Xavier had a criminal record as colourful as the bruises on his face. He had built a less-than impressive reputation for himself from fights and drug misuse to rape allegations. The townsfolk knew to stay clear of him and his family. Including kind...
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The blunted blade broke into the chalky powder, knocking it into three smaller white lines. I had Harley on my mind as my spine curved forward and I breathed in my temporary freedom.
A bitterness sat on my taste buds, it rolled down the back of my throat in a slow blob, one that I could feel dissolving on its own. The taste of chemicals soon disappeared when my throat and tongue started numbing and my high took over.
The local radio station played music to me as I lay back on my mattress, feeling complete euphoria like at this moment I could take on the world and win. I was invincible, hypersensitive and alert. Like someone had given me a shot of red bull directly into my veins, only on a bigger scale.
"I'm sick to death of you laying in bed all day every day. Get up you lazy fat bitch or hurry up and die!" I raised my head from the pillow, listening to Bryans voice out in the hallway. My mom coughed several times and I jumped up from my bed with my fists clenched.
"What the fuck did you just say to her?" She coughed more, getting distressed.
Bryan set his gaze upon me, eyes so dark you didn't know where the irises started and the pupils ended. He was a small man, and walked around the place like he was part of the tiny mafia. When in reality he hid away from his drug dealers until I've paid off his debts. The only people he's ever started a fight with are women and children.
His onyx eyes narrowed in my direction and his lip curled up in disgust. "You're fucking baked boy, off my stash I bet." I turned my back on him to walk away, big mistake.
He picked up a vase from the side and cracked it over my head. Mom gasped, using her energy and breath to plead with us both. My skull throbbed but I didn't even stop to think about it. I grabbed Bryan by his neck and pulled him out of my moms room, out of the trailer and shoved him to the ground.
He clambered to his feet and brushed the dirt off his shoulder. I quickly closed the door and bolted it. But it took him merely seconds to start booting the door in. With no avail he took a baseball bat to the windows, smashing the glass to pieces before returning back to the door. The trailer doors were rubbish, he would get through it in a heart beat. Break it right from it's hinge, leaving it open to intruders who could put my mom at risk. Or at the very least make our trailer freezing cold - detrimental to my moms health.
When he kicked a panel clean off I opened the door and he almost came flying right at me. I shoved him back and he bounced on his feet like a wrestler ready to fight. "Think you're a tough guy, do you?" I could see the generic twitching of curtains from the busy bodies in nearby trailers, clearly we had attracted attention.
Bryan stood among the empty beer bottles shroud over the ground. He launched at me, pushing me up against the tin walls of our trailer. He pulled out a silver pocket knife and dug it into the flesh beneath my jaw. My eyes widened, my high fading away slowly. The sharp blade penetrated my skin, making a small prick in my flesh. I felt the blood trickle down my neck and seep into the collar of my T-shirt.
"Not so tough now are you boy?"
Sirens grew closer in the distance, a fucking neighbour must've narked on us. That's me fucked, I'm on tag with shit in my system. As the cop car pulled up Bryan shoved the knife in my hand and I dropped it to the floor immediately, punching him in the eye. He fell to the ground in an over dramatic display put on for the cops. I rolled my eyes.
"See that! See! He assaulted me!" He shouted, pointing his yellow stained, dirty fingernail at me.
"Cuff him." The sheriff said to the deputy, pointing his chin at Bryan. "On your knees son, hands behind your head."
"It was self defence!" I yelled. The sheriff pointed his gun at me so I reluctantly knelt down on the floor and raised my arms in the air. He approached me and strapped cuffs to my wrists.
"Deputy, take him to the station." The deputy loaded Bryan into the back of his car and drove away. The sheriff wrapped his hand around my bicep and pulled me to my feet, moving me over to stand beside his car. He leaned on the roof, filling in paper work quietly while I watched him.
This was her dad, we've met before... a few times. Not a single one of them have been under good circumstances, most of them have been arrests.
"Anyone else in the property?" He asked without looking at me.
"My mom, she's sick. You're not going in there without a warrant." The sheriff turned to look at me slowly and raised a brow.
"You been drinking?" He asked.
"No." I mumbled.
"Under the influence of drugs?"
"No." I lied.
"So if I drug test you now, nothing will show up in your blood stream?" I grit my teeth together, not answering and the sheriff frowned. "You're on tag, right?" Why is he asking questions he already knows the answer to?
He flipped his papers and wrote a few things on the back. His radio made a few static noises and he pressed a button on the side to quieten it. He had strong calloused hands of a hardworking man, his posture was lean and important. He was unlike Bryan in every single way, perhaps a little like Simon. Kind eyes, good heart.
I wondered what it was like for Lilia to grow up with a Sheriff father. I hoped he was good to her and didn't over punish her wrongdoings in order to teach her the law. We were enemies, the cops and I but if he was a good dad to Lilia then maybe I could look past my hatred for him.
"Hmm... Xavier Wilder." My eyes snapped up to the sheriff who had pulled my colourful record up on his electronic device. "Says here you're on tag until your court appearance in a few months. House arrest, registered to this address, only exception is school." He went quiet. "Looks like you've been sticking to it." I smiled and then quickly wiped it off my face before he could see.
"Rape charges." He spoke again and a small piece of me died at those words. "Pretty serious claim." He commented, keeping his eyes on my file. I licked the rough skin of my lip, knowing not to say anything. "If I make an arrest right now based on antisocial behaviour, you'll go to jail for breaching the terms of your house arrest. You won't stand a chance in court because you're painting a picture of your character that nobody finds appealing and god forbid you have anything illegal in your system because you'll get even longer."
He looked up at me and drummed his fingers on the roof of his car, playing out a metallic melody. "I witnessed you punch your dad, that knife has your finger prints on it." He pondered over his thoughts, keeping his blue eyes hooked to mine.
"He came at me with a knife first, it was self defence." I claimed. "I'm a minor." The sheriff looked back towards my trailer for a few quiet seconds and then averted his gaze back onto me.
"Your moms sick?" I said nothing. What did that have to do with anything. The sheriff clicked his tongue against his teeth and small lines appeared beside his eyes.
He didn't look like her. Her skin was darker, more tanned, her eyes were brown unlike his and I don't know what colour hair he had before he turned grey but I can't imagine it was ever as dark as Lilias. They shown no resemblance to one another at all.
"I have a feeling a lot of people around here don't give you a chance." My brows furrowed at him and he let out a little laugh. "I have this voice inside my head and it's telling me to take the cuffs off you and give you a chance."
I cleared my throat, "I think you should listen, sir." I replied cooly. He laughed bigger this time and nodded in amusement.
"I'm gonna take you in Xavier, take your statement. Hold you in a cell overnight for a few hours to cool off and detoxify. Then I'll release you but I don't give second chances, so don't mess this up cause next time I come face-to-face with you, I will put you in that jail cell myself."
