Family Durant

Chapter Six

Chapter Six: The Talk

Alex ended up hitching a ride with David back to the police station. David had led him through the building to his office where he told Alex to make himself comfortable and that he would be back in a few minutes with coffee or hot chocolate or orange juice, whatever he was in the mood for. Alex absentmindedly chose orange juice, not particularly caring what he ended up drinking. He was still struggling to reconcile everything in his head. His girlfriend of two years was dead of a heroin overdose. His girlfriend of two years had despised drugs. The two did not mesh. He had no clue what he was supposed to make of this situation. He was upset and confused and for a minute the fevered thought popped into his mind that maybe this was all some big make-up prank Clara had set up. It almost made sense; she could have gotten her father to talk to David and he would have relayed the news verbatim after a few rehearsals and Clara was going to come right through that door any minute now and they were going to kiss and they were going to apologize for the fight and- No. That was completely stupid. Clara wasn't a pranking person and moreover Clara would have outright apologized and not gone through such a convoluted scenario.

He leaned forward, his head in his hands, massaging his temples. Alex didn't want to cry in public, but a few tears slipped out anyways. Oh, well. It wasn't a shameful thing. He had a damn good reason to cry. Looking over at David's desk he saw the case file. For a second he almost stood up and went to look through it but then he stopped himself. The urge to read it was nothing more than morbid curiosity and seeing as he wasn't involved in the case beyond the info he could give the police why bother to read it? He wouldn't be able to do anything more than offer a bit of context to the events within. He stood up again and sat back down again. If she had died of a heroin overdose, he didn't want to see that. Clara wouldn't have wanted him to see that. She would have wanted him to remember her the way she had been, not the way she was the morning of the fight, not the way she'd died.

The door opened and David stepped in holding two glasses of orange juice. "Here you go." Alex took it with a mumbled thanks and David walked around his desk and sat down. He nodded at the case file. "Do you want to read it?"

"Christ, no." Alex paused for a second and realized the rudeness of how he had phrased it. "Sorry; no thank you. I just didn't- I don't want to see how she died. I don't care if that sounds cowardly or anything; I don't want to remember her like that."

"I wouldn't call that cowardly at all. It makes complete sense to me." David paused and took a sip of his orange juice. Alex responded in kind. David swallowed and continued speaking. "I've watched Clara and Katie grow up their whole lives. I've never had to work on a case like this before. It's difficult when it's someone you know. Why would you think I'd consider it cowardly?"

Alex took a large gulp before responding. "Well, my parents would probably call it that. They say that if you can't accept the ugly side of people then you shouldn't be allowed to accept the beautiful side." He let out a slight scoff. "Clara wasn't perfect and I knew that. She had problems and I didn't mind them because everything else about her was more than worth it. This isn't something I need tainting my memories of her. I can accept how she died, that doesn't mean I have to look at it."

David leaned back in his chair. "I couldn't have said it better myself. Your parent's philosophy has some merit to it, but there is a limit." He gathered up a few errant pieces of paper from around his desk and put them in the file. When he was finished he leaned forward. "Out of all the people I've had to tell this news to, you're taking it surprisingly well."

Alex coughed and nearly spilled his OJ. He wondered if he was coming down with something, his throat was sore and he'd been coughing all day. "That's just on the outside. I'm trying to keep calm."