Living Or Dying

Chapter Seventeen

Pierrette marched into the police station like nothing could stop her. Marcus quickly followed her, desperately trying to catch up but miserably failing. Byern came running after the two with Sherry in his arms. As soon as Pierrette reached the front desk of the near-empty police station, she calmed down, much to everyone's surprise.

As the police officer slowly looked up, Pierrette shot him a smile. The officer groaned, and put down the coffee mug he was holding.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"My daughter received some threatening texts from her ex-boyfriend. We want to know if there is a way to stop him from continuing with his threats."

"Alright, let me see the phone and messages." He responded, concealing a slight yawn.

Pierrette motioned towards Sherry, and Byern released her. The officer raised his eyebrow at the two teens, but said nothing. Sherry slowly hobbled forth, phone in hand and Byern's hands wrapped around her waist. She unlocked the phone, revealing the messages.

Sighing, the officer picked up the phone. His eyes skimmed the screen, but didn't react. Then he looked again, the creases on his face getting deeper. It took him several looks to grasp the full extent. Then he slammed the phone down.

"All right, this is legit. I'll need name, number, residence, and all the information you can provide me about the text sender."

Pierrette grinned, and took the papers the officer had pulled out. She happily led her daughter away to a bench to fill out the forms. Byern froze in front of the officer, a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Are you the girl's current boyfriend?" He asked.

"N-no!" Byern shook his head earnestly, earning a smirk from his father behind him.

"Are you here brother or some other form of relative?" The officer expanded.

"No. She's living with my family because of... family issues."

"That's what they all say." He sighed. Then, he turned his head to Marcus. "He telling the truth?"

Marcus nodded, and the officer rubbed his eyes. "Fucking great... the one day I'm the only one at the station..." He mumbled under his breath.

Byern looked behind him at the two women sitting on the police bench. Sherry had her hand wrapped around her stomach, and the other held a pencil to her chin in thought. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and her tongue was sticking slightly out. Pierrette was holding her long hair back, and glanced up at Byern. She grinned when she saw what he was looking at. He quickly looked away, the heat rising in his cheeks.

Soon enough Pierrette and Sherry returned to the front desk. They handed over the paper and the officer took a glance at it. He shoved it under another stack of papers, quickly looking back up.

"All right, We'll call you as soon as we get the young man in here for questioning. Ms..."

"Raye. Her name is Sherry Raye. My name is Pierrette Raye. It's on the form."

The officer glanced down at the form, flipping over a page or two. His eyes glanced up, then back down to the form. It didn't take long for him to spot an inconsistency.

"Ma'am, it says here you've been in France for the last twelve or so years. But your daughter has been staying in Canada for that period of time. Are you not her legal guardian? Because here it says you are. It is a criminal offence to lie about that."

Pierrette huffed. "Then you had better go arrest Garth Puck, her biological father. He was the one who had lied about that. We just realized it a few days ago. And I came over here as fast as I could."

"Right... I'm just gonna go and check that." The officer made some moves on his computer, quickly logging on and finding the secure documents. He read it fast, then nodded. "If she really was with this Garth guy, he could be sentenced to jail for life. You wanna fill a form for that now, or later?"

Pierrette gently replied later. Soon, Marcus was shuffling everyone into the car again. Byern picked Sherry up, seeing as they had forgotten her crutches in the trunk of the car. Pierrette sat in the front, but kept her eyes glued to the rear view mirror. She wanted to know how her daughter interacted with the new boy. As soon as they started moving though, Sherry looked out her window, and Byern looked out his.

It was a quiet ride home, despite all the buzzing between three people. Sherry desperately wanted to talk to her mother, and her mother wanted to question Byern, and Byern just shuffled on his chair. He didn't need to look up to see the woman's eyes in the rearview mirror. He could feel it piercing his skull. Finally at the end of his wits, Byern pulled out his phone and opened Facebook. Then, turning down his volume, he messaged someone.

~Sherry! Your mom won't stop staring at me!!! It's creeping me out!~

Sherry's phone dinged, and Sherry had to hold in a laugh. Her reply was short and simple.

~(403)-829-3117 Text me instead.~

Soon enough, Sherry's phone buzzed, having turned down the volume. She peeked at it, and laughed again. Byern had simply repeated what he had said over the Facebook messenger. Sherry typed a response, then looked out the window again. She hoped her mother wasn't catching on.

Byern felt his phone buzz. Despite his nervousness, he waited a while. After all, if he checked his phone right after Sherry texted someone, the woman sitting in front of him could clue in. And no matter how nice Byern thought she was at first, her stares were creeping him out. Finally, after an agonizing minute, Byern picked up his phone.

~Silly, she's trying to figure out our relationship. Duh. She's my mother.~

Byern's eyes widened at the thought. Relationship? He thought. I'm gay, I wouldn't have a relationship with a girl. Typing quickly, he didn't think. But as he saw Sherry's reaction, he wish he had.

She too had waited to answer her phone. But when she did, she turned as far away from Byern as she could. She stared out the window at the sky. Its bright blue and clear sun didn't reflect what Sherry was feeling. Byern didn't have to look hard at the reflection in the window to see her tears. He sighed, and thumped his head against the window. Reopening his phone, he read his text again. God, I'm so stupid.

~What relationship? We don't have one. I don't swing that way.~