#tag:tasks.

can you tell me, to the best of your memory, what happened on the night of december 13, 2019?

Fucking classic. The sweat in his palms had swelled from both anger and nerves; neither of which he particularly wanted to deal with right now—his very own heart will still torn, trying to make a split-second decision on whether he should lie, or tell the truth, knowing that his parents wouldn’t particularly appreciate the detective telling his parents about what pills he had swallowed, or what mixture of alcohol had tickled the back of his throat that night. But then again, would they even care?

“December 13? The night of the debate party?” A nod confirms his question.

Maverick clears his throat as leans forward in the armchair, taking a surprisingly long breath—one not interrupted by a smoker’s cough—before he is expected to begin. “I dunno, sir.” Damned manners; engrained into his brain since he was four years old. He supposes making enemies with the detective isn’t the best move, even if he’s seething that he’s been called in in the first place. He is prompted to say more with a glaring stare.

“I guess I heard about the through the grapevine. Covington isn’t all that big; and the debate team winning isn’t news either. We were all kind of expecting it, planning for having a fun night out. I headed over with my friend Aurelia — Aurelia Choi. We always kind of head out to these things; she and I kind of have a good time together—not like … never mind. We drove over in my car, headed inside … and I guess I made my rounds, like I always do. Say hi to my buddies, friends from school, you know—congratulate the debate team, I guess. I don’t know a lot of them—I know some of them. But anyway, uh … I guess I hung out with Lia for a good portion of the night … Griffin too, we caught up a bit and drank. I saw my siblings—D … I mean, Richard and Austin. Um …”

His breath hitches, unsure of how to continue; luckily, he’s skirted over the fact that he and Griffin inhaled a couple of pills during the night, but he isn’t quite keen on revealing the entirety of his love life to the detective in front of him. “I remember talking to my ex, too. Donatella … yeah. We kind of got into an argument—we never really, um … made amends since we broke up. It’s … uh … it’s kind of hard to see her still. I know that’s fucking pathetic, but, yeah. I kind of didn’t really feel like chatting to anyone after that. The party wasn’t all that fun, so I dipped after.” 

did you see anything unusual that night? was anyone acting out of the ordinary?

“Unusual? I mean … Covington parties are always kind of weird. People are so high-strung at this school … anyway. I mean … there was drama. It feels like there always is; this place is too small for gossip to be unheard. It kind of sucks, to be honest: it’s like we’re all in this tiny little fishbowl, where everyone can see everything.” It’s fucking exhausting, for Maverick, who has already been placed under a microscope his entire life—he skips over the fact that there might have been a drink thrown in his name. “Lemme see … I mean. I don’t really know. I guess if you count Maisie coming up to me urgently asking where my brother was—but then again, that’s not even unusual. People are always looking for my brother.” He tries to say it without rolling his eyes to the back of his head—he really does.

can you tell me more about your relationship with melanie?

“Sure, sure. I mean … we were friends, I guess. We hung out in high school, because … um, yeah … Donnie and I were dating at the time, and she was with one of our other … friends Cordelia. So I kind of got to know her a little before Covington, I guess. She was always pretty cool, much less high-strung than a lot of the other people around Hemlock. She dated my brother for a while, so she was around the house sometimes. My parents really liked her, and so did my brother, so I tried to get to know her in that context, too.”

do you have any reason to believe that someone would want to hurt melanie?

“Melanie? Jeez—hurt her? No, god no.” It occurs to him that she’s really missing; and the heavy thought of her not returning really sinks into his skin, and causes a pit to fall in his stomach. “She’s the kind of girl who was headstrong, but in a good way, you know? She was one of the few people this place really needed. I mean, I won’t say this about many people, but she is one of the few people I can tolerate here right now. Maybe it’s because she knows be from before college, knows about my home life. I dunno. She was one of the good ones. And that’s coming from me.”

do you have any questions about how the case will proceed?