Shattered But Not Broken

Chapter 12

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I stood there still for a second until I realized I should say something. "Umm... yeah, I'll go get him." I left the door and walked back to the chair Richie was sitting in.

He must have seen the look on my face when I opened the door because he concerningly asked, "Hey... is everything alright?"

I tried not to cry when I thought about Richie getting in serious trouble for this. "Th... there's two police m... men outside. They want t... to talk to you."

His eyes widened. "Oh shit," he said sighing. He slowly got up from the chair and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before he headed towards the door.

"Umm... I think we should go now," Ham said when the room was silent.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Take the back door though."

When they left, Richie told me to go upstairs while he talked to the officers.

I replied with a soft "okay," and made my way upstairs.

I waited and waited in my room for Richie to come to tell me that everything was going to be okay. But as time passed, I didn't hear anything until I heard a knock on my door.

Anxiously and nervously, I ran to my door hoping that Richie would be standing there but it wasn't him, it was Cheryl.

I sighed. "Hi, Cheryl."

She looked at me wide-eyed. "Do you know why Richie is down there talking to police officers?"

I looked at her and sighed again. "I do but that's really only Richie's business."

"Is he in trouble?" the high pitched girl's voice said.

"I don't know Cheryl I don't know." My voice faded.

"Mom's gonna be so mad if she comes home and sees Richie talking to the police."

"Yeah," I said. I knew that Miss. Adler was at the grocery store and had to talk with her accountant but she left hours ago and she could be back at any time now.

Cheryl put her pointer finger on her chin. "But you know, I could use this to my advantage. I could ask Richie to do something for me and I won't tell mom about the police."

"Oh Cheryl, that's kind of mean," I frowned. "You know a nice sister wouldn't tell on her big brother or make him do something for you not to tell on him."

She shrugged. "Well, then I guess I'm not the nice sister then." She skipped away, back to her bedroom.

I sighed and sat back down on my bed.

It felt like hours before Richie was done talking to the police.

"Hey," I heard him say as he knocked on my door. He let himself in.

"Hey." I sat up on my bed. "How did the talk with the police go?" I asked nervously. I didn't really want to know what happened in fear that he got in trouble with the law.

"I think it went okay," he said with his head down.

I moved closer to him. "Richie?"

He lifted up his head slowly and looked at me with sad eyes.

I asked in a whisper, "Are you going to jail?"

"I don't know," he sighed. He took my hands in his when he saw me look down and sigh. "I'm not going to jail, I promise."

I knew he was just trying to comfort and reassure me but I still prayed to God that he wouldn't go to jail 'cause I wouldn't know what to do without him.

"Is there any bad news?"

He sighed. "Yeah."

"Crap," I mumbled under my breath. "What is it?"

He looked up at me. "I have to go to court. But it's only a trial. They just need to ask me some questions."

"What's your mom going to think about this?"

"I'm probably going to get grounded for a while and she's probably going to think I'm going crazy for stabbing a man," he frowned. "She's going to have to be in the courtroom too"

"Do I have to go?"

"I'm afraid so. The police officers said that anyone who witnessed the crime has to go and the parents or guardians of those people have to go to."

"I'm so sorry Richie. This is all my fault."

"No it's not," he snapped at me. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have stabbed him."

"But you used it for self-defense."

"Yeah, but I... I also stabbed him from anger which I shouldn't have done," he said. A second later he gasped while looking behind me.

I gasped too when I saw that Cheryl was standing there listening to our conversation.

Her jaw was dropped. "You stabbed someone?!"

Richie didn't say a word.

I looked at Richie and then back at Cheryl. "Oh Cheryl, you weren't supposed to hear any of that."

I saw Miss. Adler walk across the hall and stop at the foot of my bedroom. When she saw Cheryl, she asked, "What's going on?"

Richie put his head in his hands as Cheryl said, "Richie stabbed someone and the police came here to talk to him."

Miss. Adler's eyes grew wide as she ordered him to go back downstairs to have a talk with her.

I could see that Richie's face was red and tears were falling from his eyes as he wiped them away. I felt really bad for him and I didn't even want to know how bad he felt about or how upset he was.