Dead Apples

9- Angry Brothers

The drive to the jail is thirty-five minutes with no traffic on a Thursday morning. I've been doing some serious thinking about what I'm going to do with the money in the tin buried in the orchard and I think that I have finally come to a conclusion. I need to talk to Robby about it in person which is why I've decided to drive all the way out here to visit him.

I have to sign in at the front desk and then an officer takes me through a few doors that unlock only long enough for us to walk through. I have to get searched with a metal detector and sniffed out by a drug sniffing dog before I have to put my things in a locker. I'm then taken to the room that Robby is in. There's a metal table with two metal chairs, one being occupied by Robby.

I thank the officer before going in and I sit down across from my brother who is now wearing what looks like gray scrubs from Orange is the New Black.

"How have you been, Robby?" I ask him. I brought my dad's car today so I didn't have to ask Sage to drive me all the way out here. She would have if I asked her to but she's spending the day with Ty. I also don't want anybody to see me go into a panic attack again so if that does happen, I just don't want her around to see it.

"It's not so bad in here," He says with a shrug. "What about you, Minnie? Are you surviving without me?"

"Barely," I mutter with a long sigh. "Dad isn't talking to me."

"What'd you do to him?"

"I suggested that we sell the orchard to get you a lawyer," I admit to him. His eyes immediately go wide because he knows how ridiculous that was of me to ask of our father. "But anyway, I have a few things that I came here to ask you about. The first one being do you know a girl named Gabriella Briggs?"

I know that it's ridiculous to ask him this question but they're the same age so if she is from our town, he will definitely know who she is. Not that I care.

Okay, well obviously, I do care. If I didn't, I wouldn't have just asked him about her. I don't want to care though, because I know how ridiculous I'm being.

I watch as Robby scrunches his face up in thought, trying to see if that name rings any bells but then he starts to shake his head. "Gabriella Briggs... no, I don't think... oh wait. I know a Franky Briggs though."

"Who's Franky Briggs?" I ask him.

"He dated Marcy Hubbard a while back. He's not from here though, he lives in Westgate, the guy is loaded. Well, his family is," Robby explains to me. I'm now assuming that Franky is related to Gabriella because the rich family fits her Kate Spade accessories and the new Cadillac. Westgate is also a really expensive, fancy neighborhood that's maybe a fifteen-minute drive from here. "I only met the guy once, don't really know him that well. Why are you asking?"

"No reason," I say quickly. "I was just curious, I guess."

That should be the end of that conversation... right? Well, you would think. I guess that I just can't leave it alone though, because I then ask him a follow up question that really doesn't need to be asked. "What about a guy named Dex? He was a freshman in high school when you were a senior."

"Dex..." Robby starts thinking again. "Is he that guy with the blond hair? He has a tattoo on his neck, right?"

"Yeah, that's him," I'm glad that he remembers him. Not that I need to know more about Dex but I definitely do. I have to know everything that there is to know about him which is why it makes me so happy that my brother has some of that information.

"Well, when I knew him, he wasn't Dex. His name is Oliver," He informs me. "I think Dex comes from his middle name or something. I don't know, but that was a long time ago. We had chemistry together, he was a freak genius. A nice kid, I guess. Why are you asking about these people?"