"Ms. Fode. Uh can I speak to you?" The deep voice that spoke belonged to Officer Menna.
"Why? Is there a problem?" I question nervously.
"It's about the case. Can I come in?" He asks taking a step closer to me.
"No!" I rush. "I mean we can stay out here and talk." I finish closing the door behind me.
He gave me a confused look. "Okay, well the case, as I said before, has been classified as a hit and run. We can't seem to find who they are though. No one has seen that kind of car anywhere near here. That has led us to believe that it was someone from out of town and maybe even out of state."
"Why don't you just run a scan on their license plate?" I asked shaking my head.
"There was none. We think that maybe the person had removed them before running." He explained. "There were small spots of blood on the ground and trees so we're going to run tests on it but there's no guarantee we'll get a match."
"I know. Anything else?" I ask.
"I have a couple questions for you." He states.
"Okay, question away." I wave my shaky hand around.
"It would be better if we could go inside." He says slowly.
He can't go inside! What am I going to do? "We can't," I mumble.
"Why? What's going on?" he asks narrowing his eyes at me. He's getting suspicious.
"Nothing," I say breathing heavily. I'll just take him down to my room and make sure we're quiet so Jay can't hear us. He's not going to leave and he's getting extremely suspicious, I have no choice.
"I can't help if you don't tell me."
He eyes me.
"Follow me," I state. I walk around the house with him in tow and when I reach the doors to my room I open them and let him in.
"Why couldn't we go in the front?" He questioned as I pointed to the couch for him to set. He examines my room before sitting on the couch. I realized that I had left the blanket bunched up at the end of the couch on top of a pillow. He notices too, "Do you sleep down here?" He asked.
What should I say? "Uh, yeah," I nod.
"It's a little cold." He states his gaze remains on me.
"I can turn on the heater." I say, glancing at him.
"It's okay, let's get to the questions." He repositioned himself on the couch to face me as I sat in the chair. "Were you hurt in the accident?"
"Um, not really."
"You got a glass shard stuck in your leg correct?"
"Yes," I scratch the back of my neck.
"Your mom and the child she was carrying passed because of the accident." He clarified, but that was a statement not a question, I nodded. There was a loud bang up stairs causing me to jump and Officer Menna to put his hand on his holster. He walked over to me and put his hand on my back. "We should get out of here."
"Yeah," I said simply, darting for the door. The sooner we're out of here the better. The there was the sound of glass shattering and a groan.
"How do you get upstairs from here?" He asks a little louder than I would've liked. I looked at him pleadingly. He sighed and walked over to the door.
We walked up the hill and down the road. The entire walk was quiet and I kept my head down. Every once in a while Officer Menna would look back at where we had just passed. Once we got into town, we went up to the small diner. He ordered a coffee and I just got a water. "You knew someone was upstairs." he said to me, after smiling gratefully at the old woman who gave him his drink.
"Yeah, I did." I answered honestly.
"Is that why you wouldn't let me in the house?" He interrogated looking up to me but I refused to meet his eyes. After a moment of silence he realized I wasn't going to answer and that was the answer on it's own. "Who was it?"
I can't tell him, It won't end well. "I don't know."
"Reese," he said softly reaching out and putting one of his hands on mine. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on."
"I don't need your help." I snapped immediately. He looked a little startled but then squeezed my hand with a look of pity. Ugh, I hate pity.
"Give me your phone." He demanded, holding his hand out. I looked from his hand to his eyes and back again. "Trust me." I placed my phone in his hand cautiously. He typed something before handing it back to me. I gave him a confused look. "I put my number in your phone. If you ever need anything or you just want to talk, call me." He said sincerely.
I nodded to him. I'm not going to call him, I won't need to. I can take care of myself. We sat in the booth for about an hour just talking. He's actually pretty laid back. I've gotten to know more about him and I don't mind him but I wouldn't say I trusted him.
"Uh, Sir?" An older woman approached us.
"Yes?" He replied.
"We're closing now," She informed us while pointing to the clock on the wall.
"Sorry I lost track of time. We'll leave." He said standing up and paying for the drinks after leaving a tip.
I can't just let him pay for my water.
"I'll-" I started as we walked into the darkness.
"You're not paying me back." He interrupted, already knowing what was coming. I just stayed quiet and nodded. "I don't want you going home tonight," he blurted randomly.
"I don't have anyplace else to go." I admitted, looking down to my feet.
"You can stay with me." He suggested awkwardly.
"Actually I could stay at my friend Adrienne's," I said. Adrienne's not an option but I know I can't stay with him. I just met him!
"Okay as long as you have someplace to go. I'll drive you there." He agreed as we walked back to my place, where he left his car.
He was very cautious when we arrived at my house and was quick to get me out of there. I showed him Adrienne's house and he let me go. "Thank you for helping me." I said sincerely, scratching the back of my head.
"Anytime," he smiled sweetly showing a small dimple on his right cheek. As I began to walk away he called out my name causing me to turn around. "I've been dancing around this question all night. I don't really know how to ask it and I don't want to make you uncomfortable." He rambled and I stood there waiting for him to actually ask the question. "Are you being abused?"
It's not really abuse, I deserve it. It's my fault that he hits me and many other people have it way worse so I can't complain. I begin to get nervous. How do I respond? I can't tell him that my step dad hits me. I'm pretty sure that even though I don't consider it abuse, a judge will. It could only go down. "N-No," I said stutter."I'm not abused. Why would you think that?" I'm not playing this very cool.
"You have bruises on your arms that look like they could be fingerprints." He noted, staring at my arms. I look down and he was right. You could see the bruises. I thought I had worn a shirt with sleeves long enough to cover them. Obviously not.
I move the sleeve down to cover them and look back up to see his incredibly intense eyes burning into me. "They happened awhile ago. I fell and someone tried to catch me but they grabbed me too hard and it left marks." Nice excuse Reese. Note sarcasm.
He nodded obviously not believing a word I say. "If anyone ever hurts you, call me. Please." The last word was obviously a plead. He really wants to help me, but he can't.
"I will," I lie.
He smiles weakly and drives off. I have a long walk home. So I begin to stroll down the road back to my house. It's chili so I cross my arms. My eye lids become heavy and I'm falling asleep standing up.
When I make it home Jay is definitely not sleeping. Banging and loud smacks echo throughout the house. He comes into view and I stay still, completely frozen in fear. He looks more mad than ever. His eyes lock with mine and I swear I could see fire. He walks hastily up to me and in a stern voice asks, "Where have you been?"
"I-I was with a friend." I stuttered nervously.
"Yeah right, don't lie to me. You know what happens when you do." He sneers, stepping closer.
"I was," I try. Well we're just going to pretend that Officer Menna is my 'friend' for the moment.
Even after already looking enraged he still managed to get even more angry. "That's it." he spat, advancing. He swung his fist at my right rib cage. I didn't hear a crack so that's good. I was having trouble breathing though. He then slammed me up against the door, that was now closed, and did it again. Then he hit my right hip with some small, sharp object. "Go!" He screamed.
And with that I ran to the basement. Closing the door I leaned up against it. I felt a warm liquid running down my hand from where I was holding my hip. I look down to see a cut. It's not too deep so I should be fine. I stumble to the bathroom and clean up the wound, bandaging it.
Tomorrow morning Grandma is coming so I should be safe. I plop down on the couch, and tiredness gets the best of me as I drift off to sleep.
************************
I open my eyes and I have a bit of a headache but I brush it off, walking up stairs. I can hear voices and I step into the kitchen to see Jay and his mom sitting at the counter talking.
My grandma is a heavy woman with gray hair and a faded tattoo of a flower on her ankle. Noticing my arrival, my grandma speaks. "Oh, good morning sweetie."
"Thanks," I reply hugging her.
Looks like Jay cleaned up because everything is a lot more clean than before. "I want to go to the mall today." She announced.
"I'll take yo-" Jay began but grandma interrupts.
"I want Reese to take me." She said, making Jay glare at me. I'm going to hear about this when she leaves. "Let's go." She said expectantly.
"Wait now?" I asked.
"Yes n-" she stopped staring at my shirt. I became confused so I looked down to see the bottom right of my shirt was red from blood. I forgot to change last night. "Honey, what happened?" She asked standing up and hobbling over to me. When she tried to lift my shirt to see the damage I quickly backed up.
"I'll just go change first." I said running to the basement to change. Once I had returned, we left for the mall. "Where do you want to go first?" I asked.
"Let's go to the Starbucks, oh then McDonalds!" She exclaimed. I laughed, at not only her excitement but her wording as well.
This woman never stopped eating! I'm not kidding, she's worse then me! "Okay Grandma, no problem."
We went to all the places she wanted to go to and then some and it was already about eight at night. "Do you want to go to Applebee's?" She questioned.
I chuckled, "Grandma we ate less than two hours ago."
"I'm hungry again." she said simply. I turn to the restaurant and we eat even more. I was completely stuffed.
We were walking around the mall when she suggested we go into Spencer's. After a while she convinces me to go in with her. We left that store and we went to American Eagle. She said she wanted to buy me something for my birthday seeing as she wouldn't be here for it.
Upon walking out I see a group of girls that begin laughing at me and pointing. I already know they're from my school and my being at the mall with my grandma would only add to the insults that were to come. This should be intresting. They approached us and a tall brunette speaks up first. "Reese right?"
I said nothing but the brunette's red headed friend did. "Yeah, that's the girl that stood up to Holly in the locker room." They both looked at me in disgust. "Here with your grandma?" She snickered.
"Well if you're here with your grandma, where's your mommy?" The brunette mocked. Well that hurt.
I don't like to think about my mom a whole lot. "Well if you must know she's a little busy at the moment." I say to them and my grandma looks at me in shock. She knows about my mom but these girls don't. Actually, very few people do.
The girls fake laughed at me. Then again everything about them is fake. The brunette flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Doing what? Is she a whore like you? Let me guess, prostitution."
"Oh come on, I could puke out a better insult than that." I don't want to tell them about my moms death, and I know they were talking about Graham but I chose to ignore it.
My grandma just looked baffled. I don't know if it was because of how the girls were treating me or because of what I was saying but after being silent all this time she finally spoke up. "No, she's underground." I feel hollow now.
"Like, mining?" The red head asked dumbly.
"No, like dead." She said harshly. Well, so much for not telling them.
"Oh, I'm sorry." The red head tried but the brunette just rolled her eyes.
"No you're not. You couldn't care less.
You don't care about anything other than yourselves." She said walking off but turned back. "One more thing, don't ever talk to my granddaughter like that again." She warned.
The red head nodded with wide eyes. "See you at school freak." She brunette smirked.
"Wipe that smirk off your face before I rip it off." My grandma snapped at her. Both their eyes widened even more as we walked away.
My grandma huffed as we walked to the car. Once we were in she turned to me. "I'm sorry about th-" I started but she cut me off.
"How long has this been going on?" She said with anger in her eyes.
"What?" I asked even though I already knew.
"I know there are more people that pick on you." She said sternly.
"It's been going on a while," I admitted sheepishly.
"Why didn't they know about your mom?" She questioned, eyes still
strong even though her voice was wavering.
"I only told a few friends," I said.
Her eyes filled with pity and she slouched in her seat. "I'm sorry, I had no idea."
"It's okay it's not your fault." I murmured softly. She leaned over the seat and hugged me tight. We then took off and headed back home. The ride was loud and normal. I didn't want to go home but she was there so it should be better. Once we arrive, I go to take a shower and then we end up watching a movie.
Grandma's also a thriller lover. My step dad however, is not. So while both Grandma and I watch intensely, Jay is snoring louder than a car alarm. "Jay!" She screams.
"What!" He growls setting up.
"If you're going to be so loud, go to your room!" Grandma demanded. I couldn't help but snicker.
"Mom, I'm forty five you can't send me to my room." He said groggily.
"Wanna bet?" She tested. He groaned and stomped off to his bedroom. Oh how much I love my grandma.
----------------------------------
A/N:
Hey it been a little while haha... Sorry I haven't updated. Well this is the new chapter, obviously. Bye.
-Fergie