Country Mile

MELTING AWAY

"Hello?"

"Hey, Adam, it's Justin."

"Ah, I've been wonderin' when you'd call Detective Davenport."

"Oh, come on now. Drop the formalities, old friend."

Adam gave a stiff laugh. "I'd say we're more old, than friends. Wouldn't you?"

He heard Justin's sigh come over the line. "Look, we gotta talk about what's been going on between our girls."

"Yeah, like why your daughter has been harassin' mine." Adam cut to the chase. His tone was quiet, but the anger was unmistakable.

"Now hold on just a minute," Justin began.

"No, I've been holdin' on long enough. Genevieve's been tellin' me your girl has had it out for her for months. When verbal abuse wasn't gettin' her kicks off, she started with the physical abuse. When that didn't do it, now she's pulled this stunt! All because of some boy? Justin, what the hell is she thinkin', man?"

Silence seeped through the wire for a long moment while Justin digested Adam's words. He couldn't deny how hard Valerie took the breakup with Archer. His mind went back to how he saw no signs of deception from Genna during the meeting and though she didn't think he saw, he caught the side smirks and meaningful stares Valerie shot at the girl. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair, knowing the truth, but not wanting to see it for what it was.

"I'll hand it to her though," Adam slightly scoffed. "She'd make a damn good detective."

Justin let out a slight chuckle at Adam's rough way of lightening the mood. "Yeah? What makes you say that?"

"She can think just like a criminal."

***

Genna sat stiffly. Leg bouncing up and down nervously as she ran her finger around the brim of her cup. She shifted in her seat as the bell indicated another customer entered the little coffee shop. Checking her phone for the third time, a frustrated breath released itself from her nostrils. She had been waiting for twenty-five minutes and Lauren hadn't responded to the text messages she had sent ten minutes ago passively letting her know she had arrived, and was waiting.

Finally, the tall, curvy girl came through the door. Genna had always admired her beauty and never could understand how she and Taylor allowed Valerie to overshadow them.

Lauren rushed over to where Genna was seated, and slid onto the chair across from her. Pushing braided midnight hair from her face, her deep brown skin had a lingering rosy kiss upon her cheeks from the bitter cold outside.

"I can't stay long. I'm not even supposed to be here," Lauren confessed through ragged breaths.

"What? Why?"

"Taylor and I had to swear to never speak to you." Lauren looked nervously around the café. "But I needed to tell you, it was all Valerie: the test, the texts, the money. It was all her idea. And Taylor can prove it. She won't willingly, but I know she has things that can prove it was all Val."

Genna sat momentarily dumbfounded at the information Lauren so willingly gave her.

"Look, I'm so sorry for all the shit we've put you through. But involving the school, faking her injury, and getting you expelled the way she did, was not something I ever wanted to be part of. Val isn't someone I want to cross, so I cannot be seen talking to you. I gotta go. I'm sorry."

Giving one last apologetic look, Lauren stood. She left as swiftly as she arrived; leaving Genna's mind in a whirlwind of unanswered questions swirling in a sea of information and possibilities.