Stranger Things Have Happened | Marcus Bontempelli

seventy-six.

"Cate, I need your help right now. I'm at the apartment and something really bad has happened and I don't know what to do," Bailey cried, sounding like he was barely holding it together on his side of the phone call.

Marcus furrowed his brows and tried to get a read on my expression before I replied to Bailey with a simple, "I'll be there in 10".

+ + +

The two cop cars sitting out the front my apartment complex at 11pm on a Thursday night was enough to make my stomach drop as we pulled into the underground car park and shut the engine off. I'd tried to convince Marcus to stay at home to avoid both of us having to come out and get into trouble but understandably with the very little information I'd gotten from Bailey, it made sense that he double-downed and offered to drive.

As the elevator doors opened, the sounds of police radios and my front door being propped open caught me off guard as Marcus and I stepped into the entryway. There were 3 officers barricading my door way as I cautiously approached, trying to get a peak inside the apartment before one of them turned around to look at me.

"Hi," I said as Marcus brushed his hand across my lower back and in his instinctively protective nature, he stepped in front of me so he could scope out the situation before I walked in.

"You must be Catie. I'm Officer Edwards and we're here to take your friend down to the station," He said as I looked to the left to see Lachie Hunter in handcuffs being pulled towards the front door, clearly intoxicated out of his mind and stumbling into my bar stools.

"What happened?" I asked, looking over at Bailey who was being questioned by another officer as his glassy blue eyes peered up at me.

"Mr. Hunter decided to go for a joy ride, three times the legal drinking limit and caused an accident in Brunswick before your roommate decided to pick him up and help him flee the scene," The man said as I turned to see Lachie being man-handled out of the apartment towards the elevator.

"Hey, take it easy man!" Marcus shouted behind me, "Lach, are you all right?" He asked his friend as he followed the officers out who had Lachie in their tight grip, making sure he was okay and not being thrown around like a rag-doll.

"Did anyone get hurt?" I asked with furrowed brows as the officer holding Lachie told Marcus to stay in the apartment and that there would be plenty of time to talk to his friend when he was sober.

"No but because of the nature of the crash, how much he had been drinking and the fact he won't cooperate without a lawyer, we have to take him down to the station so he can sober up and answer some questions," He explained before his partner stood up from the dining room table and nodded our way, indicating that she had finished her questioning.

"All right, you'll be issued with a fine for breaching the current restrictions and for failure to pull over when required to by the Victorian Police. The latter will require a court date," The other officer stated as she walked over to write down mine and Marcus' details as well, just so the record showed that there were also two other people present at the time of Lachie's arrest.

"My suggestion would be to get back to your elected self-quarantine residencies to avoid being pulled over again for a breach," He said before turning around and leading the other officer out, closing the door behind them.

I turned to see Bailey with his head in his hands as Marcus very quickly launched into his own interrogation with a softer approach compared to the police officer.

"So what actually happened?" Marcus asked as he pulled out the chair beside Bailey and placed his crossed hands on the table, ready to hear Bailey's recollection of events.