Riverside

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"I'm so mad," Peggy said as she and Colette sat down at the cafeteria table Ronnie and I were already sitting at.

"Why?" I asked.

"Apparently, someone hired my mom to get that River Gillespie out of prison," she said, followed by a scoff. "He killed his family and someone wants him to be free?"

That was exactly why I didn't want anyone to know I visited River in prison yesterday. Peggy was just jumping to conclusions, thinking that what she heard about River was actually true. I knew I trusted people too easily, but I know for a fact that River was innocent.

I was glad that Peggy's mom didn't tell her that it was me who hired her. That would have caused a lot of drama and no doubt a lot of yelling from Peggy.

"Really?" Ronnie asked.

"Yeah," Peggy said. "Can you believe it? He murdered his family and someone wants him out of prison. He's a dangerous person."

"Well, if someone hired a lawyer, wouldn't that mean that there's a possibility that he didn't do it?" Ronnie asked. "Everyone is just jumping to conclusions."

"Yeah, the conclusions of what really happened," Peggy said. "He was found alive in his home while everyone else was dead. If that doesn't say murderer, I don't know what does."

"Exactly," Colette said. "Seriously, Ronnie. There's proof he did it."

"What proof?" Ronnie said. "Him being alive? That's not really proof." Peggy opened her mouth to say something, but Ronnie continued talking. "Look, I'm not immediately saying River is innocent. I'm just thinking of all the possibilities. You know I'm studying to be a lawyer and that's what they do; think of all the possibilities."

"Whatever," Peggy said before looking at me. "What about you, Arden?"

"Huh?"

"What do you think of all of this?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't there when it happened so I'm not going to immediately assume that he's guilty."

Peggy rolled her eyes and opened her can of Diet Coke. "You two are unbelievable. You'll be proven wrong when the court proves that he's guilty."

"Didn't you say it's your mom trying to prove his innocence?" Ronnie asked. "Don't you want your mom to win?"

"Of course I do, but not when it gets a murderer out of prison," Peggy said. She and Colette then went on and on, trying to convince Ronnie that River was guilty, but Ronnie refused to believe anything until the court decided.

I was glad at least one of my friends didn't assume everything she heard was true. It got really annoying when Peggy and Colette gossiped about every single thing they heard, assuming that it was true.

When lunch ended, Peggy and Colette got up from the table and left their garbage. Even though it was the janitor's job to clean up, I felt bad every time he had to clean up someone's lunch garbage when the trash bins were nearby, so I always ended up cleaning Peggy and Colette's mess, same with Ronnie.

"You've been awfully quiet for all of lunch," she said as we picked up the garbage.

I shrugged. "I just don't see how it concerns me."