Outburst

Chapter 31 - The Monster

The heavy rain last night made the basketball court looked like it had been attacked by a storm—wet orange leaves and tree branches everywhere, water puddles starting to widen like a pond, and one of the basket's nets was hanging with only two knots. I didn't know nature hated winter that much, that when the fall almost ended, it cried so hard—hard enough to partly destroyed my second favorite place after the graveyard.

This town had one of the best cleaning services, which was why I loved walking around by myself while enjoying the fresh and clean air. The basketball court should've been cleaned, especially in this hour after school ended, but maybe they were afraid that if they did it, the rain would fall again tonight and messed up their pretty work.

But it didn't make Chad and his friends canceled their Tuesday routine. Even better, they could occupy both baskets since there were no other people to use the court. The boys looked brighter when they saw me standing on the other side of the court.

"Hey, Callie! Let's play 3-on-3!" shouted Ivan.

I shook my head. "No, I'm good."

Chad, who just did a layup, asked Hunter to take his place. He took a blue towel from his bag and walked towards me. "Unless you came here to help your friend getting to know mine, you're using the basketball court wrong."

I chuckled, remembering the day when I first met him. "I'm just waiting for my uncle. He should be here any minute." I looked at my watch and sighed. "In fact, he should've been at my school an hour ago. Maybe he's still at work and forgets to pick me up. His office is closer to the courthouse, anyway."

"Today is the day, huh?" He asked, while wiping the sweat on his face with a blue towel. "Well... You don't look like a person who wants to testify at a trial."

"Because I actually don't want to," I said, looking down to my casual clothes. I looked like a person who was basketball-ready, only with a pair of jeans and a jacket. "But for the sake of my uncle, I have to. Didn't they invite you to testify as well?"

"They offered, yeah. But I don't have anything to say against that guy... or the other guy, whose name I've just heard for like three days," he replied, referring to Grant and Dr. Irving. "And trust me, if I came, your uncle wouldn't be the only one who would burst out."

I knew it had been hard for him to find out his father's real killer after assuming that my uncle had something to do with it. He had apologized, but he always felt it was never enough. I already forgot it now that Uncle Luke's name would be cleared from all the accusations that were made by the media, and even the police. Some people even called him a 'monster' for obvious reason.

"Hey," he said, "Good luck. I hope they get what they deserve."

They will. That's what I had been telling myself since the arraignment in which Dr. Irving pleaded not guilty. To help my uncle, I depended on him once. I believed that he could help him. But when my uncle said that he was somehow involved on Lori's death, the trust wore off. I trusted my uncle more, even though he himself knew that his breakdown at the hospital wouldn't help much—other than assuring the police to reinvestigate Lori's alleged accident—especially when he didn't remember about it at all.

Arriving at the courthouse, I was surprised by the swarm of reporters outside. I didn't know this would take that many attentions, but then again, both my uncle and Phil Easton were successful businessmen and their so-called rivalry was always brought up every time a media talked about one of them.

When I got out of the taxi, many pairs of eyes were looking at me. They started to point their microphones and cameras at me, calling my name and throwing hundreds of questions that they hoped I could answer. I couldn't even get one of them because of how crowded and noisy it was, and my only goal was to reach the closed courthouse door that was guarded by two police officers. One of them was Officer Flint, and I couldn't be happier when he stepped forward and told the reporters to back away.