I Wish You Never Met Me

02

CHAPTER 2

IN THE SPAN of five minutes, I saw my entire world crumble again. We were still in class, but I've been avoiding this man like he was a plague on earth—the Bubonic Plague in fact. I transferred here at the beginning of junior year when juvie sentence with Monica and Sami and he was the first person they told me to avoid in every waking moment since they knew him. The things I've heard about him where outrageous but just enough to keep me away from him for nearly a full semester. Summer is two months away.

"I suggest you all start working on your projects now. Since they will be displayed in our annual open house in the two weeks," Mr. Norman announced, followed by a smoke of disapproving groans from the class.

"What should we do our pro—" the boy, pushing eighteen, wearing a pair of black cargo pants with a tight white, short-sleeved t-shirt. His tattoos on his right arm were on full display as his dark brown eyes peered into mine, began.

"Hawkins and Matthews, your project will be on chemical reactions, more importantly how the brain is chemically affected by your hormones," Mr. Norman's, gruff and brash voice cut him off.

The beer-belly, spare-breaded man went on with announcing the topics of each pair not letting any of us protest or ask for permission to switch partners. You see, there were stories about how Mr. Norman was mean to the class he had last year. Moreover, about half his class last year passed by the skin of their teeth because of this project. I decided to keep my mouth shut not wanting to get on his bad side. It was the last thing I needed to do. I plan on getting out of this state once I go to college.

"Shall we get started, partner?" his voice felt close almost a little too close. His breath slightly finding my neck. I took a small step away and glared at him.

"Let's get this over with."

***

After school, I was seriously testing hot waters by doing this. Luckily, I asked my boss if could leave work early for this. Honestly, she's the only one I could trust in San Diego. If there was an award show for red-heads, she'd get my vote as red-head of the year. She one of the only ones, besides Monica and Sami, that know what I'm going through.

"Here you are, Meghan. Why don't you have a look around?" a woman, wearing a blue suit set, greeted me.

"Thank you, Anna."

It was a decent-sized one-bedroom apartment. The windows took up half the wall in the living room. On my right, was the kitchen. A small quaint space, but just enough for me since I was one person that might occupy the place. The rent was good too—$1345 a month, about twenty minutes away from school, and the neighborhood was quiet. Most of the neighbors in the building were white, but only ones that had actual political sense. I deal with more than three "Karen's" a day at work. To have a place to escape that would be a dream come true.

After looking around in the living room, I went over to the kitchen. "Anna, if I were to do some renovations, could the apartment that? I mean, based on the photos I've seen it didn't look very presentable."

"Of course, the landlord made sure some inspections were done. Besides, by the time you'd move in, if you were to choose this place, it would be renovated."

I nodded. "Oh, well. I'm going to continue looking around."

"Remember, if have any other questions. Just ask away, okay?" she told me, as tender as her voice could go. She followed behind me as I headed over to the main reason, I was here in the first place—the bedroom.

I opened the door which was followed by a loud creak. When I walk in, the first thing I saw was the window. It was small, hardly let any sunlight inside the room even though the walls were white. It was a decent size, considering the price of this place and the size of my bedframe, I just knew it wasn't going to work. My current bedframe would've taken up more than half the entire room. I'm not even sure if the closet was going to be able to open with how big my bedframe in.

Don't get me wrong, for the price that it was and where it was located, it was a jackpot. If I were to go through with the purchase, I'd have to get rid of a lot of my clothes and my bedframe, which I didn't have a problem with either. Opening the closet door, it confirmed everything I already knew. It wasn't even a walk-in, just an extension of the room. I'd have to buy clothing racks to accommodate the space.

***

I pulled into the parking lot of the San Diego precent. Honestly, coming here, I was expecting to walk out completely disappointed like I have been for the last six months. I headed inside the building with the intent of seeing detective Anderson—the head detective of my defamation case.

"Ms. Hawkins, so glad you can make it," he greeted, trying to be as positive as he can be.

"Just get to the point, will you? We both you that you and your team haven't gotten anywhere," my tone was flat, but it was the truth. They have been looking into my case for six and haven't gotten a single lead.

"This would be a lot easier if you could get laptop from San Diego Meghan," he gritted through his teeth, irritated. "We would've found a lead a lot of faster that way."

I sighed since I knew where this was going. "Look, I can't control how the law works, okay? If you want the laptop ask the chief. Besides, you wouldn't find anything on it anymore anyway," I shrugged. "Honestly, I just want this to be over."

The look in his eyes soften. "Meghan. Were you able to gain access to your laptop since that night?"

"The day I was arrested and taken in for questioning, the police took my laptop and had it wiped completely clean. Then my parents locked my old phone in a chest somewhere in the house. So, no. I haven't had access to my laptop or my old phone since."

"They shut you out, didn't they? All your friends?" Detective Anderson asked, shifting the conversation elsewhere.

I let out a tired sigh. I didn't want to remember them. I wanted to forget everything and everyone in Los Angeles. "I wouldn't call them friends. They're all dead to me." I stood up from my seat, grabbing my bag. "Look, I need to go. I must be home before curfew. If you can't help me anymore, I'd understand. I'm used to being disappointed anyway. I'd appreciate it if you can allow me to move on from it all."

His hand was already over mine, gently. "I'll do everything I can. I know this all sucks, but just give us time, okay."

"Friday is when they're out all day. That should give you enough time to get whatever you need and search the place. I don't have the energy to go back and forth with them about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I'll see you next week."