Asher yawns and stretches his arms until his right elbow pops, but instead of hurting it actually relaxes. Riley comes out of the bathroom, dressed in her clean clothes. She looks at him and smiles.

"Sorry I didn't wake you, I wasn't sure if I should."

"That's alright, how do you feel?"

She nods, "Much better."

"You know they are going to bring that up today, if not question us."

Riley takes a deep shaky breath. "I'm screwed."

Asher frowns thoughtfully, he looks up at her. "No you aren't. Because if they question us, I'll be right there with you."

It's Riley's turn to frown, "I don't think they'll question us both at the same time."

"No, they wouldn't. But we can work around that."

She cocks her head to the side, frowning harder.

****

They walk down the sidewalk together in their uniforms. "We're late."

"Not yet, deep breathes Riley."

She nods and does as instructed trying hard to remember the exercises Asher taught her.

"Hey guys."

They look at Ryan as he approaches. "Hey man, how are you?" Asher asks,

"Good, slept like crap though, Riley? How is ya?"

"I'm good, a little tired too."

"Where's Mia and Jessica?"

"I'll meet them in class." she says,

"Hey Asher, still hanging out after school?"

"Course." he smiles,

"Got any concerts today Riley?"

She shrugs, "No, today I'm just gonna chill with Mia and Jess."

They arrive at class and freeze when they see the three police officers outside the homeroom door and students and teachers gathered around.

"What the heck?" Asher and Ryan say in sync,

They enter the cloud only to have a pale faced Mia and Jess come up to Riley. "What happened?" Ryan asks,

"Miss Clark was murdered." Jess says, her voice sounds dead,

"What?!"

Asher is surprised, Riley really just nailed that response.

There's a silence for a few seconds. "H-how?" Asher asks, breaking the silence.

"I don't know...they won't tell us anything." Jess says,

Asher glances at Riley. Considering the situation, it was understandable to be shocked and horrified. But she seemed a little too much so. Asher clears his throat and makes his way closer. Perhaps Riley read his mind, because she was hot on his heels. Asher thought Riley looked as though she would puke, a little intense, even given the situation. However if Riley were to even just glance at the body, Riley's...state would be more understandable.

Asher gently pushes through and peeks through an opening past two police officers that are trying to hold people back. Someone tries to peek over and see, only to be pushed back by the officer and creating a space for Riley, Jessica, Mia and Asher to see Miss Clark's corpse lying in her gore on the floor. Officers kneeling over the body.

They all pale, Riley's body urches, like a physical wave travels down her body. She's going to puke. Asher luckily had seen it. He realizes it in that moment, Riley is kind, innocent. What happened, that changed her, maybe in some ways for the better, but it would definitely scar her for life. But she wasn't the only one, Ryan looks like he's about to throw up as well.

Asher grabs their arms and pulls them away. "Come on guys, deep breathes, you don't need to see this. Slow breathes through the nose and out through the mouth."

"Holy sh..."

"Oh my gosh, who would do something like that!?" Mia spits under her breath,

"Riley?" Jessica asks,

She takes Riley's arm and gives her a concerned look. Riley shakes her head.

"I...I'm okay...I just...I need a minute."

"Oh man, that's not getting out of my head." Ryan gags,

"You alright buddy?"

Ryan nods, "Yeah, I-I think Riley and I just got sensitive stomachs."

Riley doesn't acknowledge his comment, just struggles to breathe slowly and get her stomach under control. Even Mia and Jessica look like ghosts.

"Good morning everyone, I'm detective Ronald Wallis and we are going to need to talk to all of you so just stay where you are and we'll sort this out."

The tall man lets the side of his mouth curl, but it's definitely just to put people at ease, his dark eyes easily peirced the crowd before he even spoke, as he emerged from the room everyone noticed him. As he spoke, he silenced the people around him with his dark brown eyes, practically black. His voice was neutral, not too hard but informed that he wasn't soft either. It was hard to tell his emotions behind the subtle demanding in his voice.

"What happened?"

The detective shakes his head slightly, "Miss Clark has been murdered and we need to question all of you."

"You think one of us did it?" Jace asks,

"We need to be thorough."

****

Riley's heart is pounding against her chest, begging for her to just find somewhere to hide and cry. Asher gently grabs a sweaty hand, She glances at him, but as soon as she realizes that he isn't looking at her, she looks behind her. She prays that it looks like she's skeptical of the crowd. Oh gosh, it's a fricken gosh dang wonder she isn't shaking! She's so doomed! So so doomed!

At that moment, Asher gently squeezes her hand, holding it a little tighter for a moment and lets go. For a moment, guilt and horror fill her soul, she wishes he hadn't let go. But if someone had seen their hands...it would get complicated. She keeps forgetting too but tries to correct herself and breathe through her nose and out of her mouth...or was it the other way around?!

But then the moment passes, guilt and terror swell within her still but it's not and unstoppable force anymore. Asher will be there, he promised. She feels her heartbeat slow to a managable rate. How is she not shaking? Gah she was here yesterday!

Her chest pounds harder again, Ugh come on idiot. She thinks to herself. She reminds herself again to breathe as slowly as she can. Geez this man is so terrifying. She can instantly tell this man has the ability to strike fear into everyone he sees...if he wished too.

She can do this. She can do this. The class is seated on either side of the wall, another detective comes and helps detective Wallis, but this one isn't nearly as intimidating.

In twos, one for each detective, the students are called into another room for questioning. It seemed to not take long at all, until about the fifteenth person, Asher got called in. She plays with her fingers, unable to stop fidgeting. It's getting worse, but-but Asher said he'd be there with her. He'll...he'll think of something.

After Asher comes out it seems to take a hundred years for her turn to come. It seems to take her a thousand years to walk down the hall, all eyes were going from her to Kaleb, some judging her horribly, eager to know what happened.

Of course she's being interviewed by Wallis. She looks to one side of the hall, letting ehr eyes fall on Asher, he gives a subtle smile. Holy crap...she is so freaking nervous that she totally forgot the annoying the thing that's itching her ear so terribly.

"You got this." Asher mutters softly,

His voice carries to the earpiece in her ear. She 'dusts' off her shirt very softly, making sure she can still feel the microphone beneath her shirt. She lets herself be lead into the room and sits down in the freezing chair.

"Miss Reed?"

"Yes?"

"You are in a band with Mia and Jessica?"

"Th-that's correct."

Where are you Asher? She asks herself,

"How well did you know miss Clark?"

"U-um...okay I guess? We weren't, I-I mean I didn't know her anymore than anyone else. She was just my teacher."

"Really? And where were you yesterday between 5PM and 6:30 PM?"

Riley sat there, three seconds lasted for an eternity.

"I was at the World Mall, I ran into Asher there and we just walked around and hung out all day."

"I-I was at the World Mall. I ran into Asher Palmer there, we just started talking and, uh w-we hung out all day."

"You seem pretty nervous miss Reed."

"He's baiting you, you saw a dead body."

Riley manages to shrug awkwardly, "I saw Miss Clark's corpse...forgive me if i don't just get over that." She mumbles,

The man snorts, "And you have no idea why someone would want to kill your teacher?"

"I have no idea."

"Anyone you can think of that has it out for her?"

Riley shakes her head, "No."

"So miss Reed, Jessica and Mia were at the World Mall yesterday too, you weren't with them?"

Riley shook her head, "We aren't always together? We just weren't yesterday."

"So what were you doing there?"

"Mm...Shopping?"

Geez Asher, thanks for the help.

"I uh, I went shopping for a necklace. Mia looks good in earrings, Jessica wears rings, I just...wanted something for me, we've talked about it before."

Wallis's face remains unreadable and dark. As if it sees through her lies and is just waiting for her to confess so he can devour her. The silence is making her blood boil. Asher reasures her that is just trying to make her crack but it's about to work. She holds her breath, if she dares breathe, she fears she'll hyperventilate.

"Miss Reed if you're hiding something, you better tell me right now, do you understand?" His voice was so forceful and commanding,

She would have confessed had Asher not quickly told her to keep her mouth shut. She stares at him a while longer, his eyes are ready to rip her in half to reveal the truth. Her chest burns and her heart is pounding harder than ever from holding her breath. However his eyes finally soften, he lets her go, she walks out and plops down against the wall, now, she almost can't control her shaking. She breathes out slowly, silently and her heart seems to pound a little harder for a moment as she breathes in.

She doesn't look at Mia or Jessica or even, Asher, she just stares at the ground. She shakes softly, she holds her hands together to keep her shaking from being noticed.

Holy crap...holy crap.

"You okay?"

She looks up at Mia and jessica, they look at her from across the hall with concerned looks, "I'm okay." she whispers to them, letting Asher hear as well,

"You did it Riley. Just relax as much as you can."

She leans her head back against the wall and sighs as she breathes a little heavier. She looks over at Asher for a second, he gives a soft smile.

"Alright Riley, there's some things I gotta let you in on. after all this."

She mutters an acceptance.