She's a Challenge | 5sos AU

Time

Chapter 42: Time

I stared at the clock, counting the hours, the minutes, the seconds that I've been behind bars. I've been here for two hours, thirty-four minutes, and seven seconds. The time keeps ticking. I sit here alone, regretting what I did. I couldn't just leave the thumb drive alone. I had to open it, I've been so obsessed with catching the culprit that I didn't think about the consequences.

"Do you want to make your phone call?" Anne asked. I turned to her and shook my head. "You should call your parents."

"It's late, I shouldn't be bothering them," I muttered. I looked down at my fingers and started scraping off the polish.

"He hasn't left."

I started to feel pain in my chest, tears started to well up and the next thing I knew, I was crying. He's been asking to see me, to talk to me, but I won't let him. I don't want him to see me behind these bars, looking at my future. If I stay with him, this is what our future's going to be, me in those orange jump suits talking to him with a telephone and glass separating us. I can't do that to him.

"Do you want me to bring him here?" Anne asked again.

"No, I don't want him to see me like this," I said through my sobs, wiping the running mascara on my face.

"What do you want to do, Lola? You need to call someone to get you out of this situation."

I calmed myself and looked at her. "I don't need to get out of this situation. I needed to do what was necessary and getting myself arrested is one of them."

"Is giving up your life one of them?" She snapped.

"It was for Diana!" I snapped. "I did all of this for her. And I don't regret it."

"I'm sorry," she said calmly.

"I just did it for Diana," I whispered. "But I shouldn't have vandalized that building."

"Do you know who's property that was?"

"Who's?" I said through my teeth.

"Maxwell Owen."

"He put me in here?" I snapped, walking up to her, gripping the bars.

"We need that evidence to get you out of here, Lola. He bought that land a few months ago, but you've been vandalizing that wall for years."

"He needed a way for me to stop looking, to stop me from proving that he's the guy." Everything fit. Max got together with Lulu because of this, broke up with her because I was getting too close.

"Diana's parents gave an award for the person that catches the rapist. They left it here. That award is one million dollars."

"Enough for my bail," I muttered. Diana's parents are beyond rich, they had a mansion in the hills when they lived here and too many cars for one family. But they never thought to have guards that night of the attack.

"But I need the evidence. You said you printed it."

"But I left it in a safe place." I was hoping he'd find it by now, so he could understand why I was arrested.

"Where, Lola?"

"The school."

Anne turned around and walked away, she got on her radio. I sat back down and stared at the clock again. Two hours, fifty six minutes, twenty six seconds.

Nine hours, two minutes, forty six seconds. I sat in front of the bars, letting my hands run back and forth on it, getting this weird vibration feeling.