white-passing- jamal turner

thirty-four

I woke up that morning to my phone ringing. 

Incoming Call, LAPD.

"Fuck," I said, "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

I was terrified to pick it up and answer, but it'd only be worse if I didn't.

So, I picked it up and was told to come to the office in Freeridge immediately. When I got there, I wasn't the only one waiting. Monse, Cesar, and Jamal were sitting down while Ruby paced around. 

"AJ!" Monse said, "Can you please tell me what's going on since no one else will?"

"The bones!" Ruby said, "Her bones! They found them!"

"When?!" Monse said.

"Months ago."

"You guys have known for months? And you didn't tell me?" Monse said.

"We didn't think it would come to this!" I said, sitting down next to her, only to shift away from me and sit next to Jamal, who gave her a look. 

Jamal had some stupid beef with her, which I'm pretty sure was one-sided. It happened long after she stopped reaching out to me, anyway, so, not my problem. 

"We need to be smart," Cesar said, "We need to think of a reason we were all in the forest that day."

"Still can't believe not one of you called me," Monse said, "And that the one person I DID see didn't think to bring it up."

"Oh, so now you want me to call you?" Jamal said, "Because last I heard from you, you said you called me too much."

My eyes widened as I remembered why Jamal was mad at her. I wasn't even paying attention when he ranted to me about it because I honestly didn't care.

Jamal got up and sat next to Cesar, causing me to get up and sit next to Monse. I did not want to be anywhere near that dickhead. 

"I have an idea," Cesar said, "Bigfoot."

I rolled my eyes as Jamal got offended, "Was that a dig?"

"That's such a terrible idea," I said.

"AJ, you got a better idea?" Cesar said, "We need to think of something. It doesn't matter what, as long as we're on the same page."

"We've never been on the same page," Monse scoffed.

"We've never even been in the same book," Jamal said. After he tried and failed to calm Ruby down, Jamal looked at Monse and motioned for her to move down a chair so he didn't have to sit next to her. 

"Still acting like a two-year-old, I see," I said.

"She speaks!!" Jamal said.

"Is she wrong, though?" Monse said, "God, AJ, you deserve a medal for putting up with this for three years."

"You have NO idea," I said.

 Ruby tried to convince us to leave, but Cesar shot it down. Ruby just continued to panic while Monse tried to tell him not to be overdramatic. 

"Says the queen of overdramatic," Jamal said. He had a point, but I wasn't going to openly agree with him. 

Jamal and Monse started arguing, which caused me to nervously run my hands through my hair as the detective walked over to us. 

"Both of you, shut the fuck up, please!" I said.

"Monse Finnie?"

Monse was the first. She decided to go along with the big foot narrative, so the rest of us also went along with it. Then, it was Cesar, and then me, and then Ruby, and finally Jamal.