When It Comes To You [√] BOOK TWO

16

Camila

“But I said that I don’t want to go.” I whined as Andres opened the door of his car.

He raised an eyebrow at me and stood waiting patiently.

I sighed and climbed in. Andres was forcing me to go to the police station to report those guys that had...raped me. The word felt disgusting as it rolled around on my tongue. I hadn’t ever referred to that incident as anything except The Thing in my head and it had somehow made it easier to live with and completely ignore. Now that I had told my brother, there was no way I could hide from it.

In a way, I felt relieved that I had finally told someone but in the same way it made going to sleep even harder. All I could think about was that night and what they had done to me. After three days of no sleep and ignoring my brother, he got fed up and forced me to take a shower and go with him to the police station.

The drive there was silent and since there was hardly any traffic, we got there under half an hour. We climbed out of the car and I walked to the building with wobbly knees and sheer terror embedded in my bones.

“Andres.” I whispered as the realisation of what I was about to do dawned on me.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. “Cami, you can do this, ok? This won’t go away until you deal with it. It’s time to stop hiding.”

I gulped and after taking a deep breath, pushed the glass door.

The first thing I saw when I walked in was a large oak desk with two doors sitting on either side of it. I had never been in a police station before, I had only ever seen one on T.V shows and now that I was seeing one, it seemed oddly quiet.

“How can I help you?” the lady at the desk asked.

Her blonde hair was pulled tightly into a bun on top of her head and she looked like she’d much rather be anywhere else at the moment.

Andres took over and told her why we were there while I tried to control the scary thoughts running through my head.

What if they didn’t believe me?

I had waited two whole months to come forward.

What if Gary was one of them? What if they came after me for trying to snitch? Terrible things happen to snitches.

“Cami.” Andres’ voice brought me back to reality.

I gulped and followed the two of them down a hallway. At the end of the hallway was a large room with little desks and many different people sitting at them. Now this looked more like a police station: I saw people walking around with coffee mugs and stacks of paper. Men and women yelled at each other and into the telephones at their desks. The whole place was a bustle of activity.

We walked past them and headed for another office. On the brown door were the letters: Chief Detective B. Mason. The lady walked us in and closed the door shut behind her.

“Hello, how may I help you?” the man at the big desk asked with a warm smile on his face.

He looked around his mid forties to early fifties with grey peppered in his dark hair. I don’t know why but I instantly trusted him. He looked like an honest man and that face held too much kindness to be anything but.

I sat down and before I knew it, I was retelling the story I had told my brother a few days ago with a small device recording my every word.

After two hours or so, Detective Mason let us go and handed me a pamphlet.

“You might want to get your own therapist or something but I suggest you go there. It is half the cost of a normal therapist and it’s helped a couple of people I know.” He said as I read the words on the pamphlet.

“Thank you.” I said while stuffing the thing in my back pocket.

We left the police station and climbed back into the car. Andres squeezed my hand and gave me a proud smile before driving off. I turned my head and looked out the window and for a second I thought I had seen Cyrus standing on the pavement.

I almost called to him but he disappeared. I had probably just imagined it anyway.

Since the morning that I had shouted at him for pretty much nothing, I hadn’t seen him around. I had seen Sky around the neighbourhood and she occasionally greeted me but I hadn’t even heard from Cyrus. I felt a little guilty for lashing out at him; it hadn’t been his fault and I wanted to tell him that.

I vowed to talk to him the next time I saw him, whenever that was. I silently hoped he hadn’t gone back to New York.

“Do you want to go to rehearsals or would you rather I take you home?” Andres asked.

“Uhm, let’s go. I haven’t seen Mel in a while and I need a distraction.” I smiled at him.

He nodded and carried on the drive to the studio. My brother was the leader of the hottest dance crew in Miami: BreakAss.

BreakAss was a hip-hop dance crew that consisted of Melissa (Drey’s girlfriend), Tipz (Real name: Tyrone), Mercutio, Sarah, Ashley, Jax and a bunch of other people that I didn’t know that well.

I climbed out of the car when he parked outside a dodgy-looking building. The place had been abandoned for goodness knows how long and Drey had decided to fix it up a little bit and make it a kind of studio. Before I reached the metal door, it burst open and a purple-haired girl ran through and jumped on top of me.

“Mel, lemme – go. You’re choking me!” I laughed into her thick mane.

She let go and smiled up at me. “You bitch! I haven’t heard from you in goodness knows how long!”

I smiled back, her excitement
rubbing off on me. “Sorry. I’ve been a bit busy.”

She frowned at my tone but didn’t say anything. She knew there were some things I kept to myself but she didn’t mind – she knew if I wanted to talk about something I would. I probably loved her more than my idiot brother who was dangerously showing affection for a certain new neighbour of ours.

“Drey get in here! You’re late!” I heard Tipz yell.

I could tell it was him because he had the squeakiest voice I had ever heard in a male.

“Just a minute!” Drey yelled back and grabbed his girlfriend out of my arms.

“Hey babe.” He greeted her.

Mel rolled her eyes at him and pulled out of his grasp. “We need to practise. The competition is in a few weeks. And, not to mention, I’m very angry at you.”

And with that she stomped off into the building, her purple hair bouncing with every step. I shrugged at my brother’s shocked expression and followed my best friend in.