The Way We Say Goodbye

Chapter 26

It had been two days since I was suspended for the fight with Scarlet. Joshua, Violet, and Bowie have texted every day to check in on me. I barely left my room. Evangeline and Earnest let me know how disappointed they were in me for the fight. They didn't ask why I'd gotten into the fight, and I didn't feel obligated to talk to them about it.

They were both at work, and Zen texted me to see if I wanted to hang out. Of course, I took him up on his offer and met up with him and the others at the park.

"Oooo, skipping school today?" Havoc teased.

"Can't skip when you're suspended," I chuckled.

Zen looked up at me and asked, "You got suspended?"

I nodded while I watched Havoc roll a joint.

"What'd you do?" Tess asked.

I shrugged, not really wanting to discuss what happened, and nonchalantly said, "Got in a fight."

"Really, you got in a fight?" Zen asked.

"Yeah, so what?" I snipped.

He shook his head and said, "Nothing, it's just...surprising."

"Joint is ready. Who wants the first hit?"

I snatched it from him and cheered, "Me!"

He chuckled and lit the joint while I puffed. Before I could finish the hit, Zen exclaimed, "Shit!"

Before I knew what was happening, everyone was up and running, and I was being grabbed. I turned to be face-to-face with a cop. "Shit."

The officer raised his brow at me. "How old are you?"

"Would you believe me if I said twenty-one?"

He chuckled, "Not a chance."

I sighed. "I'm seventeen."

The second officer asked, "What's your name?"
"Delta Novak." The second officer had a strange expression cross his features when I said my name.

"Why aren't you in school, Ms. Novak?" The first officer asked.

"I'm suspended right now," I mumbled, knowing this wasn't going to end well for me.

"Troublemaker?"

"Not usually."

"What'd you get suspended for?"

"It wasn't pot, if that's what you're wandering."

The second officer cut in, "You wouldn't be related to Nikita and Lillian Novak, would you?"

A lump formed in my throat, and I nodded, unable to incite myself to speak.

"The couple in that terrible accident?" The first officer asked his partner.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, despite my attempts at pushing down my emotions. "Can we not talk about my parents?"

The officers both looked at me with pity. The first officer spoke again, "We'll have to take you in and call your guardian."

Sitting in that police station felt like an eternity. I was dreading my foster parents coming to pick me up. I didn't know what was going to happen to me, and I was worried that my uncle wouldn't take me if he found out I got in trouble with the police. So many thoughts went through my head as I sat, waiting to find out what was going to happen to me. Finally, Earnest walked in.

He sat across from me with that disappointed expression on his face.

"Can you not look at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like I just killed your cat."

"I don't have a cat."

I scrunched up my eyebrows and tilted my head to the side.

Earnest sighed and began again, "I know things are hard for you, but you need to get your shit together for the remainder of the time you'll be with us."

Hearing the word "shit" from a man I'd never heard swear before was unsettling. Nervousness ate at me as I avoided eye contact. I stayed silent, and he sighed again.

"They said you'll be on house arrest until you leave for California if you tell them who the marijuana belonged to."

"So they want me to be a snitch?"

"Delta, you're a good kid going through a bad time. Whoever the pot belonged to isn't your friend. The officer told me that the people you were with ran and left you there."

Tears pricked my eyes. He was right. I wasn't their friend. I was some girl who had stumbled upon them one day, and they were too stoned to turn me away. They didn't know me, and they didn't care about me. Not really.

I nodded my head as the tears fell, and I said, "I'll tell them. I just know their first names, though. Will that be enough?"

"It should be."