Officer Scott

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

That night I had a dream that they were my family.

I woke up crying, and my eyes were burning like my tears were hot sauce. I wiped them away.

The days where I didn't have work passed pretty slowly. I wasn't sure what to do with myself, so I spent a lot of time baking. I also started saying grace at my meals, even if I was all alone for all of them. I didn't remember exactly how to do it, so I would just say "thank you for this food, amen" before eating.

I was coming back from picking up a shoe rack, so that I could start the habit of taking of my shoes when I enter my apartment, when I decided to treat myself to a chai latte from the corner coffee shop by work. When I was going into the shop, I overheard a heated argument going on around the corner between two men.

I couldn't hear what they were shouting about, but I did peek down the alley to see three men arguing intensely. Luckily, they were much further away from me and practically on the other side of the block. I quickly ducked into the coffee shop and waited patiently on line until my order was ready. When I left the coffee shop, the argument had exploded into a full-on shouting fest with more guys from before.

I rushed by the alley quickly to stay out of it, but I overheard something that made me pause.

"Alright, alright Scott, we get it!" Some man shouted. I stood at the other end of the alley and turned to look down to see if I had heard the name right.

"You obviously don't!" A familiar voice snarled, "Because you're selling on my beat- do you have any idea how that implicates me?!" I could make out his figure, mostly because of his crazy hair.

"We make sure you're not tied at all-"

"Shut up! You know how bad this looks for us- all this shit being sold under my watch." Caleb paced in front of the small group around him.

"Fuck me, look." All of a sudden, one guy turned and looked right at me. I dropped my tea and then the rest of them looked up.

I backed up and quickly turned on my heel to run out of there. But he called out to me.

"Stop." He said from down the alley in a commanding voice. I obeyed his command and froze. "Come here." He said. I turned back towards the group of men to find Caleb about halfway down the alley, much closer to me than he had been before.

Then recognition crossed over his face. He muttered a curse under his breath.

"Hey I'll take care of this, go home." He said, turning to the group behind him who all quickly dispersed at his command. He turned back to me.

"Jesus Christ, Red." He shook his head and came towards me.

"I-I didn't see anything or hear anything." I told him quickly, lying to get out of whatever I had just seen. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Why don't I buy you another of whatever that was," he nodded towards my spilled tea, "and we sit and chat for a moment." He suggested.

"Umm, actually I'm really busy right now, so I have to go. But it was nice seeing you." I tried to offer him a smile, but of course it didn't feel natural or even believable.

"Red, c'mon." He reached me as I tried to leave and grabbed my arm. I flinched and waited for the blow that usually followed being grabbed like that. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away from him so at least I wouldn't break my nose.

It never came.

I peeked my eyes open to see Caleb staring at me with a confused and concerned expression.