Decay

Well... That Could Have Gone Better...

I think we irritated the older of the officers by showing up so much later, but he just barked at us to sit down and shut up. There were two of them, waiting to talk to us briefly about what was happening before they began to take our statements. It seemed like the older of the officers- a short, balding man with a stomach the looked like he swallowed his last partner whole- was going to be playing the role of "bad cop" today. He stood there, looking like he had sucked on a lemon while the other spoke to us.

"Good morning. I'm Officer Kelly, and this is my partner, Officer Adams. We're here to talk to you about what happened last night. If it's okay with you all, we're going to talk to each of you just to see what you remember. If you don't want to talk to us, it's fine, but we would appreciate any information you're willing to share with us." He smiled, seeming to set everyone at ease. I'm sure it helped that he seemed to be around our age, though I supposed he had to be decently older to be an actual officer.

Almost before he finished speaking, the other officer, Adams, began growling at us. "If you know what's good for you, you'll cooperate. That means you sit on that bench and don't move until we tell you to. Do you understand?"

Don't say anything stupid. Don't say anything stupid. The others were glaring at me, the looks conveying that if I said a word, someone was going to attack me, police be damned. Well, that was reassuring.

Kelly coughed, shifting uncomfortably. "Okay, so the first person we need to talk to is..." He pulled a list from the desk and glanced at it. "Marissa?"

She stood, smirking sideways at us as she followed them into the room. I had such a bad feeling about this.

We sat in silence a moment, all of us unsure of whether we were supposed to sit in silence or if we could speak. Morgan sighed, leaning her head back against the wall with her eyes closed. Another moment or two passed before I began fidgeting with boredom.

"How long do you think this whole thing will take? It's been forever. Did they even think when they called us here? They could have told us we'd just be sitting here. I could have brought a book or something. I mean, this is a little ridiculous."

Novak laughed, looking over to me. From the looks of Morgan, she had fallen asleep on his other side. "It hasn't been that long, Cay. You really don't do well with any sort of silence or stillness, do you?"

I eyed him. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, every time I've seen you in any sort of situation, you're always doing something or surrounded by some type of movement. Even your still moments seem to be in some sort of motion. It's honestly kind of impressive."

"Well, I just... If I sit still, I'm not accomplishing anything. If I'm not doing anything in that place, why am I there?" I shifted uncomfortably. "Stillness is only comfortable when it's intended. This is just... unnerving..." I narrowed my eyes at the closed door, half believing that if I stared hard enough, I'd be able to see into the room through the door. "What do you think is being said in there? What are they asking her and what on Earth is she saying?"

"Um... I suppose they're just asking her about last night?" Novak seemed confused.

"Okay, I get that, but what is she saying? What bullshit web of lies is she spinning about me? About this whole situation?"

He sighed. "Oh, come on. It can't be that bad. What could a 16 year old girl say to actually fool people who do this for a living? Kelly seemed nice enough, and they seem to know what they're doing."

I couldn't help rolling my eyes at this. "You seem to forget she fooled half the school into believing that I did this in the time it took most people to wake up and eat breakfast. And what about Adams? He seems like just enough of a dick to agree with her."