After several long moments of Kole’s sullen silence as he contemplated the truth of Sky’s warning, Sky heard the second bell and sighed. “I guess I’m missing first, cause I gotta ask; what about Curt’s arm?”

But before Kole could offer any explanation, they heard the chirp of the police siren as a squad car pulled up next to them. As the officers exited the car, both boys tensed more than a bit. Then one of the two policemen roughly tapped on Kole’s window, “Kole Wagner? You mind getting out of the car for us?”

“If I said yes, you think they’d leave?” Kole mumbled. Though he did take a deep breath and exited the car, leaving Sky looking more than a bit panicked then himself.

They then turned him against the car and patted him down as they spoke, “there’s been some charges filed against you. So, will you come answer questions willingly or do we actually have to arrest you?” they said as they scowled at all his chains and jewelry and zippers but found nothing that was actually illegal on his person.

“What charges?” Kole scoffed.

“Assault” they answered plainly.

“Me?” Kole scoffed again, “I don’t remember touching anyone in a less than pleasant way in the last few days.”

The officer then scowled pointedly at where Sky still watched worriedly from the passenger seat, “assuming sodomy’s not illegal anymore?” the one officer then scoffed at the other before turning back to Kole. “So, you gonna make us arrest you, or just come along quietly?”

“Whatever” Kole mumbled as he let them escort him to a seat in the back of the squad car with another heavy sigh.

When Kole found himself in the interrogation room not much later, they informed him that they had gotten verbal permission from his parents to interrogate him without their presence. Kole then just sarcastically asked, “did they thank you, too?”

The thankfully female officer then just shook her head as she took a seat across the table from Kole, “aren’t you a distinctive looking young man?”

Kole just shook his head, “I already got three people enjoying my distinctiveness, so, sorry; you may have to wait your turn.”

She just shook her head, “you’re not helping yourself.”

“Didn’t realize that was an option” Kole mumbled.

She sighed heavily, “they haven’t officially arrested you yet, but I assume you know why you’re here?”

“That’s a pretty deep question for eight am” Kole scoffed.

She just shook her head, “another young man has filed assault charges against you after an altercation with him at the mall last night.”

Kole scoffed again, “well, the way I remember it, that so-called young man” he began bitterly, “he assaulted me and my female friend both last night. But we didn’t return the favor. So maybe you should go question him instead.”

“Would you like to counter-file?”

“Like it would matter” Kole scoffed again.

“Well, then at least tell us your side of the story” she returned.

“See last comment” Kole scoffed.

“Kole, you are really not helping yourself” she told him again. “You know, if what Mr. Spencer says is true, you very well may have ruined his entire future.”

“Well he ruined mine first” Kole mumbled. He then added, “go watch the frigging surveillance video. Then come ask me whatever the fuck you want” he retorted.

She took pause a moment at his earlier statement before responding, “we plan to” she assured him.

“Well I obviously have nowhere to go. I’ll wait” Kole told her smartly.

She then sighed heavily as she got up from the table and left the room and Kole behind to do just that, and wait. The officer, who was actually a detective named Amy Calvert, then moved back to her office where Curt and his lawyer and his mother were waiting.

“Mr. Wagner would like us to watch the mall’s surveillance footage before answering any questions.”

Then Curt’s mother scoffed, “who cares what he wants? He ruined my son’s life. I think that’s where his rights end” she complained as she gestured to the cast Curt now had on his throwing arm.

“Unfortunately that’s not exactly true. Since we haven’t officially arrested him yet, his rights are still very much his own. He came willingly after all. And we do need to watch this footage before we can move forward much further anyway” Calvert informed them as she moved to retrieve the discs from her desk.

As they watched the video, Curt simply averted his eyes. Meanwhile his mother looked completely confused. As for Calvert and Curt’s Lawyer, Brad Sullivan, they had some combination of confusion and worry on their faces; there was even a bit of anger mixed in with Calvert’s expression then.

Mrs. Spencer was the first to speak, “am I missing something? How exactly did he hurt your arm, Curt?”

“I don’t know” Curt complained, “but it’s obviously broken!” he defended, “which means I’m going to miss the entire rest of the football season. My senior year football season!” he added angrily.

Calvert swallowed a bit as she looked between the monitor and the complaining young man, “well, I’m not sure this video is any kind of proof of Mr. Wagner assaulting you; as it appears that he never touched you at all” she added, with further confusion.

“Did you notice the cast?” he asked her with a glare. “Plus, that prick already pulled a knife on me at school. Lock him up!”

Calvert shook her head, “I have no idea about any other altercations at school, or how your arm got hurt. But I strongly recommend you think long and hard about pursuing these charges.”

“I would have to agree with the detective” Curt’s lawyer put in quickly, his worry seeming the most pronounced of all.

“What? Let that freak get away with it?” Curt retorted angrily.

“Get away with what?” Calvert returned, “there is no evidence that Kole is the one who committed any crime here” she said pointedly as she gave Curt a cold look.

“Watch it again! He looked at me and my arm shattered! How is that not evidence?” Curt argued even more loudly then.

“So, your claim is that he broke your arm by looking at you?” Calvert asked with a trace of sarcasm as she shook her head, her disposition toward Curt seeming to have drastically changed in the last several minutes.

“Well that’s what fucking happened! I mean, it broke somehow, right?” Curt shot back.

The lawyer just shook his head as well before Calvert spoke up again, “and you want us to use this footage as evidence of that?” she asked, her tone leading.

“Don’t answer that, Curt” Sullivan interrupted loudly, causing Calvert to glare and Mrs. Spencer to look even more worried.

Curt just scoffed, “I don’t get why you aren’t just putting him in jail. You saw the video!”

“Yes we did” Calvert returned, “and I’m actually thinking that you’re the one we should probably be arresting right now.”

“What?” Curt asked, his voice cracking at that statement.

“We should go” Curt’s lawyer stood then.

“What are you talking about arresting my son for? What is your problem, lady?” his mother defended, “my boy is the one with the broken arm; the one who is probably going to lose his scholarship now because of what that purple haired menace did to him!”

“Did to him with his mind?” Calvert asked sarcastically. She then moved on, “and being a woman, I’m not sure why you’re surprised that we’re talking about arresting your son after seeing what he did on that video” Calvert scolded her with another glare.

“What does my being a woman have to do with anything?” Mrs. Spencer scoffed, “and all I saw was him pushing some boy who looked like a girl. I doubt you could get very far with a charge of aggravated shoving” she bit back.

“How about a charge of sexually assaulting a fourteen year old girl? Think we’d get far with that one?” Calvert bit back.

“We should go” Sullivan repeated more forcefully as both Spencers paled.

“What?” Mrs. Spencer gasped, “you can’t be serious!”

That was when Calvert angrily clicked a link on her computer and began reading, “Sexual assault is an act in which a person sexually touches another person without that person’s consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence which includes rape, groping, child sexual abuse or the torture of the person in a sexual manner” she then angrily looked back up as Mrs. Spencer paled further.

“We should really go” Sullivan repeated even more forcefully as he hurried the Spencers out of the office.

“I’m sure we’ll see you soon, Curt” Calvert called after them with an angry sigh.

After giving herself a moment to compose herself, Calvert finally returned to the interrogation room where Kole was impatiently tapping his platform boot against the floor. He looked up at her with another annoyed sigh before speaking, “here to cuff me? Sorry, I left mine in the car” he added wryly.

“There’s a few things I wanna ask you” she said thoughtfully as she took a seat across from him again, “but I guess the most important is if you or” she looked at her notes, “Miss Sampson plan on filing charges against Mr. Spencer?”

Kole was a little caught by that, “what happened to me supposedly ruining his life?” he scoffed, though watched her carefully.

“We’ve seen no evidence of that” she said quietly, then repeated, “so are you thinking of pressing charges then?”

“Like that’s an option. He shoved me. I’m sure that would get him, what? A twenty dollar fine?”

“I was more concerned with what he did to the girl you were with.”

Kole swallowed a bit, “guy grabs girl’s ass. Not like it doesn’t happen to the girls in school fifty times a day. No one seems to be asking any of them about filing charges.”

“Well, they should be asking” Calvert returned pointedly.

Kole just shook his head, “trust me. Curt’s done a lot worse than that. A lot” he added as he bit back his emotions.

“Does that have something to do with your comment earlier? About him ruining your life?”

Kole just shook his head, “like it matters?” he scoffed, “it never matters when it’s guys like Curt vs. kids like me, and Crista, and... our friends” he settled on.

“Well it should matter” Calvert returned.

“It should. But it never does” Kole replied as he averted his eyes again, “can I go now?”