20. Study Dates

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"She was strangled to death?!" Owen whispered with an incredulous expression.

"Um, well, I think so."

"And why do you think so?" Torryn asked from beside me.

"All the signs are there! Her mouth was swollen, indicating a swollen tongue. If you looked at her neck closely enough you could see the abrasions and the slight edema," I stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "Those are some of the physical signs of strangulation. I mean, this is just a hunch and I might be wrong but, those signs just popped out to me," I shrugged, frowning a little.

"Why in the world do you know so much about the physical signs of strangulation?" Ethan demanded with a fearful expression on his face.

"Do you remember that project we had in biology last year when Mr Greene gave us free reign over the topics? Well, I decided to do a detailed research on strangulation. Manual strangulation, ligature strangulation, the whole deal. I only did it as a prank though," I grinned.

"Damn, that must have given old Greene a heart attack," Matt shuddered.

Suddenly, Ethan removed a brownie from his pocket and started eating it. Everyone looked at him in disbelief.

"Did you take that from their table?" Rhea frowned, pointing towards the funeral home.

Ethan nodded, his mouth full.

I quickly walked up to him with a look of pure disapproval, "And you're going to eat it all by yourself? I think not," I snatched the remaining brownie from his hand, gulping it down.

"Aria, you're such a bully," Ethan whined.

"Stop being a baby. You should be happy. I only bully my friends," I grinned through a mouthful of brownie.

In return, he stuck his tongue out at me. Mae and I snickered at him.

"Hey, isn't that Mr Hatter's car?" Rhea pointed at a car parked nearby.

It was, in fact, Mr Hatter's car. Mr Hatter owned a pretty awesome cherry red vintage car, that everyone fawned over. That car was pretty hard to miss.

"Wonder what he's doing here, " Mason said.

"Yeah, it's a Saturday and the cafe's usually crowded at this time," Owen added.

"Do y'all think he's inside?" Matt pointed at the funeral home.

"I don't think so. If he were inside, we would've seen him by now, " Torryn reasoned.

There was a moment of silence before Ethan broke it, "Eh, who cares?"

I raised an eyebrow at him but then shrugged. Mr Hatter could go anywhere he wanted to.

"Guys, I need to get home and prepare for my test on Monday, " Mason's voice broke everyone out of their reverie.

"Nerd," Mae teased, chuckling under her breath.

Mason gave her an exasperated look, "If I remember correctly, you have that test, too. And, we're coming for the funeral tomorrow, right?"

All of us shared a glance as if to make sure that we were on the same page.

"My almost, kind-of discovery changes nothing. We're going, then. Done?" I looked at everyone for confirmation and grinned when everyone nodded.

"Awesome. But now I need to go pick up my little brother from his friend's house, " Matt turned towards Owen. "You want a ride home? I'm going that way, "

"Sure," Owen nodded.

Ethan smirked at Torryn.

"Guess that means you're the lucky bitch who gets to drive me home now. I can't wait to sing at the top of my voice all the way home."

I had heard Ethan sing in one of our Music class. That boy cannot sing. I almost felt sorry that Torryn would have to put up with that.

But then again, this was Torryn Cole I was talking about. He didn't put up with things he didn't want to put up with.

So he simply narrowed his eyes, "You will not be singing anything if you don't want Mrs Wright to know that you were the one who actually broke her favourite vase and not some cat."

Well, then, I guess blackmailing is one way to stop people from doing terrible things.

While Ethan sulked, I turned to see Rhea talking to someone on her phone. She hung up with a smile on her face and looked at us.

"I'm going to Brit's place. We're going to- stop looking at me like that, Aria, I'm only going there to study with her!"

"Sure you are," I smirked.

Her only response was an exasperated shake of the head.

"Come on, I'll drop you home on the way," She turned to Mason.

The both of them bid us goodbye and left, but not before I got in a teasing comment about study dates with girlfriends.

Matt and Owen left not much later.

I turned to see Mae already sitting in her Jeep, Bill.

"Miller," Torryn called out just as I was going to go sit by Mae.

"Cole," I answered with a curious smile.

"We need to start the Art assignment if you want to finish it on time," he stated with his usual emotionless face.

"Oh, yeah, right. I was going to talk to you about that. When do you wanna start? Are you free after the funeral tomorrow?" I asked, feeling bad that I didn't bring it up first.

"Great! Where do you wanna do it?" I asked once he nodded.

"Is my house okay with you?"

"Yeah, sure. We'll work out our chemistry schedule tomorrow," I said, remembering the deal we made.

Before he could say anything, Ethan butted in, "Whoa! What was that about working out your chemistry?"

"Schedule, Ethan, chemistry schedule. I'm going to tutor him in chemistry," I sent him a weirded-out look.

My words (or Torryn's glare, for that matter), did nothing to erase the suggestive smirk off the idiot's face. If anything, it only seemed to grow.

I looked at him for a full minute and then shrugged.

He could smirk if he wanted to.

"Okay, then. I'll see guys tomorrow. Bye," I smiled, waving at them.

I settled into Bill's passenger seat as Mae nodded in goodbye at the boys.

Two minutes after hitting the road, Mae glanced at me from the corner of her eyes, "So, study date with Torryn Cole?"

"What?" I sputtered.

She just raised an eyebrow at me teasingly with a small smirk.

"Hey, it's not like that! At all! He's just helping me with Art and I'm just helping him with chemistry."

"If you say so," she shrugged, the hint of teasing could still be heard in her voice.

I groaned when I felt my cheeks heat up in a blush and Mae started snickering.

First Ethan, and now, Mae. Why was everyone being so weird?

********************************

Hey guys, how's the quarantine going?

I, for one, am enjoying it! I have made the quarantine my bitch! Hehe

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