Chapter 15
Eight Years Ago
The station smelled like sweat, piss and something else I didn’t care to identify. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, sharp and relentless, like a drill boring straight into my skull. My head was tilted back against the cold cement wall, but it didn’t help. Nothing helped.
My chest felt like a collapsed building. Something caved in, the weight of it pressing down, suffocating. I couldn’t breathe
e past it.
couldn’t
think past
t it.
Everything felt wrong. Too loud. Too bright. Too fucking real.
And at the same time, nothing felt real at all.
I fixed my fingers, staring down at them like they belonged to someone else. My arm was still bleeding, but the sting barely registered. The pain was somewhere else, deeper. In a place I couldn’t reach. And it hurt, it hurt so damn much I was sure the pain was going to end me. And in that moment, I’d have welcomed that end.
I wanted to close my eyes. Just for a second. Just long enough to shut everything out. The tears still stung my eyes, but they didn’t fall. Was it physically possible to run out of tears? 1 thought it was.. I’d never cried so much in my life.
|Then the noise hit.
“You can’t be fucking serious! What, you guys get bored and decide to make my life difficult fun?
The station doors banged open, and she stormed in, two officers holding her on either side while she kicked and struggled mercilessly. A flash of blonde hair, black eyeliner, leather, and fire.
I didn’t move, didn’t react, but my eyes slid toward her. She was fighting them the whole way to the cell, spitting curses, hands curled into fists like she was dying for someone to give her an excuse.
She looked reckless.
Loud.
Alive…
I barely remembered what that felt like,
swear that door was
“This is so ridiculous,” she snapped, gripping the bars of her cell after they showed her inside. “I didn’t even do anything this time! I sw broken before I even got there! 1 found it like that, damn it!”
And you decided to just waltz in and make yourself at home?” One of the officers asked before locking the cell and walking off. She let out a sharp exhale, shaking her head, then turned and her guze crashed into mine.
I didn’t look away. I couldn‘
Our cells were right next to each other, separated by metal bars. Her chin lifted slightly. “The hell are you looking at?”
I blinked, slow, I couldn’t talk, didn’t think I had the strength left to do so.
She sighed, pacing a little before leaning against the bars. “You seem fun. What’s your deal?” She sarcastically commented.
I didn’t answer. Didn’t want to..
The second she actually looked at me, her eyes somehow softened ever so lightly. Her gaze dropped to my arm, to the blood seeping through my sleeve, and her whole posture charged.
“The hell” She pushed off the bars, eyes flashing. “Dey! Hey!”
A couple of officers turned, unimpressed.
You just gonna let him sit there bleeding?” she snapped. “What, you guys don’t believe in basic human decency? Or first aid?”
None of them so much as flinched.
“Unbelievable,” the muttered, shaking her head before calling out louder, voice dripping with anger” You can’t just treat us like criminals….” She stopped, realization settling in “Oh, right. We kind of are.”
1/2
Chapter 15
A few of them rolled their eyes. One muttered something about kids these days.
She scoffed. “Right. Real nice. Bet your moms are real fucking proud!”
I just watched her.
She didn’t know me. She didn’t owe me anything. And yet, she was pissed on my behalf. No one had done that for me except….
“What’s up with you anyway? What’d you do?”
1 swallowed, jaw tight. 1 didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to hear it cut loud.
But the words came anyway, rough and hollow. “I didn’t get somewhere on time. And someone I care about… he paid for it.‘
She tilted her head, frowning, “I didn’t know they arrested people for being late. Wait till Mr. Sterling hears about that.”
1 barely processed what she was saying. “Mr. Sterling?”
“My soon–to–be ex math teacher. I’m planning on quitting school.”
Silence.
I studied her, trying to make sense of someone so casually throwing away what I would’ve given anything to have back. That little sense of normalcy.
