“Snap out of it

“Snap out of it!” the man yelled at me. I looked up, confused, at his big tomato face, and almost burst into giggles again. But I didn’t. I felt so weird without Charlie. It’s not like I had even known him for more than a day, but there was just some connection between us. I could be myself around him, and he didn’t mind.

I wanted to see him again, and told myself that maybe someday I would. I slumped in my seat, looked at the man angrily because he had interrupted my thoughts, and settled in for what was going to be a very boring lecture. I knew police men enough to know you didn’t have to listen real carefully to what they had to say, you mainly just nodded, gave them the answers they wanted to hear, and then agreed not to do it again. They let you off pretty easily if you were underage. Than again, it’s not like I had ever been caught doing something very serious.

“I’m here,” I snapped right back at him.

“Now you are,” he sighed, mopped his forehead, “You were in la-la land.”

“Yea whatever,” I waved my hand to dismiss the thought.

“Now, I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Whatever,” I said again.

He looked at me sternly, I realized I had just been very disrespectful to a police man. I decided I didn’t care. When he sat down with me, I decided to make my answers as short as possible. The lies came quickly to me.

“Where were you?”

“I don’t know. Five miles away?”

“Why did you leave?”

To this question, I just shrugged. It’s not like I really had a very good reason why I had been there. I just had been. And I couldn’t very well give away my story to yet another person. I couldn’t give him the truth without launching into a full detailed explanation of why I was here in Flordia.

Surprisingly enough, he didn’t really seem to care. He continued, “Who was that boy you were with?”

I thought about this for a moment, “My boyfriend.”

He seemed shocked so was I. “Really?”

I nodded, picked my nails, and glared at him. “Are we done?”
“No, I’m afraid not.” “Your dad says you’ve been here for only a week. How could you possibly know a boy from five miles away?” Damn Dad.

Than my logic brightened. Of course… “I cut my hair when I got here. The only decent places to shop are out there, you know? I met this guy over there. We started talking, and hanging out.”

The police men’s forehead wrinkled, “But your dad says he never heard you mention this guy…”

“Do I have to tell him everything?” I sounded like a typical teenager so I could tell I was lying perfectly well.

“Alright, than.” He seemed tired. Well, good. I was tired too. Of him.

“You didn’t tell your dad though, that you were going.”

“Yea well, whatever.”

He collected his papers, gave me a look, and shook his finger at me. “Missy, we can’t respond to these sorts of calls. You got your dad very worried. No more misbehaving.”

I nodded innocently. “Of course not.”

“Good.” He nodded to himself as if hearing this had resolved everything. After mopping his forehead once more, he went back to talk to my dad.

All I wanted to do was sleep. But, sleep meant another day was fast coming, and that meant I had to deal with Kelly. Which, I definitely was not ready for.

But before I slept, someone came into the room, sighed, and sat down.

“Sweetie,” he began, “We need to talk.”