Learning to Live

Chapter 4

         After Jess had calmed down about the impending cyborg takeover (which took a good five minutes), Logan let me know that I could escape--I mean, go--to the interrogation room next. Amazingly enough, he managed to tell this to me without deiging to look in my direction, his focus firmly stuck to either the floor or Jess, avoiding me completely.

              Giving up on trying to find out what it was he was about to tell me, I huffed and made my way over to where my ticket out of here awaited. I had to wait as the last mall cop, a mousy, grey-haired man who had presumably been subjected to the tornado of energy, butterflies, and all things crazy that is Jess, made a beeline for the door, muttering about crazy kids and a pogo stick tournament. Again, I really wish I could've listened in on Jess's questioning session.

          About a minute after, the first security guard that had been talking to Logan earlier came in,  shaking his head. 

          "Sorry about that, miss," the man chuckled, "it seems like your friend put my buddy Roger a bit...on edge, you could say. The name's Pete, by the way. And you are?"

            "Sarah. Sarah Thompson," I smiled, taking a liking to the kindly old man. "I'm guessing you're the one I'll be talking to about this whole fountain fiasco?"

          "That indeed, miss. It won't be all that bad, we just need to go through our routines here and make sure we have all the details."

          "No problem," I responded.

          Somehow, "not all that bad" turned into over half an hour as Pete meandered through the questioning session, adding questions about why I was in the fountain and not Jess, and how I got involved in the first place. By the time we were finished, I must have taken almost twice as long as Jess had, even though she was the one more likely to get charged with assault considering how she was attacking that guy.

          When I came out, I was greeted with the surprising sight of Logan and Jess leaning against the wall opposite me, looking a bit too cozy for people who had just met. An unpleasant sensation rose up in my chest, but I brushed it off as nerves from being inside a pseudo-jail and made my way over to them.

          "I'm finally free!" I exclaimed, forcing down my urge to step in the middle of two as they turned to face me. "I felt like I was in there forever. Pete wouldn't stop asking me questions"

          "Really?" Jess said, looking confused, "My person didn't talk much...he just put his head down on the table when I started asking him about whether or not he was the inspiration for Rabbit on Winnie the Pooh."

          "....I'm not even going to try to figure out how you made that connection, Jess," I muttered, turning to Logan. "It was nice to meet you, and thanks for all your help with this, but we should probably head back."

          "Do we have to?" Jess whined, "I just became friends with him! Did you know that he's friends with Vic? And Mark? And why didn't you tell me that you alre--"

          "Nah, it's ok, Jess," Logan cut in, "It was nice getting to meet the girl Vic's been stressing about for the past two weeks though--you guys were literally meant for each other."

          "That's really sweet of you, Logan," a blushing Jess responded, "I still can't believe you've known Vic for this long and he hasn't even mentioned you to me! I can't believe that he was talking about me either.."

          "Don't worry about it; Vic's a bit closed sometimes about family and things, but I have a feeling he'll let you in on it all really soon--don't break his heart now, ok?" Logan smiled at Jess, whose face now matched her scarlet hair.