Elle's POV
-
"Good morning, Elle," the man walked through the doors around 6 am. "Did you sleep at all?"
I tapped my foot against the hard concrete floor, "no sir."
He nodded his head and walked down the hall to his office. A couple minutes later he came back, "breakfast?"
"No thanks."
"We can call your mom again?"
"le mie mamme non vengono," I spat.
He went quiet for a moment then sat at a chair across from me, "my name is Steve Clark," he began. My mind immediately went to my now ex-best friend Steve. "I'm this jails warden."
I snickered, "what the hell is a warden?"
"I'm in charge of the jail. If our town were any smaller you'd call me a sheriff." He laced his hands together, "I have two kids around your age and a wife, a dog," he tried making eye contact with me but I avoided it. "Tell me about yourself, Elle. You have a brother, a mom."
"My dad went to jail for domestic and child abuse against my mom, me and my brother. For other things too but that's what he was arrested for. Peter dedicated his life to protecting me." I paused and contemplated telling him what Peter did to L.S.
"What is it?"
I looked up at him, "I won't get in trouble for not reporting something sooner, will I?"
"Come with me," he stood up and brought me into the same room I was in with the cop yesterday. "What happened?"
"A couple weeks ago I was looking for Peter. This was before he was the leader of the Coyotes. The leader of the Coyotes was a man named L.S. I walked into the Coyote house and L.S. got mad. He started hitting me. The Coyotes were watching but they couldn't do anything about it because they would have gotten the same beating. Peter came around the corner and saw what was happening and made L.S. stop, then sent me home." I paused and put my hands over my face in fear of crying like I did when I found out.
"What happened, Elle?"
"Later I found out that Peter went back and killed him. I don't know where he did it or where he dumped the body but he told me he did it alone. I'm the only other person who knows. The gang thinks that he drove L.S. out of town because it wouldn't have been the first time that someone fled because they're scared of Peter," I lied to save everyone's asses. "It's been so hard to keep this secret and I've been scared of Peter ever since he did it but he said he did it to protect me."
Steve Clark remained quiet like he didn't know what to say. I wiped my eyes and looked up at him and ran my hands through my hair, "please say I'm not in trouble."
"No. Uh," he grabbed a notepad from his blazer pocket, "what was his name?"
"Luther Sebastian. People knew him by the name L.S." His face fell blank again and he only got through writing about half of Luther. "What's wrong?"
"Luther Sebastian was my best friend all through high school, we lost touch when I went to college and he didn't," he coughed. "I'm sorry he hurt you and everything."
"I wish none of this ever happened," I closed my eyes and sunk down in my chair. "I'm sorry about your friend, man."
"If you could just tell the story again, maybe slower so I could write it down... That'd be great." He got ready so I sighed and got my story ready again.
-
After I was done with the sheriff guy, he finally let me go. I stood at the exit and took a deep breath, decided to head to the DX to see Sodapop and went on my way.
As I approached I saw Steve and Sodapop goofing off at the entrance with a broomstick and a mop, sword fighting or jousting or something. I laughed and walked towards them.
"My boys!" I cheered, "my votes on Steve!"
They looked in my direction and both looked excited, "we thought you got arrested for real!" Soda opened his arms for a hug but I didn't feel up for it.
"Good to see you, Elle," Steve smiled and put his broomstick down.
I stuffed my hands in my pockets, "I was just released from the police department."
"I'm racing tonight if you wanna come watch," Steve quickly changed the subject, "hun, I wanna drop all the legalities. All the cryin' and fighting and I kind of want my Elle back."
"Oh Stevie," I grinned, "of course I'll watch your race. I'll bring my whole gang to cheer you on if I gotta," I nudged his shoulder.
"I missed you, babe," he propped the broom against the wall and leaned against the icebox with his arms crossed, "Soda here did too but everyone knows that already. I mean I missed you overall. It ain't some apology 'cause I ain't sorry for nothin' but I missed you."
I smiled a little more and couldn't help but lean myself into him. He put his arms around me and hugged me for the first time since he found out about me and Sodapop. This could have something to do with the fact that me and Soda are now broken up too.
Soda huffed and went inside. I looked up from Steve, then looked at Steve, "what's his problem?"
"Well," Steve began, "you cheated on him so he had no choice but to dump you. He didn't want to so he kissed you at that fight, and now he's all hung up on you. Plus you ignored his hug but hugged me instead."
"Do you mind?" I stepped away from Steve.
"Go for it."
I walked inside and Soda was adjusting bags of chips on a shelf that didn't really need to be adjusted. I leaned against the counter, "I miss you too you know."
"Elle, I'm fine," he walked down the aisle touching random snacks that had nothing wrong with them, "let me work."
"Are you the one that convinced Steve to start talking to me? Cause if you-"
"It wasn't me," he interrupted. "As much as I tried he wouldn't listen to me. But this is great, huh? Steve n Elle back to talkin' again."
"What about us, babe," I walked towards him, "I want to get back together."
He chuckled, "no. You have problems, Elle. And I'm not saying that to make you mad or because I want to hurt you or anything, but you do. I love you more than I've ever loved a girl but I can't be with you until you get yourself straightened out."
"So why'd you kiss me then," I stopped at the end of the aisle.
He looked at me, "we dated for a year. I kissed you every day for a year and now we're no more. Hell, I love you, Elle. But when you're all the way off with Dal, or with some Coyote, some ManPatt or some other greaser I don't want to be with you."
"I'm not doing any of that anymore, Sodapop. I'm too focused on the east side politics to be fucking around so much anymore," I sighed and turned around. "I don't care about any other boy."
"Go be a leader, Elle," he walked towards me, "I'll see you at Steve's race." He pat my shoulder and moved around me.
-
Me and five of my Coyotes approached the backroad Steve was about to race behind. He was racing someone from the Shepard's gang. I don't really know many of them besides Tim Shepard. I know he has siblings in his gang but I don't know who they are or their names.
"Little one, how many you know here?" Camilo Smalls, one of my Coyotes asked me.
I glanced around but before I could talk, Wiley asked a question, "your ex-boyfriend, he gonna be here?"
I saw Soda standing with the rest of them, "yeah. Soda's here. I know the racer, the gang the racer is in," I shrugged and glanced over my shoulder, "be nice."
We approached the White Blades. Steve slid off the hood of the car and approached me, "our little Coyote."
"Good luck, Stevie," I sat on the hood of his car and he leaned up against it, "these are some of my boys. Wiley, Camilo, Jenson, Miles, and Axe." I pointed them out.
Soda walked towards me and I hugged him to make up for earlier. He leaned against the car in front of my legs and glanced at the Coyotes. Soda turned to me and muttered, "they ain't giving you issues, huh?"
I chuckled and brushed Soda's bangs to the side, "no problems."
"You ain't dating her anymore, bozo," Dal walked by and shoved Soda to the side. I knew Dal was messing around but Soda got mad.
"Just because Peter went to jail doesn't mean you can go back to tormenting her," Sodapop tried moving towards Dallas but I hopped off the hood of the car and nudged Sodapop in the other direction.
"Please," I looked at him and sighed, "no fights. Not with Dallas especially."
"He needs to mind-"
I brought my hand to his chin and turned his face so he was looking at me and not over my shoulder, "he's a jerk. He's trying to make you mad, babe." I glanced over my shoulder, "just go back over and talk to Steve or your brothers or something." Sodapop nodded his head and listened to me. He talked to Steve until the race started.