this is a short story i wrote in one day for my creative writing class yay!!! thanks to callumsluv for starting the apply fic that has the characters in this piece and twinspite and banistersblue for letting me use their characters <3
this is bad though and i caught a mistake i made while turning it in so be warned...oh well too late to change it now lmao.

❝ all that's unspoken
all the years that were stolen ❞

Poison Party

"This murder mystery-themed party is really living up to its name, isn't it?"

Isadora looked over at her best friend, Carmen, who was watching the EMTs take their friend, Alexis, to the ambulance. Isadora hoped that Alexis was still alive because it would be really sad if he was dead, but the serious part of her knew better. He'd been unresponsive for a long time.

"Carmen," scolded Isadora. "Alexis is getting taken to the hospital. Have a little faith. They always get better in my romance novels."

"He's been unresponsive for the past ten minutes, Isa, excuse me if I think he's dead by now," Carmen commented. "And, also, your novels are fiction."

The police walked up to the group of teenagers standing around, waiting for them to be done. "You all have to quarantine here while we investigate."

Sawyer scoffed, typing rapidly on her phone. "I have a photoshoot I have to go to tomorrow!" she protested.

"Take it up with the chief," the officer told her. She rolled her eyes, muttering as she walked away, taking a selfie on her way out that she'd probably post on her Snapchat.

"Well, at least your parents aren't going to be home for a while, right?" Roman elbowed Archer, grinning. It felt a little unnatural, especially in this situation. His best friend had just died, after all.

Archer grumbled under his breath before walking away.

The police set about looking around the house, though as time slowly crawled past, Isadora was slowly losing faith. They didn't seem like they were looking for answers. It was more like an open-and-shut case.

She lost her faith when she saw her dog, Tiny, scampering toward her.

"Tiny!" she knelt to pet her German Shepard, giggling as he circled her and Carmen.

"Didn't Archer force you to put him in his crate?" Carmen asked, frowning down at Isadora.

"He did," replied Isadora. "He didn't want Tiny ruining his house. I mean, I would too, have you seen this place?"

"Yeah..." Carmen said, and Isadora frowned at the tone of her friend's voice. She stood up to ask her what was wrong just as a police officer came up to them.

"I apologize, I accidentally let your dog out," the officer apologized.

"Oh, that's okay!" Isadora smiled. "Everything's better with dogs, right?"

The officer laughed in agreement, but it faded quickly. "We can't locate Archer Mase," he said, "but could you pass along the message that there's no evidence of foul play here and that we're done for the day? We are still asking you to quarantine, however, until we get this done with."

Carmen's frown deepened, and Isadora piped up for her: "Thank you! We'll pass the message along."

The officer nodded before leaving, along with the rest of the police force.

Isadora looked over at Carmen. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm assuming so," Carmen said, "But knowing you, maybe not."

"We should play detective!" Isadora answered excitedly. "I'm Daphne, and you're Velma."

Carmen rolled her eyes, but she wasn't annoyed. "We'll see about that," she said, but she was good at solving puzzles. She'd probably solve this. "Come on. Let's do Alexis justice."

They left Tiny with one of the others who was quarantined with them and walked over to the spot where Alexis had been lying, next to the refreshment table. There was punch, some alcoholic beverages, some food, more punch, and a discarded blue solo cup.

Carmen gingerly picked it up, examining it. She held it close to her face before letting out a yelp and dropping the cup, backing away from it.

"What?" Isadora asked. "It's just a cup. I know you're not one to drink like the others, but—"

"That's not important," Carmen interrupted. "Izzy, that cup is laced with cyanide."

"WHAT?" Isadora yelled.

Carmen clamped a hand over her mouth. "Not so loud!" She scolded.

"Sorry, I just...what? Cyanide? Someone poisoned Alexis? Wait, how do you know what cyanide smells like? Or looks like?"

"It's common knowledge that cyanide smells like almonds, Isadora," Carmen said.

"No, it's not! Are we not going to talk about this?"

"We'll talk about it later," Carmen told Isadora. "We need to find whoever poisoned Alexis. They have cyanide. That's good to know."

"Is it?"

Carmen rolled her eyes. "Yes. Let's go talk to someone. Who was Alexis seen with last night?"

Isadora thought about it, putting her finger to her chin. "Uh...Archer, obviously. And Sawyer and Roman, I think."

"Okay," Carmen said. "Let's go to Archer first."

They found him in his bedroom, hanging up from a call.

"Was that your parents?" Isadora asked. "I'd love to see them again."

Archer laughed bitterly. "No, it was Alexis's sister. I just called her to tell her that her brother's dead."

"Oh..." Isadora said sadly. "I'm sorry."

Archer sighed. "Yeah," he said. "What's up?"

"What were you doing last night?" Carmen asked.

"I don't remember," Archer snorted. "I was drunk for a lot of it. I was being a good host, y'know? Dancing, having a good time, greeting people."

Isadora tuned out the rest of his words, glancing around the room. She hadn't been here in forever. She noticed the messy sheets, the clothes piled around the room, and the cologne on his nightstand. That was probably why the room smelled like sandalwood, almonds, and lavender.

"Alright, thanks, Archer," Carmen said, leaving the room, Isadora quickly following her.

"Any thoughts?" Isadora asked.

"No," Carmen sighed. "Let's go talk to Roman or Sawyer."

They actually found the two of them together, lounging on deck chairs on the balcony. Roman was talking to Sawyer, who was taking pictures of herself.

"Hey," Carmen interrupted the two of them. "Can we talk?"

"Can't you see I'm busy?" Sawyer snapped.

"Ignore her," Roman said, smiling at Isadora and Carmen. "She'll be done soon. I can talk now, though."

"Alright," Carmen said, looking at him as if he was a puzzle she was trying to solve. "What were you doing last night?"

"At the party?" Roman frowned in thought. "I, uh...I was playing drinking games."

Carmen raised her eyebrows. "All night?"

"No, I was doing karaoke with some of the others..."

"I didn't see you there," added Isadora.

"Must've not been at the same time. I was also dancing, and talking to people, and yeah."

Carmen looked at him dubiously. "Thanks, Roman." She looked over at Sawyer. "And you?"

"What do you want?" Sawyer asked, looking up disinterestedly.

"What were you doing last night?" Isadora supplied.

"I was at the party," Sawyer explained, looking down at her phone again. "I drank. Danced. Took some pictures."

"Alright, thanks," said Carmen. She glanced between the two of them before she left. Isadora sent Roman and Sawyer a smile before following her out.

"So, any thoughts?" she asked as the door closed behind her.

"I don't know," Carmen said. "They all don't have good alibis...especially Roman."

Isadora hummed in agreement.

"But otherwise there isn't any hard evidence between them," Carmen continued.

"Yeah," Isadora sighed. "You know, I'd like to go back to Archer's room to figure this out. It doesn't smell like...you know, like a party just happened. Like the beach and flowers and almonds and—"

"Wait," Carmen interrupted her. "Almonds?"

"Yeah, I smelled almonds in his room, it smelled pretty good," said Isadora. "I thought it was cologne. Why?"

"Isa, Archer doesn't wear almond-scented cologne!" Carmen broke into a full sprint. "Come on!"

Isadora ran after her. When they eventually made it to Archer's room, they found that he wasn't there.

"Where is he?" Carmen asked.

"I don't know," Isadora said. Then she looked out the window and saw him running. "Outside!"

Carmen and Isadora ran out of the room and down the stairs. They burst out the front door, and at the commotion Isadora's dog, Tiny, started running after them.

As she wasn't the best runner, Isadora was quickly reduced to a sweaty, panting mess, but she saw Tiny running with her and ordered: "Tiny! Go after him!"

Tiny barked at her before running ahead of her and Carmen to where Archer was running. Tiny tackled Archer to the ground, and he lay there groaning.

"Call the police, Isadora," Carmen ordered before turning to Archer. "You killed Alexis, Archer? Why?"

"Why?" Archer repeated. "He was with Roman the entire night! At my party! And I..."

"You were jealous?" Isadora filled in for him. This was just like one of her romance novels...gone extremely wrong, but still!

"Yeah," said Archer. "So I...I don't know, I laced poison in his cup and...oh, God, what did I do?"

"You did something really bad, Archie," Isadora said as the sound of sirens echoed around them, getting louder and louder as police cars got closer.

Carmen and Isadora watched as Archer was arrested and put in a police car.

"Well," Carmen said, "I'm never going to a murder mystery-themed party ever again."

"Hey, I think we did good, Velma!" Isadora argued.

Carmen rolled her eyes, but she indulged Isadora. "We did, Daphne."

"...so are you going to tell me how you know what cyanide is?"

"My mom went to jail for poisoning someone with cyanide, Izzy."

"Oh," Isadora said. "Well, at least this story ended well. Just like one of my romance novels!"