Cattie Get Your Gun

Chapter 6

All I shoud have heard was a clamor of noise around me, but instead there was one sound pounding in my ears: dum...dum...dum-dum...dum...dum-dum...dum.... My fingers hitting my leg in an uneven rhythm were the only movement my body made, and only sound I heard until a hand was placed on my shoulder. My fingers froze as a sinking feeling settled within my stomach, and I knew who was standing behind my chair without even looking. I stood up carefully with my hands clamped tightly together; Melany, Nolan, and Sam in the chairs next to mine watching as I turned slowly to face my Aunt Nora.

"I know this looks bad," I began to say, but one simple head shake from my aunt was enough to remind me of the situation and who was the one that should really be doing the talking.

"Phone?" Aunt Nora asked, not even looking me in the eye as she held out her hand until I placed my cell phone in the palm of it. "No laptop unless you need it for school, and even then I'll be monitoring. No going out, even with Naomi. You go straight to school and work and home. Luke or I will drive you wherever you go. I will have a nanny cam installed if I need to, do you understand me?"

I had never been reprimanded by my aunt in such a way, as her punishments were usually little more than a slap on the wrist for something petty I had done. This, however...this was something that would not soon be forgotten. "How long?"

"Until I decide you have finally matured enough not to put your life in danger." Not once had her eyes traveled even remotely close to my face throughout her speech, but I could hear the fear more than the anger in her voice. Even when trying to chastise me, the gentle tone of her voice still remained. "You will stay here until my shift is over."

My aunt was just about to walk away when I stepped forward, holding up a hand to stop her. From her reluctance to stop, it was evident that she knew what my question was. "Is Jack okay?"

Tucking a strand of strawberry blond hair back into her hair absently, she looked back over her shoulder down the hallway toward the wing where I assumed Jack was. "It's hard to tell. He's stable for now."

For now. The words hung in the air, following me back to my seat where I sat for a few moments in silence with my head down before looking around the rest of the waiting room. There was a young girl sitting on the other side, maybe about seven, with bright blond hair and a smile with a few missing teeth. She was flipping through an old book, one whose binding was almost torn in half, as her feet swung a few inches off the ground. Melany looked from me to the little girl and then back at me.

"Her name is Lucy," Melany explained softly, beginning to fold up her rosary beads to place them back inside the small pouch where she had taken them from. "She's Jack's little sister. His grandmother is in with the doctor now."

I turned my attention back to the girl, my head feeling empty as I watched her sit there so calmly, as if she had not a care in the world. Would she still be smiling so brightly if she knew what had happened to her brother? How much had her grandmother even told her? If I approached her, how would she react? Did she know that I, along with the other three teenagers sitting in the waiting room, were there because they had been with her brother? Did she even notice the scratches on all four of us from the broken glass of the windows, or Jack's blood that stained the cuffs of the sweater that now hung over the chair I sat on?

"Mel, does she know?" I finally asked, just so that I would have something to think about other than even more questions.

"We haven't talked to her," Melany explained. She cast a sideways glance at Sam and Nolan that she probably thought I did not see before turning back to me. "Uh, Cattie, did your aunt say anything about the police?"

I shook my head silently, my thoughts so preoccupied with other things that I had barely even considered what the legal consequences or punishments may be for this. Granted, we were defending ourselves, but we were still minors who had illegally obtained and used firearms, caused damage to the property of others, and been a public nuisance, just to name a few things. If the police got involved, they would start asking questions, and they would not stop until they had every single one answered. We would be in more than just trouble by the end of it all; we would be in jail.