She glanced at her computer then up at me with a quick smile. She balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear as she held a finger up at me. After several seconds of silence, she addressed the person on the other end telling them I was there to see them. She hung up and motioned for me to proceed to the room to my right.
There were books and stacks upon stacks of paper covering every inch of the space. I was surprised that anyone could work in the mess. I cleared my throat, catching Spinner’s attention and he lifted his gaze from the file he was reading. He smiled kindly at me and the pit of nervousness in my stomach tightened painfully.This guy is working for Carlos? He looks…nice.
“Let me just grab your file. Miss Bell, correct?”
I made sure the door shut behind me before stepping towards his desk. I swung my backpack around my front and pulled out the envelope, placing it on top of the pile of paperwork he had just been reading. The man’s wrinkled face scrunched with confusion, and he quickly opened the envelope.
I watched him pull out a piece of paper, his eyes scanning whatever was written on it. He gulped, his eyes widening ashe checked that the door was closed. Spinner spent several moments sizing me up before eyeing the paper once again.
“I’ll…” he paused to clear his throat and remove his glasses, using a handkerchief to swipe his forehead. “I’ll have it done by the end of the week.”
Was that it?
Spinner gestured for me to leave. I nodded and nearly tripped over a stack of books on the ground as I rushed out of the room. I didn’t hear what the secretary said as I sped walked out of there, my pulse whooshing in my ears. I was sweating, my heart pounding, as I ran across the parking lot and desperately ripped open the passenger door.
“Drive!” I shouted breathlessly as Adrian stared at me in surprise.
He pulled away from the curb and looked over at me while I tried to calm myself down. I kept looking behind us, certain that the police would suddenly be following.
“What happened?” Adrian asked me. “Did you do it?”
“Yeah, yeah. He said he’d do whatever the note said by the end of the week,” I nodded, looking behind us again before settling into the seat and putting on my seatbelt.
“Then why are you freaking out?”
He eyed me with suspicion, and I let out a deep breath.
“Because unlike you, I’m new to this whole criminal lifestyle, dickweasel.”
He quirked a brow. “But no one asked any questions? You just gave him the envelope and walked out?”
“Yes,” I drew out with irritation. “I did exactly what Carlos said to do. It just…was too easy. It felt weird. I thought committing a felony would be harder to do.”
Adrian drummed his hands against the steering wheel and tried to give me what I guessed was a reassuring smile.
“Should I drop you at home?”
I nodded, my heart still racing. I just hoped the judge followed through with whatever was on that paper because I really didn’t need anything else to go wrong.
???
October 9, Saturday
Shiloh
On a scale of one to ten, my threshold for shitty life events was a three—the lowest it had ever been. And goddamn did I really, really want a break from all the shit. I hadn’t heard anything from Carlos or Adrian since I dropped that letter at the courthouse two days ago, and my nerves were shot waiting for them to come and find me again. How many days would they continue to ignore my existence?
And to make matters worse, I still didn’t have my results from the STI tests. I was hoping I’d have them yesterday, but now I’d likely have to wait all weekend before I heard anything.
I knew my life wasn’t ‘normal’, I knew that most of my classmates hadn’t seen or heard a fraction of the things I had growing up. Despite all of that, despite the inability for them to relate to my life, I found myself enjoying my time with Nox and Jae.
I was beginning to question whether shutting out everyone until this point had even been worth it. So far, the only con about getting to know Nox and Jae was that they were like shadows. Icouldn’t get a minute alone and I realized just how much of my life I had spent in solitude.
There was this hum that spread across my chest and arms like the cells in my body were coming to life whenever I’d see them waiting for me outside of class or when they walked through the lunch line with me even though they weren’t getting food. I’d never felt anything like it, and I didn’t know what to name the feeling.
I felt it at lunch yesterday when Jae pestered me about coming to his house to watch some TV show. He said I was fresh blood, and I needed to be introduced properly to what ‘good’ television was.
Which was why I thought it would be the perfect chance to get a moment to breathe without worrying about something shitty happening. If I could just have one normal night as a teenager, maybe I could forget how fucked up my life was. And my threshold for bullshit would return to its usual seven.
