Chapter 50 - Careless
Keeley wasn't allowed to leave the hospital for another two days because of how badly the drug dehydrated her.
The doctors also ran a bunch of tests in that time checking for possible brain damage or other sequela but in the end she was given a clean bill of health and deemed good to go.
It was about time. Being stuck in a hospital bed was incredibly boring.
A bunch of frantic missed texts from Lydia and Jeffrey blew up her phone when she finally checked it. She completely forgot they were supposed to hang out on Saturday.
Keeley apologized and said she was knocked out for days with the flu and didn't even hear the phone ring. It was better not to worry them.
Neither of them understood the insane world of the very rich. They wouldn't believe her if she told them Lacy attacked her just because she had a strange relationship with Aaron.
She had been too tired to be mad at first but the longer she was stuck in the hospital the more furious she got. Associating with that ice block never ended well!
It wasn't enough that he ruined her life once, no, he just had to cling onto her and invoke Lacy's wrath again when she finally thought she was safe. That selfish idiot!
Her life had officially been turned upside down; was he happy now? He played his game and she got hurt, like always.
Aaron never changed. He didn't truly care about anyone. Consequences were nothing to him.
A little voice inside her head whispered to be fair. Aaron didn't know Lacy was going to do this; it wasn't like he provoked her on purpose.
He didn't know what she was capable of. But that didn't change the fact that whatever bizarre logic he had for messing with Keeley had resulted in her hospitalization.
She wanted to confront him about it but she had no proof. If she went up to him going on about how it was his fault Lacy drugged her, he'd think she was crazy.
There were only two weeks left of the school year. She could avoid him that long.
Luck was on her side for once.
She'd thought after giving him an inch on the morning of her birthday he would take a mile but Aaron didn't so much as look at her for days after she came back to class.
Good. She needed to focus on studying and it would be easier if she didn't have to worry about what he might do next. He had been rather unpredictable since her rebirth.
Keeley and her friends no longer joked around at lunch; they were too busy quizzing each other using study guides the teachers gave out.
Since her worst subject (Spanish) was one of Lydia's best, she helped her practice conversing back and forth. In return Keeley shared her Government flash cards.
Jeffrey was too focused on memorizing calculus formulas to care about what anyone else was doing.
They collectively decided to go bowling after finals were over instead since they weren't able to do it the day after Keeley's birthday.
It helped motivate them to finish strong. Senioritis was so real, even for usually studious scholarship students.
Keeley felt like she might go insane before graduation. It was so close she could taste it but time was moving so slowly!
It didn't help that the police weren't able to get any leads. The trail went cold with the hotel room because the perpetrators used gloves.
She didn't expect them to get caught anyway but not knowing why they drugged her in the first place made her uneasy.
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Lacy was ready to murder her best friend. How? How had he been so careless? Keeley wasn't supposed to go to the police!
She was supposed to be changed back into her usual clothes and left on her front doorstep, unconscious. That way if her family took her to the hospital it would be assumed she ingested the drugs herself.
Now that the police were involved there was no way she would be able to get Keeley expelled by releasing those photos. They would know it was a set up.
Even worse, the photos might be traced back to her since the police were specifically looking for someone with a motive. The entire plan was ruined.
It was a good thing she didn't release those photos before the police showed up at school on Monday, questioning everyone who attended the prom. She was planning on doing it right after school.
They didn't mention names but asked questions such as "did you see anything suspicious at the dance?" and "what were you doing between three and ten PM?"
Lacy assumed they didn't want to plant ideas in anyone's heads to sniff out who had actual knowledge of what happened.
The principal allowed this because it was easier to interrogate everyone en masse and the officers promised not to let a whiff of scandal surrounding this incident touch the school.
They showed up in plainclothes with an unmarked car so any onlookers wouldn't be any the wiser.
Rather than bringing the police officers to the classrooms, teachers nonchalantly called students out a few at a time throughout the day and they met with the police in the counselor's office.
Students weren't allowed to talk about it outside the makeshift interrogation room so Lacy was completely blindsided when she was called out.
The officers treated her kindly, assuming she was innocent.
"We're sorry to disturb you; we'd just like to ask a few questions about prom night. There was an unpleasant incident were trying to get to the bottom of and would appreciate your help."
She could refuse to answer without a lawyer present but that would make her look guilty.
Sweat trickled down the back of her neck but she smiled sweetly as if nothing was wrong.
"Of course, I'd be happy to help."
"Would you please tell me where you were and what you did between three and ten PM last Friday night?"
Lacy pretended to think about it and launched into her story with a surprising calmness.
"Let's see…school ended at 2:50 and my chauffeur immediately took me to La Belle Salon so I could get my hair, nails, and makeup done for the dance.
"I went home for about twenty minutes before my date, Maximillian Lynch, picked me up so we could go to dinner at an Italian restaurant on 5th Avenue called Rizzoli's.
"We were there for a little over an hour and made it to the dance slightly before eight. I can't remember everybody we talked to but we chatted with several friends when we arrived before dancing for the rest of the night. We were there until about 11:30 then went home."
The officers seemed to buy her story. It was probably the same thing they'd heard from everyone who came before her. The older one shuffled some papers and leaned forward.
"Miss Knighton, at any point in the night did you see anyone leave the dance hall for more than ten minutes?"
Aside from sneaking out herself, she did see Eve Martin and her boyfriend giggling with a bottle of champagne on their way to the elevator toward the end of the night. Someone clearly got lucky.
That wasn't any of her business though so there was no point in bringing it up.
"No, I was pretty focused on having fun. I didn't pay attention to things like that."
They looked as if they suspected as much. "Thank you for your time. You can go back to class now."
Lacy put on a convincing show before nearly fainting outside the door of the counselor's office. That was too close.
That idiot Max better have not given them away or else…She texted him in code.
'Don't forget to buy me lollipops after school'
When they were little and he talked too much, Lacy would shove a lollipop in his mouth to get him to shut up.
He should understand that the reference to lollipops meant he needed to say as little as possible when the police questioned him and not try to make things up.