Fine lines

Chapter 22

Tate

"Tate, what the fuck are you serious?" Ivy's response is stern on the other end of the phone, I finally told her the events of the other night. I finally built up the courage to call her, I knew if I called her sooner right after it all happened she'd know I was lying about being fine and I wouldn't be able to put an act on with my voice for very long.
She's absolutely furious as anyone would be. Eventually I went back to my grandparents after so many days of staying with Wyatt, they didn't mind at all that I was gone but I made sure to check in with them everyday to let them know where I was going to be so they didn't worry.

I keep Ivy on speaker while I get ready before Wyatt picks me up to take me down to the police station. After some hard thinking I know I need to go and do it, I just want to know what my options are.
"Do you need me to come to you?"
"No no I'm okay I'll be fine, I know you've got exams coming up you can't fly over here and disrupt yourself" She sighs heavily on the other end of the phone "Tate, my exams aren't for 3 weeks I have time for you"
I throw my white hoodie over me and black jeans, my grandparents have no idea what happened and I'm trying my best to cover up the bruises before I get asked questions.
I grab my hand bag as I take her off speaker and head out my bedroom. "If I need you I'll tell you I promise, Wyatt's about to take me to police station to talk to someone"
"Okay, well promise me if you need anything I'll be there, I'll say I was a witness even though I wasn't there"
I laugh a little at the humble gesture.
"Thank you, I'm going to go but I'll text you later and let you know how it goes"
-

Wyatt and I sit in a small office room, with a long LED rectangular light to the ceiling bright enough to blind you. The longer we sit waiting for the detective to come in the longer I'm second guessing my decision. My leg bounces up and down with anticipation, Wyatt's hand reaches for my leg with reassurance that everything will be okay. I've never had to do this before, I don't think I've even stepped into a police station before, the closest thing I've had any authority action needed to be taken is when I called campus security on a bunch of door knock ditch people at 4 in the morning.
After a few more minutes a blonde woman with a pinned up bun enters the room with a warming smile.
"Hi there, I'm detective Kaitlyn Carson, who is the one I mostly need to speak with?" She rests her files and paperwork on the desk sitting down waiting for my response.
"Uh me, Tate McCoy" I stutter trying be polite but can't shake the nervousness in my voice
"And you sir?" directing her attention to Wyatt "I'm Wyatt Hendrix"
"And your relationship to Tate, brother, boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend" The second time I've only ever heard him say out loud and it's in a setting like this.

She writes a few notes down asking how to spell out my full name and my date of birth, followed by some other details. She begins to ask a few questions of the incident first like the date of when it happened, a rough time frame and the location. Which I guess is a nice way to ease into it rather than asking what actually happened first to make the talking flow easier. Wyatt let me talk unless I looked at him for help on the question.
"Okay, so now that we have all of these details, do you want to tell me what happened? You don't have to rush we've got plenty of time"
I take a deep breath before I start explaining the night from start to finish, from the time I left home to the time Wyatt said we got back to his place. I hand her the medical examination paperwork Sophia did on me including the pictures. She looks over it reading every detail and studies the photographs for a little while. "Do you mind if I have a look at your arms and legs?" I nod not totally comfortable with the idea, I take my pants halfway down as she looks over the purple red mark, taking her own photographs. Next my hoodie goes off with my sage t shirt on display along with the marks on my arms. Both times she looked at my body I looked away not being able to stand the sight of the pain, so I keep my eyes on Wyatt as he holds my hand.
I put my jumper back on and sit down in the seat.
"Alright, so what we can do is launch and investigation and interview Bryson, we would be able to press charges if you have eye witnesses more than just yourself and Wyatt so if you have any more that were at the party and willing to cooperate just tell them to come in and make their own statement as to what happened" I try my hardest to pay attention and listen to what I need to do, but knowing this will become a massive thing everyone's going to hear about it.