She wasn't allowed back into the house. It was a crime scene." Why'd the girl kill herself?" That's what they were all asking. There were blue and red flashing lights everywhere. They were probably in there poking at her body.
A neighbor heard Kassie scream and rushed over to find Kassie hunched over Camie's dead body. Tif ran from the house before the cops showed up. She was going to lie. They always lied, it was the only thing they were good at.
The next thing she knew, she was being pushed out of the house. Away from Camie. Ms.Johnson showed up what felt like years later and told Kassie to go pack her stuff. She couldn't move. She couldn't think about anything else. She couldn't go back into that house. Not after what happened.
Ms.Johnson came out of the house with a bag of Kassie's clothes moments later. Kassie couldn't stop looking down at her bloody hands.All the cops were asking her questions but before she could process what they were asking Ms.Johnson was leading her to the car.
The car started moving. Kassie didn't feel it move, but she knew that it was. She was numb inside. She had no one. And she knew that it was her fault. She wasn't there for Camie. She couldn't save her. Nothing she had done had been enough.
***
"Kassie?" "Kassie we need you to talk to us honey-" "Don't talk to her like shes a little girl. She's almost old enough." "She wont even be able to get a real job, she is not old enough." "I can hear you. I'm not deaf." There were two people in the tiny room. Ms.Johnson and a man she had never seen before. The man had dark skin, he was tall and he was bald. He looked scary in Kassie's head but right now, everyone looked scary.
"We know you're not deaf. But you need to talk to us. You know what happened. Don't you?", Ms.Johnson said in a soft voice. She was trying to keep Kassie calm. Every ones main goal right now was to keep her calm. She wouldn't talk if she wasn't calm. She wouldn't talk even if she was calm.
She was trying to look calm on the outside. She definitely was not calm on the inside. Did they expect her to be calm after all this? Of course they did. They never dealt with this. They never had a family member kill themselves. "Listen Kassie we need you to stop feeling sorry for yourself and talk to us", the very rude tall man said. Ms.Johnson looked at him and hit him in the stomach. He didn't flinch. Damn.
"Robert!" Ms. Johnson said. Robert that was his name, good to know. Kassie stared at him. He looked weird. He looked scary but for some reason he didn't look mean. "You need to leave." Ms.Johnson said as she put her hand on her hip. Sassy.
Robert opened up the door and walked out. She was scared that he'd hit his head on the top of the door frame but he walked through with no problems. Ms.Johnson sat across from Kassie. For some reason this felt awkward. Like when your parents are about to give you "the talk".
"Kassie, I'm sorry this happened to you. Trust me I feel horrible." "I know you do. It's not your fault. It's my fault." "Why...why do you think its your fault Kassie?" "I know what you're trying to do. And it's not going to work. I don't open up to people. I don't talk to people. Even if I did talk to people I wouldn't talk about this." Ms.Johnson stood up and walked closer to Kassie. "Kassie we need you to talk. You're almost old enough. They'll make you leave foster care."
"Ms.Johnson I know where you're coming from. You don't think I'm ready. Do you? You already didn't think that I was ready. I haven't applied to any colleges. I haven't gone looking for jobs. I can't even pay the people who are fixing my truck. But I have six months to figure all of this out. I'm almost there and you want me to wait even longer?" She started to get mad. She had been through so much over the years and now she was going to have to wait longer?
"Kassie, please that's not what I was say-". Before she could finish Kassie was walking out of the dark room and into the brightly lit hallway. Everyone was staring at her. She walked. She walked out of the building she knew so well. She walked to the back and sat down. Her favorite place to sit and think. She thought for a long time.
