Waiting outside the lines

Chapter 17

I look at my brother and he is looking up at the police officer with a shy and confused face. I look at Wayne and see him looking at the police officer with a kind of scared look on his face.
Oh no. Something must have happened. But what? Did Rose call the police? Or Jake? I think of all the horrible possibilities and panic a little. I guess I won't know what's going on unless I ask.
I walk up to the table slowly and hear the police guy say,"Is your sister here?"
I panic some more but then realize that his voice sounds a little familiar. I walk up to the table and say,"Is there a problem, Officer?" He turns around and looks at me. He looks soo familiar. I've seen him before but I just can't put my finger on it. I look him up and down trying to figure out where I've seen him before. "What are you looking at, Jay?"He says in an almost mocking voice.
"No nothing I.."
"You calling me nothing, Jay?"He said, again in that mocking voice and with a weird accent. Like someone from the 'wild west' or something.
"No no I just.." But then I realize,"Jeremy?!" I say, a little too happy but Jeremy doesn't seem to notice or care because he says my name even louder. We hug for a while until I say,"What are you doing here? I thought you went to some other state for a job."
"I did but I came back. Just for a while though."
"That's great! For how long?"

I was really excited that Jeremy was here! I knew it was his me because he always called me 'Jay' when I was younger. Jeremy is the cop that helped my brother and I be able to stay with my uncle. Jeremy Jay. It's so weird that he was in one of my dreams a while ago and now he's here.

Jeremy shrugs and says,"I don't know yet." I nod and realize Wayne doesn't know who this is and my brother probably doesn't remember him that much. "Oh yea. Jeremy, this is Wayne. Wayne this is Jeremy." Wayne shakes his hand firmly but his face is white, like the life got sucked out of him. I look at Wayne confused and notice he's not looking at Jeremy.
I try to ignore it and ask my brother,"Do you remember Jeremy?" He shakes his head shyly.
My brother's a little shy when it comes to adults.
Wayne looks at me, scared? I don't know, it seems like that. He asks,"How do you know him?"
I look at Jeremy trying to think of what to say. Oh he's just the guy who made sure we didn't go to a foster home. No biggie. Then I realize Jeremy's looking at Wayne as if he's trying to figure out who he is. Like he knows him but can't remember from where. Then he moves his head as if remembering. How does he know Wayne? Did Wayne do something and get in trouble with the police? Nah he couldn't have. But maybe that's why he moved. And didn't tell me where he was from. All these thoughts come into my head but then I realize I haven't responded to Wayne,"Um. He's.. helped us with some stuff before."
Then my brother says kinda loud,"Oh yea! You let us be with Uncle when you were gonna take us away! Thank you!!" I look at my brother with wide eyes and Wayne looks at him confused. "You're welcome buddy!" Jeremy says patting my little brothers head which made him happy. I smile at my brother who happily went back to his ice cream. But Wayne still looked white and freaked out. "Speaking of your uncle, how is he?"
"He's pretty good. He's keeping busy with some work stuff but he's good." I smile lying through my teeth.
My uncle is dead but I can't let him know that. It probably makes no sense but there's a reason.
"That's good. Tell him I said hi." Jeremy says.
"Will do. We gotta go take my brother to school so we'll see you around." My brother and Wayne get up and start walking out. I'm about to follow but then I feel Jeremy grab my arm. He pulls me towards him and whispers,"Jay, I know about your uncle."
I look at him with a confused face. My uncle taught me how to lie pretty well. It might sound stupid, learning how to lie, but it can really help in times like this.
"Um what are you talking about?" I say laughing as if what he said was a joke. "Don't play games with me Jay. I know." I pull my arm away from him. "Okaay? What 'do you know'?" I say making quotations with my fingers.
"You're really going to make me say it Jay?" I try to keep calm inside. "I guess, because I still don't get what you're talking about." I talk normally, like I'm not even lying, but he doesn't seem convinced. "Look I know about.." Then he looks over to where Wayne and my brother are. Then he looks back at me. "Why don't you send your friend to take your brother to school. Because we need to talk and it might take a while."
"No it's fine. This won't take a while cause there's nothing going on with my uncle." I say offended. But he looks at me with stern, persuasive eyes. Usually I can get over those stares but because it's Jeremy I decide to let him talk. I sigh as if his stare doesn't bother me at all (because it doesn't) and say,"Fine." I walk over at Wayne and say,"Can you take my brother to school? Jeremy and I have to.. catch up." I roll my eyes, annoyed and he responds, saying a little concerned, "Is everything okay?"
"Yea totally. Jeremy just wanted to talk to me. It's all good. Just stay at the school and I'll meet you there when we're done. This won't take long."
"Okay but I don't know where the school is."
"I know where it is!!" My brother says loud and proud, raising his hand and jumping up and down. I smile at him and say,"You do so can you be a leader and take Wayne to your school?" He smiles from ear to ear and says,"Yeaa!" Then he hugs me tight and starts marching off singing 'Follow the Leader'. I smile and Wayne looks at me with worry. I hug him too and whisper in his ear,"I'm trusting you, and I'm not good at trusting. Please don't make me regret it." I let go of him and he lets go of me. Then he gets close to my ear and says,"I promise I won't." He pulls back a little and smiles at me. His face was so close, I barely had to move forward to kiss him and I felt like I really wanted to. Which was not a good thing. I smile back and say thanks. Then he turns around and starts following my brother. I stand there, trying to catch my breath. I can't be thinking about Wayne. Especially right now. I try to forget him and take a deep breath. I walk back to Jeremy, and hope he was just bluffing and actually doesn't know anything about my uncle.
My uncle was a cop once and he told me they do that all the time. He said cops are amazing liars and can make up anything in a second.
He also told me that not all cops are bad. There's a lot of good ones. The hard part is finding which ones those are.
I get a couple waters to stall the conversation. Then walk to the table and sit down.
Jeremy looks at me like I'm crazy and says,"Who's that kid?" As if Wayne was an alien.
"Oh he's my neighbor. Why? Do you know him?"
"No. I was just wondering."
I nod. I know he's lying. But I wish I knew why. I try to forget it and say,"So what's up Jeremy? How are the kids and your wife?"He moves uncomfortably. "My wife actually died a while ago. But the kids are good. They're back at home with my sister." When I heard that his wife died I got really tense. "I'm sorry about your wife. She was a great woman. Um.. When did this happen?"
"About a year ago." I nod even though I feel horrible inside. My uncle's girlfriend-about to be wife- died about a year ago too. That's when my uncle got depression and.. yea.
I try to calm down and ask,"How did she die?" He tightens his grip on the cup and says,"Stop stalling. We're going to talk about this no matter what! Now please make this easier and not play dumb."
"How am I playing dumb? It's not my fault you haven't seen my uncle in a long time and think there's something going on with him!" I try to sound offended but he still doesn't give in. "You're gonna make me say it aren't you?"
"I guess so." I say shrugging, still hoping he doesn't know anything. "Okay fine." He gets closer to my so he doesn't have to talk so loud and whispers slowly,"I know your uncle is dead."
I get chills when he says 'dead'. I still have a straight face and try to calm down. "And where'd you hear that?" I say with sass in my voice as if I thought he was crazy. I could see the anger in his eyes. "Stop it Jay! You already made me say it. Now you're really pushing my buttons." It was kinda hard to take someone who says 'pushing my buttons' seriously but somehow I did. "You're confused Jeremy, because my uncle is at work right now making money so my brother and I can go to school and have food. So are we done here?" I say angrily and get up. Jeremy gets up, grabs my arm, and pulls me down in the chair. "Stop lying Jay! I know you're uncle taught you how to lie and that your brain is wired to tell anyone who asks that your uncle is fine. I don't know if you believe he is or if your in denial or whatever but he's not fine and you and I both know why. So quit playing dumb because this is serious!" He was raising his voice but not fully yelling. Probably so he wouldn't attract attention. I look at him blankly the whole time he was in my face. He calms down a little and sits down. Then I finally say,"I'm not playing dumb." He looks at me with a straight face also and takes out his walkie talkie thing that all police have. "Okay. If you're gonna be like that then fine. We won't even talk about it. I'll just take you and your brother without a say from either one of you." My eyes get wide in fear and I begin to panic. The walkie talkie clicks like it does when you're supposed to talk into it. I stop him by grabbing it and slamming it against the table. He looks at the broken walkie talkie with surprise. Then up at me. I feel my eyes begin to get glossy, and say, "Stop."
"Fine then let's talk about this." I don't respond and don't look at him.
He puts his hand on my arm with sympathy and looks into my eyes with a serious face,"I know he's gone Jay." I feel my heart beating really fast and sigh. I slouch back in my chair and don't respond for a while. Then I say,"Fine. So now what? You're gonna take us and send us to a foster home to be separated and then forced to do whatever our so called parents want? That's a great life isn't it? Yea at least it's better than being in a big house together with food and water and being able to get a good education." I say sarcastically, feeling tears start to swell up in my throat. He sits back in his chair and doesn't say a word. He starts grabbing the pieces of the walkie talkie and puts them away. Then he finally says,"I wasn't supposed to tell you this.." I sit up, interested, and feel a flicker of hope. "When your uncle.." He pauses as if trying to figure out what to say. Then he goes on,"left.. I knew your parents weren't going to care or even bother going to his funeral. But the foster people didn't know that. They didn't even know you were living with your uncle. They thought you were with your parents the whole time. And so whe.."
"But why would they think that?" I interrupt him, a little confused.
"Well.. I knew you guys would be sent to a foster home.. so I kinda lied to them. I knew you could take care of your brother. And even if it was hard I thought It'd be better then going to a foster home and living with people you didn't know." I sit there wide eyed, still pretty confused. Why would he do that? He could have lost his job. We're just a couple of kids. Why do we matter so much?
Jeremy must have known what I was thinking because then he says,"I know it probably sounds weird but your uncle and I were closer then you think. And I promised I'd take care of you guys."
I don't answer then realize something. "Wait when did you promise that? Did you know he was gonna.." I don't know what possessed me to randomly look out the window but I did and I freeze. I look outside and see Jake watching me. He's not really close to the window but he's not really far away. He smiles and winks at me then starts walking away. I tense up and I guess Jeremy notices because he says,"Is everything okay?" Then he looks outside where I was looking but Jake was already gone. "Um yea everything.. everything's fine. Just.. what was I saying?"
"You said 'do you know he was gonna..' and then stopped."
I try to focus again and say,"Oh yea. When did you promise that? Did you know he was gonna di.." But before I could finish I feel a hand on my shoulder. I jump when I see who it is. Jake stands there smiling at me.