Pointing the Finger

“That’s my bag!”

All eyes turned to Lisa, Zack’s curvy, Latina ex-girlfriend as she admitted that the suitcase the police officers were holding belonged to her. Her eyes were wide, her brow furrowed as she tried to reconcile the fact the officers were holding her bag with the reason for their searching of the house. They’d come looking for **** and now they were asking about her bag. The conclusion was obvious and yet to many of the teens, unbelievable. Zack found it utterly implausible that his ex-girlfriend would be caught up with **** and even Kurt, who had heard how vehemently she had defended the law to Madison, couldn’t understand how the police could suspect Lisa of all of them.

“This is the bag that you brought to the cabin with you?” Officer Russell pressed her. “No one else shared this bag with you?”

“Yes, I brought it with me but it’s just mine,” Lisa replied, swallowing hard. “I was just in that bag earlier when I got dressed this morning. There’s nothing in there.”

“Oh? Officer Stallone feinted surprise and concern as he reached into the suitcase and produced a clear plastic bag filled with pills. “Judging by the markings on the tablets, I’d say you have a bag of Vicodin and possibly other opioids here.”

“Where did you get that? That wasn’t there this morning. Wait. Was it under my tops? I didn’t change my top this morning. I-” Lisa stopped abruptly, her face becoming stony and expressionless, remembering what her father had told her to do in these situations.

Officer Stallone smiled, understanding that she was invoking her right to silence. “Well, Miss, you can tell us all about it down at the station.”

“Am I under arrest?” Lisa asked coolly.

Officer Russell shook his head. “No, we just want to ask you a few questions and we’d appreciate your co-operation.”

“Tsh, fine,” Lisa tutted but began to follow the officers out of the cabin. “But I hope you know my father, Detective Rivera, won’t be happy to hear about this.”

“I’m sure he’ll be pleased to hear his daughter is innocent, don’t you think?” Officer Stallone mocked her as he held the door open, allowing his partner to lead Lisa out.

“Lisa, no,” Zack called out, dashing forward, but Stallone stepped in the way. “This isn’t right.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lisa assured him as she passed through the doorway. “This will all be sorted out soon enough.”

“We may need to question some or all of you later,” Officer Stallone warned the group. “Stay available.”

He turned and swept from the cabin and just like that they were gone, and Lisa along with them. Just six of the teens remained. No Victoria, no Lisa. The cabin instantly felt big and empty, lacking in warmth.

Zack hung his head. In less than twenty-four hours, his relationship with Ashley had been torn to pieces, his identity and his parentage were thrown into question and now Lisa, his friend and ex-girlfriend, was gone, suspected of illegally possessing Vicodin without prescription. Was this the universe’s way of punishing him for cheating on Chloe? By ripping everything good in his life from him bit by bit.

“This is crazy,” Chloe said, blinking. “Were those pills really Lisa’s?”

“No, of course not,” Zack shouted without looking. “You know Lisa, she wouldn’t.”

“In fairness, no one has seen her in months. Not since you two broke up,” Gavin replied. “A lot can happen.”

“I think Zack is right,” Kurt argued as Zack opened his mouth to rebuke his friend. Zack, and the others, were surprised by Kurt’s support. He continued, “I spent some time with her while we were out looking for Victoria and she honestly doesn’t strike me as the type of girl who would be using or selling ****.”

“Yes, thank you,” Zack cheered, overcoming his shook and clapping loudly.

“Well, then, the question is why she had those pills in her suitcase?” Heather asked. “They didn’t just magically appear. Someone must have planted them there.”

“Who would want to frame Lisa?” Chloe replied. “Who does that benefit?”

Ugh, this is a conversation I can have with panties on,” Ashley surmised, heading off down the hall towards the master bedroom.

“Wait, Ashley, can I talk to you for a moment?” Zack asked, taking a step towards her.

“You can talk to me while I put on underwear,” the blonde insisted, continuing down the hall, leaving Zack to follow after her.

She slipped into the master bedroom, beginning to pull the long t-shirt up over her head before Zack could even arrive. He entered and closed the door behind him, watching as Ashley tossed the top on to the bed, leaving her petite naked body completely on display. His eyes roamed over her small tits and protruding nipples, down over her slender body and white, smooth skin, resting on her round, prominent butt, her tight pussy visible, peaking out between her thighs. As upset as he was, he still felt the blood rush to his lower regions, his cock hardening at the sight.

“Ash, tell me this wasn’t you,” Zack demanded, watching as she bent over her own suitcase, pushing out her ass towards him, her pretty, clam becoming even more noticeable between her legs.

“What?!” The small blonde turned to face him, her face contorted, a black thong clenched in her fist.

“Tell me you didn’t plant those **** to get rid of Lisa,” Zack repeated, staring her dead in the eye, like two duellers at ten paces waiting for the other to draw. “Tell me this wasn’t some terrible scheme to get rid of her, so we could get back together.”

“I can’t believe you would even think that of me,” Ashley balked.

“Can you blame me? After everything that’s happened?” Zack asked, glaring at the girl that just a day a go he called his girlfriend. “Who else would want rid of her?”

“You seem to forget that your precious fucking ex-girlfriend tricked me too so that she could fuck you. She’s not above scheming and tricks herself,” Ashley shouted, gesturing towards the bed, the site of Lisa’s decimation of their relationship the day before. “Maybe I’m not the only one she’s screwed over.”

“You shared this room with her,” Zack continued, coming up with new reasons for Ashley’s guilt. “You had access to her stuff better than anyone.”

“For fuck sake, the room was never locked. Anyone could have just walked in. And a lot of people did because of the bathroom,” Ashley retorted, lowering the thong and slipping her legs in. She pulled the underwear up until it was snug over her cunt, suddenly feeling very irritated to be naked in front of him. “And don’t think I didn’t notice that she didn’t sleep here last night. Or that she came out of your room in her pyjamas earlier. I guess she’s stolen you from me completely now.”

“That’s not…it wasn’t…I was tired and…” Zack stammered, and then, annoyed at being distracted off topic, he barked, “That’s got nothing to do with anything.”

Before Ashley could respond or their argument could continue there was a knock at the door. While Ashley continued getting dressed, Zack opened the bedroom door, Heather standing awkwardly on the other side.

“Sorry to disturb your…uh…discussion,” Heather prefaced, clearly having been able to hear everything they were saying on the other side of the door. “I was just gonna head into town and wanted to know if you wanted to come.”

“Me?” Zack clarified, pointing at him self and then shaking his head. “No, I’d rather stay here and think of something we can do for Lisa.”

“Well there’s not much I think we can do. They’ll be questioning her for hours, and besides, her father and her lawyer can probably do more for us than we can,” Heather said, and then with a knowing look, continued, “I was just thinking of going to see my dad. Thought you might want to check in on your mum at the clinic.”

Zack’s eyes brightened as he caught on to what Heather was suggesting and changed his mind, agreeing. “Yeah, actually, the fresh air might do me some good.”

“Great. Let’s go,” Heather replied, heading off down the hall.

Zack looked over his shoulder at Ashley, now fully clothed in a deep pink dress. She shot him a disgusted glare and he felt utterly despised by her. He frowned, knowing that perhaps he had been rather hard on the blonde, but still unwilling to accept her at her word. How many times had she gone behind his back? How many times had things gotten out of control, had things just sort of happened? Maybe she didn’t intend for it to turn out like this, but it was easy to imagine Ashley Woodsen retaliating after Lisa tricked her yesterday. Then again, Ashley was usually honest with him in these situations.

But Heather was right. There was nothing he could do for Lisa right now. He could only hope that she could beat this accusation. And, in the meantime, he couldn’t miss this opportunity to confront his mother.

“Listen, Ash, I’m sorry about how I acted. Even if I did have my suspicions, I probably could have broached the subject better,” Zack began.

“Hey Bishop, you coming?” Heather called from the living room.

As Zack moved to exit the room, he gave Ashley an awkward, weak smile and then left, abandoning the blonde to her fury and grief.