Limitless

Chapter 24

“I wasn’t at the party,” I repeated for the ninth time. I stretched out one arm across the table and supported my head with my other hand. I was so tired from having spent all night in a jail cell.  I felt like a criminal.  It took all night to convince the cop that I really was Louisa.  Everyone in the courthouse knew who I was because of my incident, but the red hair was apparently such a drastic change from the blonde that no one believed me when I said I was who I was.  The duds working the night shift were so stupid that they wouldn’t even let me call my father. Only in the early morning when the nigh shift ended did a morning shift cop recognize me and let me get my father on the phone. I groaned loudly as the Judge Lucille looked at me.  She was an old friend of my grandfather’s but that didn’t help my case at all.  She had been the judge for a lot of cases regarding me, especially the one about me and the school party.  She wanted to throw me into jail right then and there, but there wasn’t enough evidence that I had actually started the fire – which I didn’t - to convict me.

“Louisa, our officer handcuffed you right outside the party.”

“Right OUTSIDE.” I slapped the table. “O U T S I D E.”

“But you were drunk, so you had obviously-“

“Who said I was drunk?!”

Lucille peered over her glasses at me disapprovingly as I raised my voice.  It sounded louder since the room was empty except for the two of us, my father, and a clerk.  It even echoed as she shifted through some papers on her stand and cleared her throat. “The officer reported that you drunkenly stumbled around and fell against a car… resisted when he tried to handcuff you… shouted profanities at him…”

“I did none of that,” I growled. I threw my hands up into the air as I remembered the events of the night.  “He didn’t even breathalyze me for goodness sake.”

“Well what were you doing outside of the party then Louisa? This isn’t adding up.”

I sighed before I explained it for the fifth time. “My friend happens to live in the apartment, his roommates were throwing a party, he and I went out to eat dinner, we came back to his house.  He was parking the car as the cop handcuffed me and took me away.”

Lucille straightened the papers on her desk. “So you were about to go back into the party?”

“CHRIST, I WAS NEVER IN THE PARTY IN THE FIRST PLA-“

“LOUISA!” She shouted, slamming her gavel into the desk.  She glared at me through her frames.   

“Lucille,” my father spoke from behind me. “Honestly, I think she’s telling the truth. She’s been working hard in school and even got a job… She’s been acting a lot more responsible and I just honestly feel like she’s telling the truth.”

Lucille adjusted her glasses and folded her hands. “Robert, I’ve never seen you stand up for your daughter like that. It’s about damn time.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Lucille shifted her gaze back to me. “Just do yourself a favor and stay away from all of the parties.  Stay out of the buildings that have parties in them.  If there is a party going on a block away, don’t even stay in that neighborhood.  Just don’t, Louisa.”

I closed my eyes and nodded as I massaged my forehead with my hand. Lucille watched me for a moment and then scribbled down something on the papers on her desk.  Finally, she stood and left the room.

My father walked me out of the courtroom. “I need to get back to work.  Can Kaylee come get you?”

I shrugged. “I’ll handle it.”