The Green Girl ✓

Okay

Alice POV

“This is really good, Alice!” Jenna commented, taking another sip from the tea I’d made her. It was Tuesday morning and she’d come to take the rest of my statement. I didn’t have much to add as I barely remembered what had happened last night. According to young Officer Jones, I’d been suppressing the memory due to shock. In order to cheer me up, she’d brought me some of her favorite chocolate ice-cream, claiming that it helped her relax after a hard day’s work.

“Alice, yesterday you said “thanks to my delinquent friends”…” She started a bit hesitant. “Who did you mean?”

“Oh, that! There are these three boys that everyone says are trouble and that I should steer clear from them…”

“Caden Kavanagh, Keegan McNeil and Asher Rowan.”

“H-how did you know?”

“Honey, when you are in this town and you mention three boys and trouble in the same sentence, it’s always them. I don’t think they are that bad though. I think it’s just circumstances that make them act the way they do.”

“I know! They don’t want to hurt me. Actually, Caden thought me how to fight because he was worried about me. He wanted me to be able to protect myself, if something happens.”

“Caden Kavanagh … Arrested plenty of times on minor misdemeanors… Enough to earn him a certain reputation and a record but nothing that would send him straight to jail. He is suspected of several crimes, sadly we never had enough evidence to convict him. But ask yourself this, Alice: the boy is a teenager who until a week ago did not work; his older brother can’t keep a job; his mother is… away and his father is never around; so where does he get his money from?”

I did not respond. I didn’t want to think about that. I always knew he was mixed up in something illegal, but I didn’t want to think about it.

“You are not going to answer me? Is it because you don’t know or because you don’t want to know?”

I gulped. It was as if Jenna had read my mind. And she knew her assumption was spot on.

“You not acknowledging the problem won’t make it go away, Alice. And just because he doesn’t want to hurt you, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to end up hurt because of him.”

She placed the teacup down and pushed herself away from the counter. Without another word the young female cop exited our kitchen, leaving me in the company of my own grim thoughts.

*****

I was sitting alone on one of the chairs surrounding the wooden table, drinking my second cup of chamomile tea, when I heard the door open and close with a bang, followed by the sound of hasty footsteps. I startled and the first thought that ran through my mind was “he’s back”. I thought that the robber from last night had returned for me. A moment later I realized that my fear was ungrounded as a face I knew all too well ran into the kitchen.

“Alice, are you okay?”

“Cade, what are you doing here?” I wondered, knowing he should be at work now.

“ARE YOU OKAY?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine!”

“Fine?!” He bellowed at me. “How can you be fine after what happened last night?”

“Y-you know about that?”

I hadn’t called him, the other two boys or the twins. So how did he find out?

“Yes, I know… Carl Jones came by at Cillian’s and told us what happened. But why didn’t you? Why didn’t you call me?

So that was how he had found out? I was eventually going to tell him myself, but I wanted to make sure I had control over my emotions first. I knew he’d get agitated and me being distressed wouldn't have helped the situation.