We’d been here for a good few hours already with no one telling us anything. They’d just stuck us in a room, closed the door, and disappeared. Someone came in not too long ago to ask if we needed anything, which I found odd. In all the cop shows I’ve seen, this has never happened. I’m not talking about a soda either. The way they spoke, they’d have gone out and got her whatever she wanted.
We heard Susie screaming the place down from somewhere down the hall when they brought her in earlier, but nothing since then. I was beginning to wonder if maybe they’d got their stories crossed if Susie had somehow lied her way out of it maybe by using her dad’s influence again.
Lisa didn’t look too upset, but how could she not be? She’d barely had the car, and now it was damaged through no fault of her own. “How can you read that right now?”
“Hmm?” She looked up from the magazine she’d been thumbing through for the last half an hour with no expression on her face. This was the third or fourth one since we got here. Does she even understand what’s going on?
“You know what happened to your car, right?” Maybe she’s in shock?
“Yeah, someone smashed the window. Who is she anyway?”
“Susie Powell.”
Who is she? There is no way she’s been in that sorority this long and hasn’t met Susie. There’s no way Susie would’ve let that happen. So what exactly is she up to?
She didn’t say anything before going back to her reading which only made my suspicions grow. I started thinking back to everything that had been going on, and things just weren’t adding up or seemed too coincidental when seen in a new light.
It started right after Steve spoke out of turn. First, the sorority, which she never had any interest in, the party, the license plate, all of it, all things that would get under Susie’s skin. “Look at me!” She looked distracted or wanted to appear that way. “I’m going to ask you a question; think carefully before you answer me. Remember who you’re talking to, you hear me?”
Now she looked nervous. “Who is Susie?”
“I…” I saw the moment she knew the jig was up. I was more pleased that it didn’t take her that long to make the right decision. “Let me explain.”
“That’s what I’m waiting for, Lisa.” She laid it all out, and my blood grew colder with each word.
“What were you thinking? Your dad’s a doctor. Her dad’s a senator. She uses her father’s position to destroy lives. I’ve seen it many times before. Why do you think I pretend that she’s not alive? It’s not out of fear; I just refuse to derail my life because of her ignorance. I have a few months left here; then I’m gone, but what about you? Am I supposed to go off and live my life, leaving you stuck here in the middle of some stupid cat fight?”
“It’s not like that. I have no intentions of feuding with that idiot. I just don’t like that she got away with what she’s done.”
“It was not your place to do anything.” I restrained myself from yelling at her as much as I wanted to.
“And why not?”
“Because I’m the man. Because the man is supposed to protect you. The man is the one who stops the bullets, the one who stands in front of you and protects you even from a high wind. How could you think this was okay?”
“You wouldn’t do anything about it, so I had to, or who knows what else she’d do in the future.”
“You did this for me?” She’d knocked the wind from my sails. “Don’t ever do anything that stupid again. You don’t deal with bullies; that’s my job.” I reached for her, but before I could touch her, her eyes widened as she looked toward the door.
“Mom, dad!” Oh shit!
LISA
“Lisa, baby, what’s going on? Are you hurt? Let me see.” Mom was back in mama bear mode like I was ten. I stood in shock as she moved me this way and that. I should’ve known that they’d come. Dad would use any excuse to use the family jet, and mom, well, if I get a skinned knee, no doubt she’d be there with a Band-Aid in about as long as it takes her to get here.
“I’m okay, mom. I wasn’t in the car when it happened. Can we go now?”
“Not yet. We’re waiting for the other party to get here.”
“What? Who’s coming?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Harold is here; I want you to tell him everything that happened from beginning to end and not just about tonight.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve spoken to Melissa. I know what’s been going on. Some of your friends have already given statements as to what happened tonight, but you need to tell Harold everything that transpired between you and this person.”