We're Not Crazy

Do You Know Anything?

I stood in the bathroom mirror after we finished brushing our teeth. He had gone back to the bed and sat while scrolling through the television.

I looked at my shoulder. It was scratched up from the fall I took yesterday when Josi tackled me.

It looked pretty bad but I guess it's not worse than a crushed skeleton due to an eighteen wheeler.

"Josi..." I called him.
"Yes, your highness?" he answered and looked at me.
I rolled my eyes at the nickname like usual. "My shoulder hurts."
He stood up and walked over to me in the bathroom.

He looked at it closely.

"Hm."
Did he forget he forced me into the ground last night?

"Follow me." he stated.
I did as told.

He grabbed the keys and we walked towards the door.

"Where are we going?" I wondered.
"Drug store." he answered and locked our motel room.

____________________________________

Me and Josiah walked around the small store and I looked at their band aids while Josiah messed with things in the toy aisle.

I saw an ointment that seemed like it was for scratches and grabbed it along with bandaids of different sizes.
I went to find Josiah afterwards.

He was looking at a teddy bear.

"What?" I wondered and looked at it too.
"It kinda looks like you." he claimed and tilted his head.
"The bear?" I asked to be certain.
"Yea." He held it next to my face.

I just looked at him as he looked at mine and the bear's similarities.

"Yea." he repeated. "I'm keepin' it."
I giggled and followed him to the cash register.

As we put our things on the counter, the door caught our attention.
In walked two cops.
I froze.

Josi noticed them too and stared.

They saw us as they walked.
My heart was racing.
One nodded their head as a greeting.
Josiah did the same.
They faced forward and kept walking.
I held onto Josiah's hand.

"47.76." said the cashier.
Josiah took the money out of his pocket and began counting.
"We're like twenty cents short." he sighed.
"Just put the bear back."
"No." he answered.
"It's fine, you can go." the cashier permitted and bagged everything.
"Thank you." Josiah replied and took it before we walked off.

We got out of the door.

"We need'a get more money." he stated as we walked to the car.
"Okay...how much?"
"However much we can get. We got a week until we gotta pay rent for our room again and I'm almost outta cash. I got a bit left in the room but not enough."
"The card?" I asked.
"Yea but we still need cash. Always keep cash on you-..."

"HEY!" someone yelled behind us on the way to our car.

We turned around.

It was the two cops.

"What?" Josiah asked rudely.
I held tightly onto his hand but I was beginning to feel sick.
"There's been a bit of trouble around a couple of cities over the past few weeks." said one officer as they approached closer.
I held my stomach.
"You two know anything about that?" he asked.
"No." Josiah responded.
"What about you?" the officer asked me.
"Why you askin' her?!" Josiah questioned.
"It's just a question." He looked back at me. "Do you?"
I shook my head.
"Hm. Alright."
"You're not lyin' to us, are you? A lot of people are worried and this is in our hands. We'd like to solve it as soon as possible." said the other officer.
"Yea, you both look like you might know a thing or two."
"I said we didn't know nothin'." Josiah responded.
The officer nodded as he looked around. "You know if you did and we found out you were lying...we'd have to bring you in..."
I felt ill and gross. My stomach hurt and felt funny.
"How many times I gotta tell you we don't know nothin'?" Josi asked and seemed to be getting annoyed.

I tried to hide my sickness. The idea of lying to them or being caught made my stomach upset. I held it with one hand and tried to keep my composure.
I didn't want to go back. Would they send us back if they knew we were lying? That made me feel even more sick. I don't want to go.

"Your girlfriend okay?" one officer asked.
Josiah looked at me.
"No, she isn't. She's sick and you're holdin' up our fuckin' walk back home."
"No need to get aggressive. We just had a few questions for you. We're working on bringing them in and we want the complaints to stop. A few people haven't returned home to their families because of these psychopaths. We wanna handle this and calm everyone's nerves. Just tell us if you know something."
"WE DON'T KNOW NOTHIN', CAN WE GO?!"

I immediately threw up onto the pavement.
I fell onto my hands and knees as it kept going.

Josiah kneeled next to me and rubbed my back.
"SEE WHAT THE FUCK YOU DID?! SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT HOME AND IN BED BY NOW!"
"Shit...uhh..." one of them said.

The officer walked to me with a napkin in his hand from the breast pocket on his uniform.
"I think I got a water bottle in the car." he said and jogged off quickly.

"We're sorry to keep you here. It's just been hectic looking for them."
"Yea, well, no fucking offense but I got bigger fish to fry." Josiah responded and held me close as my vomiting finally seized and I finished wiping my mouth.

The officer came back with water.

"Sorry. We'll get out of your hair." he said after handing it to me.
"Yea, you do that." Josi agreed.

We watched them walk to the car and pull off after a minute.

"Holy shit. Did you just vomit on command? I was making that 'sickness' shit up." he stated.
"No..." I replied and swished the water around my mouth before spitting it out.