Chapter 2

After the man escorted me inside and into a cell, he told me that he would be right back. I wasn't sure why he would be back but I was too distracted to ask by my thoughts and the location I was in as of now. The cell was clean for the most part, and I was in one of only six cells to begin with. I could tell from that this place was most likely used just to hold people they arrested until they decide what will happen to them. Most likely they were either transferred out of here to a different jail or they went home if they were bailed out. 

I just prayed Clare wouldn't bail me out. From how my delightful mother treated me, I assume she doesn't want me back after all this time. She didn't care about me, didn't bother to try my whole life. I just hoped she wouldn't bother now. 

My thoughts were interrupted by nearing footsteps. Looking up from where my eyes rested on the floor, through the bars I saw that the man who brought me in stopped in front of my cell. He had light skin with short light blond hair, his face thin as was his lips. He looked to be in his late 30s or so. When he escorted me in and put me in this cell, I noticed that he took my bag with my weed I had with him; it burned my eyes to see it out of sight. 

"Miss Higgins?" The man asked in front of my cell. I noticed he held an open file in his hand and he was looking down at it, reading something. He looked up after saying my name, continuing. "I need to ask you a few questions."

"Dude, I'll save your time. I admit to robbing many places, I stole money and drugs, and that was my weed you took away. Just a side note: when you take someone's weed away, that's not getting off on the right foot with them, as you are probably thinking. I am not crazy despite what those papers say that you are reading but I won't bother trying to convince you. When I went missing, it was because I ran away," I sighed, rolling my eyes as I knew explaining more in detail was pointless. "But once again, I won't bother telling you why since you won't believe me. I ran from that strange cop earlier for the same reason but I really don't care anymore about reasons. I don't want a phone call but if I have to take one, I promise the only person I would try to call is God to ask why he gave me such a fucked up life." I sighed. "Does that answer all your questions?"

He scowled and it made me smirk. I wish it was this guy that arrested me. I was positive now I would have been able to get a proper reaction out of him instead of the other cop. Despite his scowl, he wrote something down in the folder before hissing, "No, it doesn't." He looked down with frustration, eyebrows bent as he was looking through the file. "Is you're mother Clare Higgins?"

I groaned. "Un-fucking-fortunately."

He glared at me, not appreciating my attitude and language. Looking back down quickly, he read something else before he looked back up to me. God, he looked like a frustrated little boy. He asked me another question. "She lives at 2593, Treemont road?"

Seriously? Who the hell would know after being gone for so long? Christ, what is wrong with the cops here? "I've been gone for a year," I said slowly. "Last I knew, she was there but I wouldn't be surprised if she moved. I helped with the bills so she might have started going broke without my help," I said with a smile at the thought. 

"You are off your medication I assume? During your last scheduled appointment with your doctor, he continued with writing you prescriptions including the antidepressant and the antipsyc--"

"One, tell me how that is any of your business. Two, how is that relevant?" I snapped. "Three, I just said my piece: I'm not crazy no matter what the papers say but you won't believe me. So move on. Christ, you are dumb."

He scowled again, jotting something more down in the file. I noticed his hand was a little tighter as he wrote with anger. I could only imagine.... After this is done, I want to know what he was writing about me because I was sure he was somehow going to twist my words around if I pissed him off enough. "I don't appreciate the attitude."

"I should hope not."

Rolling his eyes as he glanced to me, he proceeded with the next question. "Are you high on marijuana as of now?"

Jesus, doesn't he know how to treat the people behind bars? No matter my answer, why would he dare to trust it? I mean, has he ever heard of a drug test to actually prove something? My word should mean nothing to him without any proof. 

"Do you have a key to this cell on you?" I asked in a higher voice that I was more than sure was showing my aggravation. When he answered me with a confused and annoyed look, I went on. "Because I'm ready to drag your dumbass in here and beat the stupidity out of you."

I bet as a cop he wasn't allowed to respond to that as he wanted. Because all he did was groan, his body tense with anger. I chuckled under my breath, watching him struggle for an appropriate response as I sat in my cell. 

"We will be calling your mother to come and get you." He finally said, choosing to just try to ignore that. "You will be punished another way: by services for the community."

I snorted. My lord. "So... community service?" I asked slowly with raised eyebrows, showing him just how stupid I thought he was. No, in fact, I was sure he was stupid.

"If anything, you are getting off easy." He snapped. "If I had a say, you would stay locked up." he said, closing the file in his hand. Standing there, he watched me as if waiting for a cringe from me or reaction from his brilliant and very dangerous, threatening words.

"Oh thank god you are not in charge," I said sarcastically. "I'm so scared," I said in a whiny and girly voice, raising my hands in mock distress.

He shook his head. He turned back and faced the way he came. Shaking his head with annoyance, he started walking back down the hall, obviously done with the questions - or he just was done with me, thank god. "Crazy bitch," I heard him mutter under his breath as he walked away

At hearing that, I smirked. I heard that my whole life and I learned to laugh at it. I had to. Because getting mad over name calling never helped me in the past. But after that, my thoughts started to wander. If Clare was coming to get me, I would just have to try to runaway again and I would succeed in running much farther than before. No matter what, I was screwed either way like I said before. I was only 17 and my life was already messed up. I would either be living on the streets if I ran or in jail if arrested after I turn 18. There was no way in sight I could turn my life around.

As I heard his retreating footsteps on the tile floor, I heard him yell out something to someone. "Hey Luke, can you finish the interrogation for me?" I heard the idiot say from down the hall. I chuckled. He was angry and wouldn't continue with me. There's a good response I was satisfied with getting out of him. And... an interrogation he called it? Seriously, that was an interrogation?

A minute later after his footsteps faded, there was more coming my way. As they were close enough, something more came with the sound of shoes on the floor. The body to match those shoes. A cop came into my vision through the bars. It was the same one that caught me and arrested me. The one that said those strange words to me a while ago. If this guy, Luke, would continue asking me the questions, well it would be better than that stupid clown continuing I suppose. I still wasn't happy about seeing him again. He didn't cave to my immature remarks like I wanted.

"Great, you again." I muttered under my breath.

His eyes caught mine and he still had a blank look on his face. Under the lights of the hall he was standing in, he was more clear to me now. He wore a blue uniform and I saw a badge on it unlike earlier. The gun was strapped on his heavy belt along with a few more things. He held my file in his hand, his fingers against the folder showing he was wearing a gold band. So he was married. I wanted to chuckle from what I told him earlier but didn't when he opened the folder.

Studying his face, I concluded that that jerk did in fact write something interesting about me. The cop, Luke, raised an eyebrow before he glanced back up at me for a moment. Holding the folder with one hand, he scratched the top of his head with his other hand as he yawned. I could tell he was tired by more than that though. His eyes seemed somewhat droopy and I could tell that he wanted to get home considering it was getting late. When I was escorted in, a lot of the cops walked out and left. The halls and cells were empty except for a few people in the main office. As of now, I could tell that he and I were the only ones in the long and bright hall.

Looking through the file for a minute more, he looked back up at me through the bars. "Well, I will be talking with him tomorrow," he finally said, more so under his breath in a grumble. .

I dipped my eyebrows in confusion. "Why? Did he piss you off too?"

He sighed, ignoring that last part I said. "Because apparently, he came to the conclusion that you are, in his words, 'a smartass insane bitch'."

I laughed as I looked at his worried and angry expression as he examined the other cop's statement along with the rest of my file. Hearing me chuckle, I think I surprised him by that and he looked up at me, his expression unsure and worried still. It kind of put me on edge, the fact that he was looking at me like that. As if worried about me. 

"I couldn't agree more about the smartass part. But I don't think you are insane, no matter what these papers or him said."

I scoffed. "Then what am I, huh?"

"Like I said. You're confused."

I rolled my eyes at that. He said it earlier and I really wanted to know what he meant by that. Because really, nobody said anything like that. Everyone accepted I was a lost cause; I was insane and that was that. Yet, he was the first that actually said he doesn't believe that. Yeah right. He was probably just trying to be nice.

"Confused is the last thing I am. Don't bother. You can sugarcoat it all you want, but it all comes down to one thing: insanity. I'm not stupid like that other guy so you can't try to convince me you believe I am stable. I set him off too easily I think. I don't think he's been laid in a few months so that might explain his attitude - and maybe his stupidity too," I said, trying to drop it and distract him from one of the biggest issues of my life that he wanted to talk about.

His lips tilted up slightly at what I said as he looked through the folder, shuffling a few papers. Yet, he saw through what I said with his next words. "We can drop it then. Might as well if we want to get these questions done," he said.

I internally groaned and was a little caught off guard. He knew I didn't want to get into that. He knew what I would think of him either way, knew that there was nothing that could be done if I didn't want to cooperate. And I didn't want to, not when all he was trying to do was be nice. He saw I didn't want to go there and respected that. 

Forgetting what he said or trying to, I asked, "What are the rest of the questions? I hope they are not as pointless as the other ones. Right now, my opinion of you cops are pretty low."

He sighed. "I know what you mean. We ask the questions just so we can get something on file," he said. Lifting a piece of paper out of the folder, he went on. "He asked most of the questions. However, I think he asked a few that weren't on the sheet considering he wrote some other things down."

"He asked me if I was high." I snorted, showing this guy, Luke, how stupid that other cop really was he was working with. 

He looked up at me, stunned. "He did?"

I nodded. "I hope he made that one up and it wasn't on the sheet. Otherwise, this place is as messed up as I am."

He stared at me with disgust - probably towards the stupid cop. "Yeah, that wasn't on the sheet."

A question began floating around in my head since that other man asked if I was high. I wondered why they didn't test me right when they brought me in here. I mean, they found the weed so shouldn't they have suspected some was in my system? It was as if they didn't care or forgot about the weed which was strange. 

"Why didn't you guys give me a drug test when you brought me in?" I asked, really starting to think this situation was out of wack as well as the people working here.

He looked closely at me through the bars. "Because I can tell you are not high. Or rather, most of the weed - or the clear affect of it - is not noticeable. Not to mention, possession of it was already charged."

I kept my face as neutral as I could but really, I was getting a little uneasy with this guy. Why could he tell these things about me? "You act like you are such a know it all. It's kind of pathetic. Are you trying to impress me or something?" I asked, smirking.

He sighed, looking at me with an expression that asked if I were serious. "I'm just pointing out what I see. Sorry if you can't handle that and are not use to people actually recognizing you." He said sharply but in a very professional voice at the same time.

I rolled my eyes. "Man, just ask the questions already. My very loving mother will be here soon unfortunately if she decides to bother. I can't express how thrilled I am to be going home," I said sarcastically. 

He groaned, looking down at the sheet. "Why did you do missing?"

I sighed. It feels like I've already explained this over and over but knew he had to ask that question since it was on the paper. "Because I was abused and beaten my whole life and I couldn't wait any longer until I was 18 to leave. I had to get out. But of course, you won't believe me about that so feel free to write down whatever."

He pursed his lips, wanting to say something to that but he didn't. Instead, he went onto the next question. "Where were you this whole time?"

I groaned, tired. I couldn't help my words because I wanted to try to piss him off again and because I honestly wasn't sure most of the time where I was. "I went to the North Pole, got high with Santa, and stole all the presents the elves made.”

He glared at me. “You were the one that just told me your mother was coming and that we should hurry through this process. So start answering like a mature person."

I groaned, somewhat satisfied that he was getting a little impatient but knew he was right. “Fine. I don’t recall where I was most of the time but I never left the state. I moved around to different cities a lot.”

He nodded, writing something else in the file before looking back to me. I tried ignoring how his pretty green eyes rested on mine and how tall and attractive he seemed to be now that I really took him in and looked at him long enough. Could you blame me though? It's been a year without much contact with someone as cute as him.

“If you don’t want to go home then why did you come back here?”

Stretching my legs out before me since sitting in the same position was starting to make me sore, I yawned myself and rested my back against the cold wall, trying to relax a little – which was hard considering I wasn’t the type of person who lets their guard down easily. 

Looking back up to him after taking a deep breath, I said, “It was the closest and easiest way to get through to the next town north. If I didn’t come this way, it would take longer to go around the city. And I needed to get to the next town as soon as I could.”

“Why were you leaving wherever you were before? And why did you have to get there quickly?”

“I move around a lot when the person I go to for drugs in that town disappears or runs or is caught. If I couldn’t find anyone else in the area that would be willing to sell to me, I was forced to move around until I would find someone that would. In the last town I was in, the cops picked up the dealer and a few people suggested going to this one guy up in the next town. I’ve been traveling for a few days to get there and one town away was my home town. By the time I got here, I knew I couldn’t go around because I can feel the effects of not having it. I had to get to that guy fast or I was in trouble. So thanks to you, I’m screwed in a couple ways. No weed. And now, no freedom again.” I wasn’t about to tell him that I planned on gaining some form of freedom back when I run away from home again because that was what I was going to have to do.

As I had spoken, he just listened. Eyes on mine, he studied me after I was done speaking. He didn’t say anything for a minute but just sat there, obviously trying to figure me out. But before he or I could speak, someone else came down the hall I could hear. The footsteps disrupting the quiet air around us, I watched as Luke looked over at the source.

A woman came into my sight a moment later. She was slightly overweight with smooth chocolate skin, her black hair curly rested at her shoulders. She had a pretty face with dark brown eyes when she looked to Luke who stood beside her. “Sorry to disrupt,” she said as she turned and faced me a moment later, her small smile she gave Luke dropped at looking to the crazy girl she heard all about behind bars. Eyes accusing as they were resting on me, she said, “We called your mother. She is on her way now.”

Groaning, I said in a breath, “Yippee,” showing just how excited and thrilled I was that Clare was on her way. Joy. I’m going home. This would be interesting to see how she would react.