This Girl

Chapter 32: Hell, Yeah, I'm a Goose!

"This is all your fault!" 

"What? How is it my fault?"

"You... you," Alex hesitates. "Ok, its not really your fault."

"Damn right, its not," I say.  We're sitting in the local jail, in the cells just behind the lobby, where the not-so-criminal-criminals are held. After we were sent to the headmistress' office, Noah was taken away in an ambulance while Alex and I were taken off to prison. The headmistress suggested I go with him as a witness. 

I play with my shoe lace and he scoots closer to the bars. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have, uhm, done that."

I laugh. "Nah, you totally should have sent some innocent guy to hospital," I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I swivel round on my butt and lean my back against the wall. Alex does the same. 

He leans his head back on the wall and closes his eyes. I look over at him as he opens his mouth to speak. "You always smell like berries."

"What?" I whip my head around further to face him. His eyes are still closed and his adam's apple is bobbing. He looks so peaceful. 

"Is it your shampoo? Or do you naturally smell really good?" 

"Are you high?" I ask him. He makes a groaning sound and shakes his head a tiny bit. "You so are! Should people be able to bail you out, because I think you should really be in the back with all the other stoned young men."

He scoffs. "You know, the only reason -"

He's cut off by the sound of footsteps coming down the corridor. He stands up and starts pacing. The officer comes to stand in front of me. I quickly scramble up off the floor and dust off my jeans. 

"Natalie?" she asks. 

"Yeah, that's me," I say to her, looking over at Alex, who's stopped pacing. 

"If you wouldn't mind coming with me, then we'll get going," she says, turning on her heel and walking back out. I quickly hurry after her. I look at Alex and poke my tongue at him he rolls his eyes but I see him smile as I walk off with the police officer. 

"So, you and Alex are in a relationship?" she asks me as we enter a room with two chairs and a table. She looks at me, a pen in one hand, a clipboard in the other. 

"Oh, no!" I say quickly. "We're just... uhm, friends. He has a girlfriend."

"Really?" she raises an eyebrow but shrugs and writes something on her clipboard. "So, just run me through what you saw."

I nod and begin telling her. I start with Bubbles and I walking through the hallway, seeing the large crowd gathered. I recount the fight and the words Alex said, to the officer, Wendy, her name is. I wonder if her husband's name is Bob. 

"So, Natalie, would you mind giving me the context of the words he said?" she asks, looking at me from over her keyboard. I look down at my nails and pick them.

"Um, so Noah was my boyfriend and I, um, broke up with him yesterday. I think he was just telling him to stay away from me. Because.... uhm, he's like a big brother to me?" I say, saying the last sentence like its a question.

"Mhm," Wendy raises her eyebrows at her clipboard and nods, writing something down. She sets the clipboard down on the table and gestures for me to sit. I do, and she follows. "So Natalie, you say that Alex beat up this Noah guy -"

"I think so. But, it could have just been him being overprotective of his girlfriend," I quickly say, cutting in.

She raises an eyebrow. "And you really think that Alex cares more about his girlfriend than he does you?" she asks. I freeze, blushing. "I've been talking to Alex's parents, who have agreed to bail him out of here. It seems to me, after talking to both them and you, that Alex did not do this for his girlfriend. We've been in touch with the hospital, Natalie, and those kind of injuries don't just randomly happen. Seeing as those where the words he spoke to Noah, it's very likely he was doing it because he loves someone."