“She didn’t assault you, Bernie,” someone in the crowd yelled. “She was trying to get away from you!”
“Yeah!” a woman carrying a baby on her hip agreed.
I could feel the crowd shifting, and I knew enough about protesting to know this was never good. The minute you lost your grip on the group, it was all over.
“You arrest her,” Dad said, “and you arrest me.”
“Dad, no!” I cried. “Don’t do this.”
He drew himself up and looked Chase in the eye. “A cop is a cop, honey. Better you learn it now than later.”
The tears finally fell. I didn’t want my dad to be right. I wanted love to be right. I wanted to believe that the world didn’t always have to be black and white…that there could be a little gray and the world would still keep spinning.
But then I looked at Chase and knew that wouldn’t happen. He wasn’t a gray kind of guy. And if I were being honest with myself…it’s what made me love him so much. Right or wrong, he stood stalwart in his beliefs because that’s who he was.
“Yeah,” Mimi said behind me, “you arrest her, you arrest me!”
“Stop,” I whispered. “You guys don’t have to do this.”
“Don’t make this any worse than it has to be, Mimi,” Chase said.
Mimi gave Chase and me a wide grin, drew back her arm, and threw her ice cream against the side of Bernie’s fancy Beemer. There was a full five seconds of silence before all heck broke loose!
Bernie started screaming, a couple people in the crowd started snapping pictures on their phone, and Chase just shook his head in defeat.
Dad immediately followed suit and let his ice cream cone thump against the side of Bernie’s Beemer.
“Me next! Me next!”
Jumping up and down in excitement, Mom let her milkshake fly through the air too. Only instead of hitting Bernie’s car, it hit his shoulder, causing the chocolate goodness to splash against the side of his head and down onto his car. Once again silence filled the air. It was like everyone held their breath to see what would happen next.
Hysterical laughter spurted from my mouth. I’m not sure who was more surprised…Bernie, me, Chase, the crowd. But I couldn’t help it. I threw back my head and laughed until my stomach hurt.
“Alexandra Michelle Martin,” Chase said softly, “you’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…”
It was almost surreal listening to Chase read me my rights, feeling the cuffs go on, watching as the other cop called for backup and started to arrest Mom. I was sitting in the back of Chase’s patrol car when another cop car rolled up onto the scene. By now the crowd had nearly doubled in size.
The car door opened and Officer Wen carefully pushed Mimi down next to me. He gave me a wink before shutting the door on us.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Mimi asked. “I haven’t been arrested in years! Wait until the girls find out. They’re gonna be so jealous!”
I couldn’t help but smile at her glee. Even though I knew what this meant for me and Chase, I was glad to see at least one person was having fun.
“This isreallygoing to generate more attention for our cause this weekend too,” Mimi went on. “People are going to beg to come out to the protest.”
“At least they put Mom and Dad together in a car,” I said.
“Oh yeah,” Mimi said. “These guys know the score. They’re just doing their job.”
“Just doing their job,” I echoed.
“Hey, look at me.”
I cocked my head to the left. “Yeah.”
“You listen to me right now. This isn’t a big deal. This is just Chase doing his job. You understand that, right?”
“Yeah, I understand.” I cleared my throat, hoping to dislodge the lump that seemed to have set up camp. “I understand that Chase and I are two very different people. I don’t blame him, Mimi. I honestly don’t. But I also know if I date him, I’ll make him miserable. Eventually he’ll come to resent me. Maybe not immediately, but on down the line. I can’t change who I am, and he can’t change who he is. And we shouldn’t have to.”
