To Our Pinky Promises

Chapter 12

I stared at Alex's face as he watched the policemen in the station walk back and forth from one desk to another, picking up ringing phones from their desk, typing away at their computers. Looking at Alex was my best bet. Since my brain wanted me to keep my eyes peeled for any juvenile that might jump me, but at the same time, I don't necessarily want to accidentally provoke any of the juveniles that was sitting in that cell with me, I simply chose to stare at my ex-best friend.

No matter how much Alex hates my guts or is annoyed by me, I know he'd never hurt me.

I can't say the same for the rest of the people in our holding cell, though.

I didn't try to strike another conversation with him, I just stared at him and practically bore a hole into the side of his face. It genuinely felt like I had a million of questions that I've been wanting to ask him in my head but I knew that it wasn't something Alex felt like talking about, both in this situation and out of this situation. So I just asked my questions without actually saying them out loud in my head.

I just let the questions brew in my head and try to figure out his answers as I kept my eyes glued to his face.

"Since when did you start getting panic attacks?"

"Is that why you're addicted to smoking now?"

"Did it start happening before, during, or after our friendship?"

"Have you been feeling alone this entire time?"

"Why did you never reach out?"

"Do you know that it's okay to reach out and ask for help?"

"Do you even remember that we were once close friends?"

"Do you know that you can ask me for help anytime you feel like you need it?"

"Do you know that you're not alone?"

I paused.

"Are you okay?"

The rusty hinges of the door to the holding cell made a loud creak as it opened and my head moved to look at who was being shoved inside our cell this time.

However, a cop stood in front of the door alone instead, the same one that questioned me before putting me in the cell. He locked eyes with me and waved me over.

My eyebrows flew to my hairline in surprise as my finger pointed to myself to confirm that he was actually gesturing to me.

The cop nodded and continued to wave me over.

I stood up from the floor slowly, stealing a glimpse at Alex who was watching me, before walking towards the exit of the cell.

The cop let me out before closing the door behind me and locking it again.

"You're clean, you're free to go." He told me, giving me my personal belongings.

"Just like that?" I asked him in shock, my hands felt numb as I took my things from him.

He raised a brow at me. "I thought you'd be happy that you're out of that cell considering you freaked out so much when we had to put you in."

I felt my face warm up at the mention of my breakdown earlier. I cleared my throat to speak more clearly. "I just thought it'll take longer to prove that I wasn't doing anything illegal."

"Yeah, someone up there must be looking out for you, kid. The test results came out pretty quickly and showed that you're clean and we managed to get CCTV recordings from inside the house too and it really helped a lot." The officer explained.