Cages

chapter four (edited)

"You must be pretty lonely, living by yourself and all." Lola said softly.

I glared. "No."

She smiled. "You were quick to defend yourself. Makes it sound like it's not true."

"I don't care what you think." I said, taking another bite of pizza.

She did the same and for a few seconds it was quiet.

Until she opened up her big mouth again.

"I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours."

I looked at her like she was stupid. "What?"

"We all have a story, Kacey." she smiled. "I'll tell you what's going wrong in my life if you tell me what's wrong with yours."

What the actual crap? Did this chick think just because we were eating together that we somehow became the best of friends that tell each other secrets? This isn't one of those little sleepovers girls have. We're not talking about our life stories.

"It's not hard to guess your little problem." I snapped. "Your parents don't give you enough attention, whatever."

Lola smiled. "Yeah, there's that, but that isn't my story."

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. "Then what could possibly be so bad in your life that it makes you smile so much?"

"We moved here for a reason." she said, ignoring my snide remark. "Back home, something bad happened and I couldn't be there anymore. I couldn't move on so my parents decided to start over. They figured leaving the reminders would stop the memories."

Now I really was curious. What made her move? What was she running from?

"What happened?" I asked.

She looked at me. "My boyfriend was killed."

Lola wasn't smiling anymore, but even now she didn't show any other expression. She wasn't crying nor was there a frown. It was like the only thing she can show was fake happiness. She was numb.

I was shocked. I just thought she was talking about her parents ignoring her or maybe even get parents having issues. I never expected it to be this serious. Looking at Lola, you never would've guess she got her heart broken. She was too nice, too happy.

Now I knew atleast one of them were probably a lie.

Before I can ask how, Lola was talking again.

"The police thought he was someone else. It happened at night, when he was walking to my house to see me while my parents were at work. Someone had just robbed a store and he was wearing similar clothing."

"They say he was struggling but that was because he was caught off guard. They had the wrong guy. But they didn't listen to him. They shot him. They didn't put him in hand cuffs, they didn't tase him. They shot him. Like he was the criminal."