Trying To Endure

Chapter Twenty-Three

SONG: Alessia Cara - Here (Lucian Remix)

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April Levesque

Theo halts his car in the Sixth Form parking lot. The grey vaulted roofs of the red-brick building could mistakenly be considered the sky had it not been awfully bright.

I break the woeful hush. "I'm sorry if I startled you, or if I was dramatic."

"Dramatic?"

"I practically ran out of the car in the middle of the road."

The engine rumbles asleep in sync with a Latino song. "I would have done the same."

"Jumping out of the car in the middle of the road?"

He smiles. "Yeah. I would do just that. Are you okay?"

My own falters. "Yeah."

I can't believe I witnessed the hand of a dead body, of someone I knew.

"Do you ... trust the police?"

"No," he instantly replies. I would have laughed under different circumstances. "You?"

"No."

"Pretty fucked up, isn't it?"

"It's not really our fault."

"No," he agrees. "It isn't. I mean, I know a few are good, but that's the problem. I've been stopped and searched more times than I kissed someone."

"So did my Mum."

Do not get me wrong. My first instinct was to go to the police. I did and saw the exact police officers who were at Camila's house at the station. Odd, isn't it? Odd enough to make me hesitate, to not trust. Mohammed's statement and my Asian side's experience made me realise why authorities are frowned upon.

Theo slants back in the seat, his hands on the wheel. "Your Dad is a captain in the Army, right?"

"Yes."

"Did he ever use his title—"

"No," I instantly reply. "No. He never. My Dad actually worked in the police force first. He realised the police, no matter where you're located, tend to use typifications in their investigations."

"Stereotypes," says Theo.

I nod. "That was when he properly understood why there is a distaste for the law."

"Yeah," says Theo distantly. "I mean, I know that the main point of the law, the police, is to protect people. But how can we believe that when—"

"They're hypocrites," I finish. "When they have done more harm than good."

His grip on the wheel tightened. Just two possible victimised victims bonding. "Did you know Bodie?"

"No." Not as much as I'd like to admit. "Did you?"

"No."

"Do you think he ...?"

"I don't know. I do know that if he was ..."

"His race," I say sadly.

Theo endeavours a misfortunate smile. "It is what it is, I guess."

Stepping out of the car, Jackson's blue Maserati flares its lights and dims, the lock clacking. I pout, remembering the Matthews won't be here. How long? A week? God, I hope not. How am I going to survive Psychology?

Ines swings an arm around my shoulder, her ear piercings glimmering. "Girl, you didn't tell me that Roy was arrested."

I grin. "Sorry, I forgot to. He's in prison now. Whatever Tanner and Derek did ... It worked."