Better Undercover

Chapter 5: Not All the Details

Chapter 5: Not All the Details

I felt like I had said the story hundreds of times by the time the officers stop questioning us at the police station. Katie and Nick just said that they heard gunshots and climbed out a window to escape. I had fabricated a wonderful cover story about how I hid behind the couch and when he went into the hallway, I ran out the back door. No, I didn't know what knocked him out. No, I didn't know why he was there. I was tired of the questions.

"Are there any relatives that we could contact?" one of the officers asked Nick. "We need to find someone responsible for you three."

"We have an aunt in Arizona, but she's not allowed to travel because of a heart condition," Nick said.

The officer nodded and wrote that down. "Anyone else?"

Nick shook his head. Katie was tapping her fingers on the armrest of my chair. "Quit it, Katie," I said quietly to her.

"I'm not doing anything!" she replied.

"Tapping on my seat."

"I'm not doing that!"

I looked at her hands. They were buried in her pockets. "But I heard, I thought..."

"Court, you ok?" she asked.

The tapping continued. I looked around, but it was only in my head. There were words in my head, pulses in my head, I wished all the events of tonight were in my head, but I knew that they weren't.

"I need to get out of here," I mumbled as I stood up and began walking towards the door.

"Sorry, but you can't leave until everything is cleared up," the officer at the front desk said.

"I need to go outside," I replied. The tapping was getting louder and louder by the minute and I felt like I was going to explode if I didn't go outside.

"I'm sorry, but we just need a few more minutes-"

"I need to go outside now!" I shouted. A few of the officers walking by turned to look at me, but I didn't care. I just walked out, not caring what anyone said.

It was dark out, and I couldn't see much besides the headlights from the street ahead of me. I went to the side of the building and sat down. None of this could be happening. None of it. I couldn't help feel like someone was watching me, probably making sure I don't run off or get killed, but deep down, I couldn't help but feel like all of this was my fault.

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"You shouldn't've run out," Nick said as he pulled the car into the parking lot of the law firm we were visiting to discuss official stuff about our parents. I didn't exactly know what was going on, since the plans were made when I was outside of the station.

"It was two days ago, let it go," I said as I stared out the window.

"They're death was two days ago, do you want us to let it go too?" Katie asked.

I glared at her. "Do you want me to blast you out of this car?"

"Courtney," Nick said sternly, "you can't talk about that."

I sighed. "I know. But I just feel like I need to explode, and I would rather do it verbally at you guys than to blow up another hallway."

We got out of the car in silence. I looked at the building and sighed internally about how much I hated everything. I saw a girl standing at the front door, surrounded by reporters. She must be someone important. I looked more closely, just in case I could recognize her. She was looking right at me.

Take a deep breath, it's a bad day, not a bad life.

I quickly moved my eyes to the ground. I couldn't react, not with the press right there. "You coming, Courtney?" Nick asked.

I nodded, still keeping my eyes on the ground. "Yeah. Just give me a minute."

He understood and walked inside with Katie. When I felt it fade a little bit, I looked up. The girl was standing right in front of me.

"Hey," she said as she waved.

"Hey. Did you come from a meeting?" I asked. I pushed the hair out of my eyes and leaned up against Nick's car.

"Yeah. My uncle."

"My parents."

"I'm sorry."

"Same. Can I ask what happened?" I asked her. She seemed pretty nice. She had brushed off the entire press crowd to comfort me, and I didn't even know her.

I heard Nick yell across the parking lot, "Are you coming?"

"I asked for a minute!" I shouted back. The press had found another group of people to attack, and they surrounded those people as they moved away from the door.

"It was my mom. She's a crazy lunatic and she killed him," the girl replied rather emotionlessly.

My eyes widened. Not only because of what happened, but because of the tone she used. She totally appeared like she didn't care at all.

"Jeez. Mine were killed in a break-in and attempted robbery."

"Were you there?" she asked.

I nodded. I didn't want to go into any details unless I absolutely had to. Details were not my friend in this case. "You?"

"Yeah, but they didn't know that I was. How did you survive if both your parents died?"

I had gotten enough practice with lying in the past few days, but I didn't even bother with the lies. "I don't know," I responded with a sigh. It was entirely true. I had no idea what was going on with my powers or even how I got powers in the first place. It was driving me crazy. And everything else just seemed to be going on at the same time and everything was falling apart.

"How do you deal with it?" I blurted out. "You just gave some total shade to the reporters and comforted me even though you don't know me and you look barely emotional. And then there's me." I looked at the ground. I could feel my hair in knots since I had brushed my hair in days. I'm falling apart."

She nodded. "So am I." She pulled down her hood to reveal equally un-brushed hair. "I would say something inspirational and book or movie worthy about how everything's ok in the world, and I'm ok, and you're ok, and we're all ok. But that's not the world I live in. I live in a world where I have to take a deep breath and move on every few steps. Where I have to change what I don't think is right. Where I don't know if I'm going to be ok. Everything is changing. Somethings I change, others I don't want to ever change, but they do. I can't change the past, I can only hope that everything's going to be ok."

I smiled. "I think that was pretty book worthy.  Or movie worthy, whichever you want.  Thanks. I really needed that." I looked at my watch. It had been almost five minutes. "Sorry, I need to go inside. My brother and sister are probably waiting for me. But thanks for coming up to me. I really needed it." I waved and walked up to the building.

I may not be able to make everything ok, but I was going to make them right.

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This chapter is a parallel to another chapter of another book, so that might be why it's slightly familiar for some people who read my other books ;)