called Simi into his office. Weirdly, as she walked into the office, she felt like a felon. She sat down and watched the officer turn on an audio recorder.

"There's no need to be scared. We just want to get all our facts right on your relationship with Miss Sampson."

Simi only nodded, desperate to get everything over with.

"The letter you gave to us has been cross-examined and we found Miss Sampson's fingerprints and other fingerprints on it. Did you show the letter to anyone else?"

Simi contemplated telling him about Malachi but changed her mind and responded, "No I didn't."

The police officer gave her a look of concern and said, "It would be in your best interest and ours to answer the questions very carefully."

"Yes"

"Were you close with Miss Sampson? And did she ever show any signs of depression or self-harm?"

"No she didn't and we were more than acquaintances but not actual friends."

"Was there ever a time she acted irrational?" the officer asked her.

Simi's mind went back to the day Bahija had argued with her on why her wardrobe was messy.  "Only once. She was angry at something she thought I did."

"Did you ever see her do drugs of any kind?"

"She was a very calm person," Simi said and added under her breath, "at least that's what I thought."

"One last question, did you know any friends of hers who acted irrational or had weird mannerisms; as if they were on drugs?"

Simi crossed her arms, "No, I met her friends once or twice."

She felt anger at Bahija, felt like if her roommate were alive, she herself would put a gun to her head and kill her for touching her best friend.

"Thank you Simi, you can go now."

Simi nodded, walked out of the room and gave a huge sigh. Everything felt bleak to her. It was as if she had no reason for doing anything else in her life.
A call to her mother would help her but she couldn't risk letting them know anything about Bahija's death until the police told Elder's family about the letter.

Malachi met her and together they walked out of the police station. They'd gotten to the parking lot when Simi said,
"I believe Bahija."

"What?" Malachi's face scrunched in confusion.

"What you asked earlier, I think Bahija killed Elder."

"Don't you think it's all too sudden? We just found out the Chill Network and Bahija's ordeal comes along."

"What did you want Kai? We know who killed Elder now. Let's just give the photobook to the police and be done with all this."

Malachi ran his hand through his afro and looked to the sky. What began as searching for his best friend's killer was turning into something else for him.
He wanted to take all of them down himself; all those involved in Chill. Rid the school of anything that had was related to Chill.

"I don't know Si. I just feel like this isn't it."

A single tear ran down Simi's face and Malachi held her hand. It hurt him so much to see her go through all these emotions.
His phone began ringing and Simi gave a gasped. She wasn't in control of her emotions now and even the smallest of things set her off. Malachi checked the caller ID and it was Asha. They'd been chatting for a while since he'd gone on a date with her.

"It's Asha. I have to pick it up." he told Simi and she nodded.

Malachi turned with his back facing Simi and picked up the call to hear Asha's preppy and always excited voice. He'd missed that voice so much. They talked for a while and Malachi ended the call with the promise of going on a date with her again.

He turned to apologize to Simi for taking long on the call but she wasn't there. Fear gripped him all of a sudden.

"Simi!" he shouted her name twice in the parking lot.

When he got no reply, he hoped there was nothing wrong and it was just him overreacting.