Bitch Be Gone

Chapter 18: Psychotic

Josh's P.O.V.

The cold, hard concrete bench I had been commanded to sit on was anything but comfortable. The room I was in had an old musty smell that I couldn't shake off. Jail was not looking like a place I wanted to spend the rest of my life in. The more I sat in the dead silence, the more I wished I could undo everything. I wished Andrea had never gone missing. I wished I had never put those drugs in Ryan's drink. I wished I had never listened to that sketchy man. I wished I had never kissed Andrea. I wished my mom never told me about the money she stole. I wished my dad never left us. My whole entire life was just one huge regret.

"Josh Martinez?" A police officer called from the doorway. I snapped my head up from my hands. I didn't care who it was, as long as they got me out of that abominable place.

"Your mom is here to take you home." She stated. I ascended from the godawful bench and followed the police officer out the door. I had no idea what my mom was going to say. It's not like she could be disappointed. She did commit a felony herself. Plus, the police said they had probable cause to believe that I had something to do with Andrea's disappearance, and technically I didn't. I was blackmailed, but it's not like I could tell them that because then my mom would be screwed. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Once I walked out into the lobby, I saw my mom talking to another one of the officers. After awhile, I realized that he was the same officer that had spoken to me the first night I had been there. It was my second time being at the police station in only one week. I guess I was becoming a regular customer.

I glanced up at a clock hanging up on the wall. It was already 8:47. I had been in that jail cell practically the whole entire day. After a couple more minutes of awkwardly waiting for my mom and being stared down by the officer that had escorted me to the lobby, my mom finally spotted me. Surprisingly, she didn't say a word. She gestured for me to follow her and then walked out the front door. The look she gave me was absolutely terrifying. It's not that she wasn't talking to me because she didn't care that I had gotten arrested, it was that what she was gonna say to me might get her arrested for child abuse. I actually considered turning back around and letting the police lock me up then and there. What was worse, the police's legal punishment or the wrath of my mother? After a minute of contemplating, I decided it was most logical to follow my mom out to the car.

I think my mom realized that I was trying to walk as slow to the car as I could to delay punishment because she gestured for me to hurry up. I sped up and finally reached my mom's dark blue Mitsubishi mini van.

"We'll talk about this when we get home." She sighed. A part of me hoped that we would get into a car accident before we reached my house.

Claire's P.O.V.

I didn't know what right and wrong was anymore. My mom had always told me to protect family first and then friends, but I was starting to think that she was wrong. I was tired of protecting my brother. Now I knew for sure that he was in the wrong and that he always had been. I wasn't protecting Tyler out of love anymore. I was protecting him out of fear. I always had been protecting him out of fear when I think about it. I only just started to come to that realization this summer though.

"Hey, Tyler! Let me in!" I shouted as I knocked on his front door.

"Mom and Dad aren't with me Tyler!!"

After that, the door came sliding open.

"Come in." He stated. He walked into his living room and slumped onto his couch, and I did the same.

"How is it living in hell with Mom and Dad?" He laughed slyly. I soon realized that he was drunk.

"Tyler! They're not that bad..." I cried.