His Lifeline

Chapter 27: My Finding Nemo Night Gets Postponed

Ok, so it turns out that tomorrow turned into this Saturday. I had missed an entire week of school. I was both happy and terrified.

Happy because I don't like school in general, and sometimes the jocks bullied me, so it was always a plus to get away from that.

Terrified because of the sheer magnitude of make-up work I had to do. Not to mention I haven't even picked up Riptide since I got accepted to play in the competition. I figured I was pretty screwed in that section.

Nevertheless, I woke up, and mom was sitting in her chair, reading a small book. She was there, just like she said she would be.

"Hey, mom, what time is it?" her head snapped up as she looked at her phone.

"12:24. Lunch should be coming in soon. How are you feeling?"

"Better, my arms don't hurt as much" her face darkened a bit when I mentioned my arms. I internally winced and reprimanded myself for bringing them up.

"That's good. Oh, while you were sleeping, the two police officers from earlier said they needed to ask you one more question. They said it's urgent, so I'm going to call them in, ok?" she started to get up, but I quickly protested.

"Wait, mom, can you stay this time?"

"Of course, dear, I'll be right back" she smiled warmly at me, making my anxiety dissipate a bit.

Then mom came back in with officers Ryan and Charlie.

"Ok, kid, I'm going to cut to the chase since Ryan will beat around the bush forever. Were the people who shot you Gabe's debt collectors?" shit, shit, shit, I couldn't say anything. I'm sure they were watching me. I couldn't signal or anything. I just froze. Charlie nodded his head, whispered something to Ryan, who nodded and left.

"Alright, one more thing, did you give the shooter Gabe's away phone number?" his questions were oddly specific, and it was freaking me out. It seemed like he already knew, so why was he asking? I didn't unfreeze from his last question. I could feel myself freaking out. I couldn't let anything out; then they wouldn't go after mom and Annabeth. Keep it cool!

"Last thing, are they blackmailing you?" I didn't move, I couldn't do anything, this guy was seriously freaking me out, and I couldn't breathe normally. Mom grabbed my hand, which helped a bit. But I didn't actually breathe and get oxygen into my lungs until the officer left the room.

I don't know what that was. If the police already had the information, why come to someone they knew was being blackmailed to verify? I shook my head, not important.

"I called Rachel and Annabeth over. Listen, I know you're shaken up still, but please try to help us understand. I know that all you want to do is sleep and watch Finding Nemo. But help us understand so we can keep you close" mom was talking slowly as if she was scared I would bolt. I mean, that's all I wanted to do at the moment, so it wasn't a completely bogus idea, but still.

I took a few deep breaths. I nodded at mom, telling her I understood. She grinned and brought out a small container; my eyes widened.

"Shhh, I'm not supposed to bring food in here. They made me go home for a few hours, so I baked cookies. We'll see if they try to send me home again," mom smirked mischievously as she opened the container and revealed the blue cookies.

"They're cold, sorry about that, oh and I'm reserving three, one for each of the girls, you can have the remaining nine" my mom took out three and wrapped them in a napkin, placing them on a nightstand nearby.

"The girls should be here in twenty minutes. They're going to smuggle McDonald's in here. I gave them your order, don't worry," my mom grinned at me as I had already shoveled down two cookies and was going for a fourth since a third was being chewed. I nodded at her and tunneled in on my cookies.