Ribbon Road

Truth

    I kept my head down as I followed Officer Andreas into the police station, trying to avoid stares. I already felt incredibly overwhelmed without people staring at me like I was some kind of criminal. 

“Do you mind sitting here for just a moment, Ava?” Officer Andreas led me over to a row of hard plastic chairs, most of which were already filled, and pointed to one. I wordlessly sat down, still staring at the linoleum floor. “Thank you. I’ll be back to get you in just a moment.” Her footsteps trailed away as she walked off to who knows where. 

“Psst,” Someone whispered, poking my arm. I pulled away. I didn’t have time for this person and whatever the hell they wanted. “Pssst, hey! Ava!” The person spoke a little louder, and I recognized their voice this time. I turned my head and found that, as I suppose I should have expected, Ollie Harbow was sitting beside me. Annoying, but not surprising; Ollie was a known troublemaker. This was probably already his third or fourth time being arrested this month, and it was only the fourteenth. 

I groaned internally. “What, Ollie?” He gave me a toothy grin and I noticed for the first time that he was actually missing some teeth; probably from fighting. 

“What’re you in for?” 

I felt my face heat up. “I’m not in for anything, Ollie. Something is going on with my dad and I got dragged here, so fuck off, okay?” Ollie seemed taken aback. His smile fell. 

“Oh. Shit,  I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-”

“Please, just leave me alone.” I turned back and pulled my feet up onto the chair. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, but I didn’t want to cry. Not in a police station. Not in front of a kid I know, even if I don’t like him. 

“Hey,” Someone else called from a few chairs over. “Aren’t you that missing girl?” 

“Huh? She ain’t missing, she’s right here” Ollie laughed. Before I could ask the person why they thought I was some missing girl, Officer Andreas appeared in front of me, seemingly out of nowhere. 

“Come on, Ava,” She said in an almost panicked tone, grabbing my arm. I stood up quickly, hoping she’d let go of my arm. Thankfully, she did. 

We walked down a hallway and to a room that I assumed was an interrogation room, with only a desk and a few chairs in it. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I nearly stopped. Something about the look of the room made me incredibly nervous. 

“Sorry, this is really the only room we have,” Officer Andreas explained as she opened the door. “We aren’t going to interrogate you. We just need to ask you a couple more questions and then we’ll explain what’s going on.” 

“Oh, okay.” I followed her into the room and was instantly hit with a chill. I wrapped my arms around myself to try and keep warm, to no avail. I noticed a man standing in a corner of the room, who I assumed was a partner of Officer Andreas. When he noticed us, he pushed off the wall and gave me a muted sort of smile. 

“Ava, right? I’m Officer Jameson, it’s nice to meet you.” 

    “You too.”

“Go ahead and take a seat, Ava, and we can get started,” Officer Andreas said, giving me a gentle smile. I pulled one of the chairs out from the desk and sat down. The chair was made of wood as opposed to the hard plastic of the chair I was sitting in a moment ago, but it wasn’t any more comfortable. 

“Alright, Ava, can you get me up to speed here? What do you know so far?” Officer Jameson sat down across from me and folded his hands on top of the desk. I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came out. It was dry and my throat felt constricted.