Under the Rainbow

Part 32

            “How may I help you?” A mousy looking man snarled.

            I forced myself not to smile at his reaction. The face of The Gay Forest was totally dyked out for her meeting with the lesbian daughter of the mayor. I got a lot of stares from complete strangers who thought they knew who I was by looking on the outside. “Yeah, I’d like to talk with Riley Clark.”

            His eyes narrowed, but he gestured for me to follow him anyways. “She’s back here.” His voice was cold, but seeing Riley leaning against the brick wall of her cell with her arms crossed and a bored expression on her face made me forget about that.

            I forced myself not to run over there and tell her we were getting her out of there. Instead I walked over, making sure to stay behind the guard and just say, “Hey Riley. You okay in there?” In the calmest voice I could manage.

            I saw her eyes light up when she saw me, but that look of excitement quickly became that bored expression again and she just pushed herself off the wall and came to the bars. “Yeah, it’s not too bad. A bed, three meals a day, TV. How’s The Forest?”

            I leaned against the bars and tried not to not to tell her that I was going to get her out of there in no time. “Pretty good. Same old same old actually. Helping someone out until they get an apartment for themselves. I don’t like her too much though, kinda mean.” I didn’t want to fail Danielle too, and the best way to help her was to say that I didn’t like her.

            “Sorry to hear that.” She shifted slightly and I felt her shoulder brush mine.

            “Not your fault. What about the people in here? Must be pretty crazy.”

            “It can be. A lot of people who could kill me in my sleep, thieves, all of those guys, but they stay away from me usually.” She shrugged and rolled her eyes a little.

            “They probably think you’re contagious.” I chuckled a bit.

            The guard shifted his weight and tapped his foot impatiently. “Hurry up.” He growled.

            “I better go. Have fun in here; see you when you get out. I might come back later, but the Forest is pretty busy for a while. Last hockey game of the season, you know how we are about our hockey.” I shook my head with a smile as I turned and started walking back down the hall, the guard’s shoes clicking behind me.

            I could barely open the door to the apartment before Danielle asked, “How’d it go?”

            “You never did like waiting did you?”

            “Now you’re stalling. What happened?”

            “Not much, she’s still in there, but she’s ok. She said the others usually leave her alone, so it’s ok.” I was wringing my hands now, trying not to think about how bad it really was for her.

            “But?” Danielle prompted, knowing that I was holding something back.

            “I just…I want to get her out of there, but I know I can’t. I think she’s acting better than she is.” I muttered quietly.

            “What are you gonna do when she gets out?” Danielle asked as she wrapped an arm around me comfortingly.

            “I don’t know. I mean, I think I still love her, but I don’t know if I want to throw myself into that with her again. You know? I think I’ll have to wait for her to get out to decide what I’ll do. Maybe I just need to sleep on it or something.” I sighed heavily and pulled away from Danielle and walked over to the bed and put my head in my hands.

            My phone vibrating is what pulled me away from my thoughts. I pulled it pushed my hand into my pocket and searched for it for a few moments before pressing the Talk button and holding it up to my ear.

            “Hello?”

            “Ms. Weaver?” The voice was emotionless sounded cold and calculating. Who the hell was this?

            “Yeah, who’s this?”

            “I’m Dr. Lark, do you know a Marie Martin?”

            “Yeah, she’s a good friend. I’ve known her since I was a girl, she used to be my teacher. Why do you ask?” I felt a small stab of fear in my chest, but pushed it away. What could’ve happened? She probably just twisted her ankle or something and needed a ride a home.

            “She asked me to call you for her. She’s been diagnosed with breast cancer.”