Love Penalty

Chapter 4: The Beginning of The End

Ava's PoV:

"So it all began when several friends of mine and I decided to go to a bar to let loose a little bit and have fun, now that I think about it, maybe I would've been better off staying at home." he reprimands himself jokingly.

"Back to my point, the group of friends was Jack, Alex, Dean and I.
We went to this bar called "bar-ring" at the eastern west part of town" he looks like he's trying to draw out the image from memory.

"We got in at around 9:30 p.m and sat at a side table for a couple of minutes before calling the bartender/ waiter to order.
Jack ordered tequila shots for himself, Alex went off on whiskey after having broken up with his girlfriend for unknown reasons, Dean kept on sipping vodka with his fake bad Russian accent. If the Russians heard how bad he sounded they wouldn't hesitate for a second before emptying a loaded gun into his head, and who could blame them" he chuckles slightly to himself.

I nod for him to keep going, and so he does.

"All night I kept drinking bourbon, 10 or 11 shots I don't precisely recall. We just kept on talking and laughing and there was this group of girls across from where we were sitting and we kept making eye contact, that's it, just eying them every once in a while and them doing the same.
By 11:30 we were all hammered, and so Alex and Dean were the ones to leave early. Alex clearly was on the verge of breaking after getting drunk to forget the whole breakup thing, and Dean said he had work early the next morning, thus he couldn't stay out overly late".

"After 11:30 it was down to Jack and I. We kept at it drinking and chatting for almost an hour till 12:30 - 12:35 when we decided we've had enough".

I can feel my stomach turn as we're getting closer to that part of the story.
I don't know what I should expect, down to my experience there are 3 options:

a. He could confess to me that he did it under attorney- client privilege.
b. He could choose to be coy and claim he had nothing to do with it.
c. He is indeed innocent.

I haven't conversed with him long enough to know what category he belonged to.

"After we got out of the bar, each went their separate way, Jack called an uber to take him home and I simply walked off feeling like fresh air wouldn't be so bad, I guess I was obviously dead wrong".

"I kept walking around sketchy alleys, rather stumbling from all the drinks I had briefly had before, clearly I was so drunk that I hadn't paid attention to what I was stepping in".
I can see a faint of regret on his features, it was faintly there, but nonetheless still there.

"I stepped into someone's pool of blood for that matter without me even noticing, however I kept on walking straight not realizing there's someone laying at the far end of the corner, in my defense the person or the body was far from the pool of blood a couple of feet, or at least that's what Anderson told me." I'm trying to detect any signs of lying, yet I find none. He sounds genuinely sincere.

"I kept walking for about 6 or 7 minutes until I got to my place".

"So how did you discover the blood on the bottom of your shoes?" I question curiously.

"Well the next morning, at approximately 7 o'clock the police raided my place like a fucking tv show scene. I was still asleep and didn't even realize what was going on, until they cuffed me saying I'm a suspect of rape and second degree murder and the next thing I know a jury decided I'm guilty for my lack of alibi and the blood stained shoes they call evidence " he sighs deeply and lays back in his chair.
" I know you must have a long list of questions by now so shoot " he says in a challenging tone with a mischievous smirk up his lips, yet still appeared alert and on edge preparing himself for whatever I'm going to ask next.

I shifted in my seat across from him, cleared my voice and looked him dead in the eye " first of all..."

To be continued..

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A/N :

What do you think Ava's questions will be?

Do you think Noah is innocent as he claims?

Do you think Ava believes Noah?