White Lies (Book 1)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Punching Zoe Darren in the face had been a really bad idea.

Mother had gotten a rather terrifying phone call from Zoe's father who spent over an hour yelling threats of litigation into her ear. But everybody in town knew that the Darren family were all talk. They tried to fit in so hard with the affluent, even when they were pretty average themselves.

Let me tell you a little bit about Alistair.

This was a town full of rich, wealthy, beautiful people who wanted to retire or raise their rich, wealthy, beautiful children in a quiet, loving community. Unfortunately for them, things don't always look the way that they do in the brochures.

On the outside, Alistair was every Ken and Barbie's dream family suburb. Luscious, green grass and tall, grand, multi-storied buildings. Fancy cars, and smiling faces. Springs of color and shimmering sunlight everywhere you look. On the inside, however, it didn't seem nearly so perfect. This was a place where hypocrisy ran deep – and for the rich, this was where they could remain untouchable.

Alistair is seamlessly divided by a big, fat, phony line. On one side of the line lived the rich and the wealthy, who believed they could have anything they wanted and in any way they wanted it. On the other side of the line lived the normal, averagely working class, who acted and spoke in normal and human ways. In other words – they weren't assholes.

When first coming to this town, and coming into contact with all of its people, only one thing mattered to those who ran amongst elite circles – and that was how much money you were making. If you were the multi-millionaire mogul sort, then the rich and wealthy would happily invite you into their small, exclusive circle with open arms. But if you were making anything less than that, they would kick you out to mingle amongst the savages. Which was us. The normal folk.

What I said to Robbie had only partially been a lie; my mother's uncle never really died, and had never handed his house to her. My great-uncle had no children of his own, and had chosen to pass over the care of his house to my mother when he could no longer stand the people who lived here. Now he spent his days in an old farm ranch, writing novels about western damsels in distress.

Okay, I'm lying. There is no uncle. My mother kept in contact with virtually none of her relatives, except her twin brother. She had been saving up since she was nineteen so she could afford to escape. To move away from a bad, bad place, and to live in a place where nothing bad ever seemed to happen. This had always been her dream home. Her Ken and Barbie paradise.

The filthy rich had made themselves out to be the leaders of the community, running every social event and every tourist sight like they were fucking gods with platinum credit cards. They viciously talked about everyone - who wasn't in their circle of friends - behinds their backs. Because hey, how else could you expect them to fill their time, after the fancy cars and flashy gadgets have stopped meaning anything anymore?

Many of the average folk try desperately to climb the social ranks, like the Darrens for instance, and only very few succeed. Otherwise, it was all one endless, vicious cycle. We envied them, and they loathed us. That's just the way Alistair was. There was no in-between. It was us or them. You were rich or you weren't.

We definitely weren't.

A loud, shrill sound rang throughout the house. "I'll get it!" I shouted as I ran to the phone. Mother was in her bedroom.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, this is Officer Cross. I'm from the Alistair Police Department. I was hoping to speak to Ms. Griffin, if she has a minute."

"Um, yeah. Sure, this is her," was my lame reply. I kept my eyes fixed to the bright green tiles along the kitchen walls, willing my voice to stay calm. The police had already questioned me. Twice. What more could they want?

"Ms. Griffin, we've received a number of phone calls this morning concerning an altercation from yesterday. Can you tell me what happened in your own words?"

I nodded, but then realized that they couldn't see me through the phone. Stupid. "Uh, yes. Nothing happened, really. I was cornered and assaulted by a student. She hit me, so I hit her back. Standard stuff." I was pretty sure they were already well informed of all of this, so I wasn't sure why I'd been asked to confirm it.

"Well from the sounds of things, the Mr. and Mrs. Darren are likely looking to press charges. I think it's in both of our best interest, however, that we don't drop by your place and make a scene about the whole thing. So we're going to need you to come into the station."

"I didn't kill them! I swear, I've already told you!" I cried.

He went on as if he didn't hear me. "Can I speak to one of your parents, please?"

I heard a door open behind me.

"No, you can't, because my father is dead and my mother is dying!" I lied without thinking. I tried to stop, sensing that lying to a police officer was probably not a good idea, but it just kept coming. "My father died while he was deployed in Iraq and that was eleven months ago and my mother has a life-threatening condition—"

"Okay, stop it! Give me the phone," my mother snapped as she ripped the phone out of my hands. Her horrified eyes glared into mine. I wrung my trembling hands and paced as she watched.

"Who is this?"

There was a pause. "I'm sorry, Officer. My daughter has a habit of spitting out lies when she's nervous." She shot another look at me.

A longer pause. "Yes, we can do that. No, I understand," she answered stiffly. I strained to hear the other side of the conversation, but all I could hear was mumbling.

The rest of the phone call was answered in silence, except for the occasional affirming noise from my mother. Her expression grew darker as the conversation neared to an end.

"Yes, we can do that." A pause. "Okay. Sure. Goodbye, Officer." She slammed the phone on the receiver.

She turned to me, her face a mix of emotions. I wasn't used to this. I began to grow uncomfortable.

Finally, she spoke. "I'm driving you up to the police station tomorrow morning. They want to speak to both of us."