Wanderlust

23- The Deal

*One more chapter, and it'll be up tomorrow. Happy Fourth of July to you Americans out there <3*

"A deal?" I croaked.

Thomas nodded. I don't know how he talked them into letting me see him, but my dad just walked into my cell-like interview room and informed me that we had ten minutes to talk and then an officer led me into this room with Thomas. It took us a good three minutes to hug and kiss and catch up. Thomas was infuriated, to say the least, about what that cop did to my mid-section, and demanded to see the bandage-covered wound, but eventually, he calmed down enough to tell me that he'd made a deal with the prosecutor. "Yeah, I made a deal, Charlie."

"Why would you make a deal?" I sputtered. "I thought you said that you could make it out of this."

"I know, but just hear me out." He insisted.

"You lied!" I shrieked incredulously. "Why would you tell me that you thought that you'd be able to get out of this if you really didn't?"

"I did it for you, Charlie." He told me, taking my hand in his from across the table. "I knew that you wouldn't want to travel to San Francisco if you thought that I'd still go to jail, but we had to. If we didn't get to your dad, then you'd go to jail too."

"But you told me that you could make a good case." I mentioned. "You said that you could get off with some fines and a lot of probation."

"I know, but it was the only way to get you to agree to come. If I told you that I'd have to serve time no matter what, then you wouldn't have come, you would have wanted to keep running until there was nowhere to go and the cops would have eventually found us and then you would have gone to jail too."

"Can you stop worrying about me for like, five seconds?" I wailed. "This is not about me, this is not about my life or anything remotely about me. This is about you. So why can't you just bloody think of yourself for just two seconds?"

"No, actually, I can't." He shrugged. "This," he motioned towards the bandage over my tummy that was now being covered by my shirt. "is my fault. This is all my fault."

"Not everything is your fault." I snapped. "I'm my own fucking person, Thomas. I did this. I wanted to come with you. I wanted to run away. I wanted this!" I screamed the last part because I was just so mad. I was mad at him for lying to me when he told me that he thought my dad could help him, I was mad at my dad for letting Thomas take a deal, I was just so mad.

"Really?" He scoffed. "You want to spend the rest of your life in prison?"

"We could have figured something out."

"I did figure something out, Charlie, and this is it." Thomas pleaded, squeezing my hand tighter to try and get me to understand, but I just couldn't. I refused to understand why he would just give up when any judge with eyes could see that he was innocent. I mean, not technically, but he was a good person and they should be able to see that.

"This is not a solution, this is crap." I muttered, ripping my hand out of his grip. I didn't want to hold his hand, because I was just so incredibly infuriated with him.

A hurt expression flashed over his face when I did so and then he let out a long sigh. "Why can't you see that I did this for you, Charlie?"

"I can see that, clear as day, that's the freaking problem!" I yelped. "You did it for me. I'm not some sick puppy that you need to take care of, I'm not your responsibility."

"I know that, but I am responsible for what happens to you."

"No you're not! I was the one who lied to the police, I was driving the car, I threatened the guy at the diner, I bought all of that stuff at the stores to help you get away. I committed my own crimes."