Confidential (4 page)

He looked at
me a
little strangely. "And why would they be in your house?"

"That's what I was wondering! As soon as they saw me, that 'ho hurled her little body guards at me!" I shouted. Using my hands to show that I had no idea. He was totally blowing me off!

"Whoa whoa whoa," He started to chuckle before I gave him a glare. He straightened up a bit. "Slow down." He shifted and flipped a new page in his notebook. "I need to know what they looked like, and anything you can remember them saying."

A little happy that he was finally taking me seriously I gladly started telling him "One was really tall-"

"How tall exactly?"

I glared at him. How was I supposed to know? "Like 6'3, 6'4 ish?, He had blonde hair-"

"Short or long?"

"Short, and a little fluffy-"

"What do you mean by fluffy?"

"Will you give me a little time to explain?"

"Go on." He gestured.

"Fluffy as in wispy, feathery, like he was trying to suppress his jew-fro or something" This got a glare from the officer "What? I'm not a racist or anything that's just what they call it."

"It's called anti-semitic, racist is for race"

"Right, whatever, anyway, he had blue eyes, and was kinda buff. Actually…" I took shaky breathe, it was hard to explain some parts "He wasn't really the one that hit me, he just kind of…"

Officer Parker patted my hand. "Take your time."

I shifted in the hospital bed. "He just kind of dragged me around. The other one, the short one, he…"

"Why don't you just keep describing their features? We'll get to that later."

It was a lot easier to describe what they looked like, easier to focus on something else "He was darker-"

"Hispanic?" the officer asked, hopeful that he could match up his guy to mine.

"No." I said, instantly killing the look on his face, "Darker, like Italian or something. He had dark hair, thick eyebrows, and tan skin. And he was really short, like shorter than me short. 5'4 maybe. But he was really… aggressive, I guess? Like when he talked he always shouted in his input, in fact the only time I heard him shut up was when the lady started talking."

Officer Parker was frowning, staring down at his notes. The look on his face changed from confusion, to puzzlement, to realization.

"Did you get any names?" He asked looking up at me intensely.

"Um… just one"

"And?"

"Mickey."

He was silent. Taking
a
deep inhale, he spoke. "When you're released from the hospital, we're going to need you to come down to the station."

Chapter 3

"Is everything okay? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no. Continue"

But he still frowned down at his notebook, tapping his pen against it. I hesitantly kept going. "Well, the two men came after me, and when I tried to run one of them grabbed my ankle, and I fell forward." I touched a part of my head, "That's how I got this," wincing as I touched it, "But I kicked him square in the face," I said a little proudly, "I bet I got his nose good too."

"Hmmm." The Officer said

"And then I got up but ran into the short one, when I fell down I hit my head pretty good."

"Yes you have
a
bit of whiplash from your head snapping back like it did. We thought it occurred when you were on your walk and the attacker first pushed you."

I stared at him "I wasn't going for a walk."

"Then how did you end up in the alleyway?"

I paused, gathering my thoughts together. "After I fell, I was laying on the ground and the women came up and started talking to the men."

"What did she look like?"

"She was older. Like in her mid 40's. She had bright red hair, I bet she dyes it, she can't be that age and not have gray…" I side tracked, not really wanted to think about it. "Um. She thought I was passed out, and one of them called her Mickey, that's how I knew her name-"

"Mickey is a woman?" He asked in disbelief.

"Well…yeah. I know it's a strange name but I bet its short for something."

"Like what?" He asked a little flustered and I could tell kind of angry, but I had no idea why.

"Michaela?" I said in an 'um… duh!' voice.

He frowned, "What did she say?"

I stopped, getting a little choked up, trying to find the words. "One of them suggested killing me. I can't remember what one," I closed my eyes. It was easier to remember this way, "and Mickey got angry… yelling at them."

"And what did she say exactly?"

"She said 'Kill her? Why? So the police can look into this more than they already have?' so she told them to make it look like a mugging, and that's when they threw me in a car and drove me somewhere… and uh… took care of the rest there."

We were silent for a while.

"This is a lot of information." Officer Parker said. "A lot more than expected, thank you."

"Officer Parker?"

"Yes?"

"That guy that's claiming to have mugged me, I think they set that up. Please don't believe it."

"I am not an advanced officer, I'm not really equipped to say anything, and as much as I'd love to stay on your case, I believe that my superiors will be interested in this. We'll definitely be looking into this much more closely, and the man that came forward will be reevaluated."

After that, the officer left. I laid back against the hospital bed, my side hurt, my head hurt. I felt stiff. I felt around and saw bruises forming. I didn't want to do this. It's exhausting. I don't want to think about these people.

The nurse came in. "Sweetie?" she called

I opened my eyes and smiled at her. I like this lady.

"Your mom's back." Hmm. Maybe not so much. "Want me to tell her I have to do a few things and that you're sleeping? I can make her go away so you can get some rest." Scratch that. I love her.

"That would be amazing." It came out a lot happier than it should have. I turned on the T.V and began channel surfing to find something mindless that would help me think about anything else.

The next day at the hospital, when I was starting to get really bored, Emma and Lauren came and visited me, while Katie pulled some strings and snuck in a bunch of yummy gummy worms for me. We always needed to sneak food because my mother… once again, likes to interject herself into my life whenever she see's me eating junk food. Not good for my figure, apparently.

It was a really nice break from the pressure of both of my parents, and the doctors and nurses poking and prodding me. It should have felt almost normal, but I felt detached from it. Almost like, is this really happening? I'm here; listening to the latest on celebrity gossip, while the people that attacked me could be doing that to someone else? Or worse?

"Everyone's been so worried." Emma said, moving over so Katie could sit on the bed too.

"Yeah the whole school was freaking out." Lauren said with a grin. Lauren always made me laugh a little; she was cute, she had beautiful grey eyes, and flawless skin the color of mocha. She was half-black, so of course she was gorgeous. Emma was her opposite, pale, blonde, and preppy, while Katie had light brown hair that was always done in a perfect way. "You should have heard them," she continued, "Making up a bunch of bull on how it was the people from the lock down that jumped you or something."

They were all quiet.

Until Emma looked up and said in her sweet voice, "Was it?"

"As far as I know, no." I shook my head. There was no way I'm telling them anything. We don't get personal like this, it stays strictly on the topics of shallow drama, clothes, and cool things to do on the weekend. "It was all so confusing, it's hard to sort out." I waved my hand like it was nothing.

"Ohhh. I see. I bet it was. We don't have to talk about it." Katie threw
me a
lifeline. "But you know there are a bunch of True Religion Jeans I found at this one outlet store that's not too far away. We should totally check it out when you get better," She suggested.

I smiled, my mind wandering. "That sounds…nice. Oh! You know that really cool pink Indian style shirt-slash-wrap I got last month when I went to Cali? Totally trashed."

Emma gasped, "That sucks! I loved that shirt."

"Are you kidding me?" Lauren said, "I have a date next week, I was definitely planning on taking that from you."

"You have
a
date? And you didn't
tell
us?" Katie shouted in mock anger, "With who?"

She grinned, "Andrew Donohue."

"Oh my god." I laughed. "No. You are not allowed to date him."

"Why not?" Lauren's eyes widened.

"Helloo?"

"Check out his name."

"He is cute…" Emma offered weakly.

"No." Katie and I said at the same time.

We continued to pick apart Andrew Donohue, and I slowly slipped from thinking about all the confusion involved with police offers to stupid day-to-day girl world. A world I wish I could go back to, but I knew as much as I tried, I would never be able to go back to how I was completely.

After I got released from the hospital, my mom luckily went back to her own life, and I got time to myself again. Officer Parker set up an appointment for me to go to the police station, and I drove over, having never been before. It wasn't the cleanest building I'd ever seen; definitely nothing I'd ever been in. I walked in, and was surprised to see the guy who worked at the laundry mat.

I taped him on the shoulder. He turned around and looked at me. His eyes went wide, like many did. I still had a black eye and
a
pretty swollen face.

"I just wanted to thank you, you really helped me out." I stuck my hand out for him to shake.

He was sweet looking, I couldn't help but notice, at least in hi s early fifties. He had leathered skin, probably from being in the sun his whole life, and definitive wrinkles surrounding his warm brown eyes. He looked a little frightened, and I stared at him curiously.

"Look," He whispered harshly, "I don't know what you got yourself into, but leave me out of it."

I frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"I helped you, I don't
regret
it, but stay out of my life. Don't talk to me again." He looked at me sternly and turned and walked away.

"Hey, wait
a
minute!" I called "What's your problem? I'm only trying to thank you."

"Oh you've thanked me enough, trust me. You dragged me into this whole mess." He walked back to me and pointed a finger in my face, "I had to quit my jobs, I'm moving out of the city-"