I stare down at my handcuffed hands, surrounded by drunk teenagers all fighting in the cage. Their are 16 of us all crowded around the 7ft. bench in the cage. The crowd starts to die down as everyone's parents begin to show up. I sit alone on the far right of the bench, watching the iron door close and open.
Where's Violet, I ask myself, More important, where's Dominic?
Suddenly the door opens, and Violet stumbles in.
"Easy..EASY!" She screams at the officer, "Watch yourself!"
I hid my face, I knew the officer, and I felt he might have knew me. I hear the door shut and open my eyes again. Violet throws herself down beside me.
She smirks at me a little staring at her cuffs, "What are you in for?"
I try and smile, "Underage consumption of alcohol."
She sighs, "Same."
"Dominic showed up," I whisper to her
"Dominic?" She sits up straighter and turns to me, "He did? Where? When?"
"About an hour you left me to do God know's what. We went outside for a minute, then upstairs-"
"You slept with Dominic?" She kept her voice down.
"No! God no! We talked for a minute, I was kinda buzzed so I must have fallen asleep. I wake up, the police are there and Dominic's not."
"You don't think he meant to leave you."
"NO! No, he, he loves-"
The door of the cage opens.... Dominic.
"Evens," His voice is flat and cold, he's back in his uniform, "Your father wants you."
He grabs my arm, hard, I feel his fingers in my skin.
"Ow," I whisper, but Dominic doesn't hear me. I look back at Violet who only shrugs her shoulders, with I'm Sorry eyes.
The walk up the stairs is long, the precinct is quiet as they watch me. Messy second day hair, smeared makeup, I can feel the wrinkles in my skirt hard on my legs. I'm cold. Dominic barley looks at me, as we walk. We make it to the door, and he unlocks my cuffs. I glare at him, but he doesn't seem to notice. He opens the door and allows me to walk it closing it behind me.
My dad has his hands on his face staring at his desk. A bottle of Brandy is on his left side half empty.
I don't speak, niether does he. He pours himself a glass, then drinks whole. I stand there, waiting for him.
"Did you have fun?" He whispers.
"Dad-" He holds his hand up to me.
"I. I told you no." His words are small and pronounced.
I don't have anything to say.
"No, Charlie." He almost smiles, "No... Do you know what 'no' means?"
I just stand there. My dad examines his glass, like he is trying to memorize it.
Tears sting my eyes, "Dad I'm sorry-"
"I don't even know what to say Charlie. Do you know what kind of danger you were in? Do you know what could have happened?"
"I just wanted to be normal again. I just wanted to feel normal again, Dad. Don't you think you this has gone on long enough? This whole locking me up charade?"
"Apparently it hasn't gone on long enough! Because you deliberately choose to defy me."
"I'm not a child."
"Then why do you act like one Charlie!" He is facing me now, I can see the tears building up in his eyes, "Even anything were to happen to you-"
He is hurt. I feel the worst I have ever felt, I have hurt my dad so deeply. I can see it on his face.
"Dad, I'm sorry," But I know that it isn't enough.
"Go home. I mean it, go straight home. We will talk about this tomorrow, after I have called and thanked all the favors I had to pull to make sure you were sleeping in your own bed tonight." He said.
I run out of the room, down the stairs, through the crowd of people until I'm out the door of the station. I'm about to make my way down the front stairs when I hit something- someone....
It's the kid that made me spill my drink at the party. His face is covered in something..blood?
It's all over him, his arms, his neck, his jacket, I'm afraid to touch him, so I just stare.
He stares at me for a minute, petrified, then all of sudden he rushes past me and into the station.
I look around for a moment trying to make sense of what just happened, then I turn down the street and head home.
________________________________________________________________________________
"Can I help you?" One of the detectives asks Axel.
"Umm-" he looks down at himself, "Yeah-yeah- I think I need help,"
"Well just calm down, are you hurt?"
"No. No the blood's not mine,"
"Well tell me what happened,"
"I-I think I just witnessed a murder..."
YOU ARE READING
The Strangers in Apartment 32
Teen Fiction"Remember baby, my family kills people," His face is so close to mine, I can almost taste him. He back me slowly towards the open balcony doors, not touching me, but somehow making me move. "Axel, don't you take another step towards me," I scold h...
