Robin; Kids at 19

18

18

The world stopped for just a moment.

“What?”

Courtney was dead? What an abstract concept. I’d been with her literally three hours ago. Why did she die? How did she die? Really?

“Robin…are you there? Can you come over? I just don’t know what the fuck is going on or what the fuck to do. And I still have her baby.” He sounds really upset. I’ve never heard him like this. Ever. In our twelve years of friendship I had never heard him so worked up.

“Yeah, I’m still here. I’m setting off right now. Hold on.” I numbly open the front door.

“El, I’m going to Noel’s. I’ll call you when I get there, its really important. I love you bye” I gabble and run to my car before I hear a reply. I twist the key and the engine roars. I set my phone in its holder and it connects to the speakers so I can continue the conversation hands free as I skid out of the drive, pebbles flying from under my tires.

“Tell me what’s happened. Is Callie there? Why did she send the police? When did it happen?” I can’t help but let the questions tumble out as I speed along the country roads towards his house.

“Erm…basically they said that she slit her wrists and…yeah. They…erm…p-p-pronounced her d-dead at four fifteen this afternoon and the police came here around five. They have just been questioning us about stuff for ages. Like we…killer her…or something” he whispered this last bit.

“But why did the police come?” I overtook a dickhead doing the speed limit and rounded a bend widely; thankful that no one was coming the other way otherwise we would have had a head on collision.

“I think it was in her note. They read it to me but I forgot most of it. Your in it too.”

“What? What does it say?” I question, my mind wild with suddenness. There was so much of it. Sudden death, sudden hurry, sudden actions. It was all so fast.

“Erm…it says something like ‘If Robin is around I just want to say thank you for taking Imogen’ and something about that and then something about Mattie. I don’t know. Robin, what are we going to do with Mattie? Will they take him away do you think? Ruth is too ill to look after him; I think she has pneumonia or something. Courtney said she was going to die soon.”

“I don’t know. We’ll talk about it when I get there.”

I race along the roads in silence for a short while. Noel just seams to want to know I’m there and doesn’t speak but he doesn’t hang up.

 “Is Callie there?” I ask as I approach his street at sixty miles an hour. Considering he lives in a suburban area I was a bit over the limit.

“Yes Cal is here.”

“Okay. Hold on two seconds, I’m at the end of the street.” I can see a police car outside his house. I’ve seen this before, police outside Noel’s residence but it was most defiantly not because someone had died. I slow to a sudden stop and jump out of the car, lock it and race to the front door. I knock impatiently and wait for what feels like an eternity before a police officer opens the door and looks at me questioningly.

“Erm, hi, erm, Noel told me about Courtney, can I come in?” I say agitated.

“Are you of any relation to Courtney Evans?” he asked patiently.

“Erm…she’s my ex…erm, we have a child together…erm she mentioned me in the note?” I try to convince the guy that I need access to get to Noel.