Innocent

Chapter Six

"Where are you going, all dolled up?" Luke asked me. I turned around with a smile on my face and attempting to put a hoop in my ear. "What's with your hair?" I turned around back to the mirror and looked at my fishtail bread. I quickly gave him a disgusted look—I was purposely going for the messy look.

"Tanner is getting adopted soon," I replied. "And we're going on our first date." I looked towards Luke and saw his smile fade. "Don't worry, if he hurts me, I'll hurt him first." I stuck my tongue out at him and walked towards my closet. "Decisions." I heard Luke scoff but I also heard him 'fall' onto my bed. "My leather pants—"

"No."

I rolled my eyes and threw the pants towards the ground. "Yoga or skinny?"

"Why are you going for tight today?"

"Skinny it is," I whispered. I undressed my pants and quickly tugged the skinnies on. Luke rolled his eyes at me and darted until I gave him the signal that I was dressed. "I'm not going for tight." I gestured towards my top and he shrugged his shoulders. "And I just thought that it would be better if I wore something that wasn't me."

"But isn't that why Tanner fell for you in the first place?" Luke asked. I shrugged my shoulders and put my converse on. "I need to give him a talk before you go on your date."

"Don't threaten him too much," I said. I smiled as Luke was showing his protectiveness and I opened the door. We raced down the stairs and met at the landing. I quickly turned the TV on and plumped my butt on the couch.

"No!" Luke yelled, jumping on top of me. He grabbed the remote from my hands and stopped me from putting on It's A Boy Girl Thing and turned on the cartoons. I licked my lips and shrugged my shoulders at him, it didn't really matter to me.

Passing by our house, I turned my body to see a blaring firetruck, police car, and an ambulance rushing around the corner. My smile faded and I hoped that nothing too serious had happened but wasn't as worried as I should be. It wasn't like I knew them, why should I care?

In the kitchen, I heard a glass break and some loud sobbing. Luke and I shot each other a look of desperation but remained in our seats. I wished Tanner would hurry up and get here so I could have a good night for most of the night.

"Chloe! Luke!" I heard. We instantly gave each other a look and ran towards the kitchen. My mom was on the ground with my dad clutching her as she was bawling her eyes out. We sat down on the kitchen floor too, slightly apart from our parents and just stared at them.

My mom never overreacted like this unless something severely tragic happened. I began running my fingernails against the tiles and my dad shot us a look of sadness. So many scenarios were running through my mind but I attempted to believe that none of them were true.

"Answer the door," my mother said. Luke and I crinkled our eyebrows but didn't object to our mother. She must've been delirious since there wasn't a car outside our house and no knock was sounded throughout the quiet night.

We sat down to look at cartoons but neither of us could pay attention to what was happening. We could still hear my mom's crying and the silent attempts of my dad trying to tell her to calm down. Eventually, I heard sniffles but then what tore me apart was that I heard my dad begin to cry.

My dad never cried.

I knew this was serious since I've never actually heard or seen him cry. He didn't cry when he broke his leg. He didn't cry when his mother died. He didn't even cry when he stepped on a pencil and it went through his skin on his foot.

I concentrated on the cartoons as much as I could but I was interrupted by a knock on the door. We both looked at each other and raced for the door. I managed to open the door before Luke could and with a smile on my face, answered it.

I was stunned to see a police officer in front of us.

"Are you Chloe?" he asked. He looked down at the paper in his hand. "Tanner's Chloe?" I nodded my head and looked towards Luke who was speechless. He must've known what was coming next since he put a hand on my shoulder and apologized to me. "We're so sorry to say that Tanner was pronounced dead at 9:48 P.M. on the date of October 29th." He said some other things that I wasn't aware of and I just blinked. "Ma'am?"

"Hm?" I asked.

"Are you alright?" I nodded my head calmly and closed the door on the officer nicely.

Luke seemed worried for me but he didn't do anything. He watched as I kicked off my shoes and then slowly walked up the stairs. I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I didn't think. I didn't speak. I didn't believe it. I didn't hope.

I didn't sleep.

I didn't love.

I didn't...

***

"Thanks, mom," I said. She kissed my forehead as she headed off to work and looked back at me. I know that she doesn't believe me that I'm sick but I don't really feel like facing the rest of the world and explaining to everyone why I hate them today. In all seriousness, I mostly hate everyone today.

"Luke will take care of you," she whispered as she closed the door. I shut my eyes at his name and hoped she wasn't being serious.

When my room door was shut, I remained in my bed and just laid down. I wasn't wearing my necklace today since I left it in my gym bag and I wasn't sure that I wanted to wear it today.

I was to rung up in my thoughts that I didn't even flinch when a knock was at my door. I just let Luke knock and then jiggle my door, to find out that mother has locked it. I smiled and silently thanked my mom for remembering how I liked things.

"Tanner?" Luke asked. I rolled onto my stomach and planted my face into my pillow. I didn't want to hear what he had to say to me. Today was my day and I didn't want Luke with me. "Are you okay?" he asked. I grunted in response to him and I listened as he laid his back against my door. "We all know what you're doing."

Not understanding what he was talking about, I sat up in bed and then slowly walked over to him and placed my ear against the door. I knew that I could perfectly well hear what he was saying but I wanted to make sure that I could hear him clearly.

"You know it's only four hours away, we could go without mom or dad finding out," Luke finally told. I stood puzzled for a moment but didn't object to what he was talking about. "Just so you know, everyone else is grieving too but we were all going to ignore what the date was. We were going to pretend like nothing happened and so far mom and dad are successful at it. I shuddered a little when I realized what today was so I can never imagine what you're going through."

A little curious at my thoughts, I quietly went over to my phone and saw the date.

October 29th.

The day Tanner died.

The day my life started going downhill.

Without realizing what I was doing, I forgot what I looked like for a second and unlocked the door. I sprinted past Luke and out the door. I started jogging at a normal pace and to the tune of Luke's yelling. I smiled a bit as they grew faint and ran to a place I knew was comfort to me.

It was only four hours by car.

So like four days by foot.

But I was determined and my determination was stronger than anything else I had. Stronger than the loss of Tanner, stronger than the agony of the incident, and stronger than the love for my brother.

"Tanner!" I was surprised to hear my brother's voice again and I silently wished he would run out of breath and collapse. "Tanner, get in the car." I looked over at Luke and felt an eery creep over to me.

I decided against every better judgment of myself and hopped in. I sat as far away from my brother as possible and he began taking off at lightning speed down the highway.

"To Tanner's?"

"To Tanner's."