Salted Caramel Coffee (COMPLETED!)

Chapter Twenty Four} €¡rçü$

     Tears steam down my face like mini waterfalls, sinking into every pore on my face and cramming itself into each crevice in my cheeks. What did I just do?

     Jansen doesn't look shocked. She doesn't look mad, or smug or... anything much really. Mostly, she just looks annoyed. Maybe it's just the way my vision is through the magnification and blur of my infinite crying loop, but I swear I see her roll her eyes.

     I wipe my nose with the back of my hand, only managing to smear tears and snot across my nose and upper lip. "What are you looking at?" I try to snap. It comes out sounding childish, and not like me at all. "Surprised? What, you don't think a fifteen year old could pull off a murder."

     "Oh, cut the crap, will you?" Jansen says, looking about ready to walk right out the milky-white door and never look back. "Grace already confessed. Won't stop crying, too."

     My heart freezes, a perfect reflection of my body. I can't move. It's a struggle to even bring myself to speak. "She's lying." I spit out, my voice hoarse through a swollen throat.

     "No she's not," Jansen chuckles bitterly, holding a finger to her ear. When she pulls it away, I see a tiny black orb placed inside, a small green light glowing within it. She can hear what's going on inside the other rooms!

     I want desperately to snatch the earpiece from her and listen in on Blaze's conversation; I might have if it weren't for the glass wall in front of me. But I can't. So I just sit and watch, the whole thing completely out of my control.

     "Why would you take the blame for someone who tried to kill you?" Jansen asks after a moment, her face softening. Blaze must have explained everything then. Everything.

     I scoff and shrug, my tears finally slowing. "I love her, I guess." With a deep sniff, I lean back in my chair, biting my lip in hopes that it'll help me stop crying.

     "You love her?"

     "I guess."

     Jansen pauses for a moment, sympathy flashing over her eyes like someone standing inside her pupils accidentally turned on the wrong light. But it's gone just as soon as it came, and within a blink she's back to her normal self. "That's a stupid reason." She says, her back suddenly as stick straight as the line that she's pressed her lips into. "If Grace didn't confess, I could have you on your way to The Graveyard right now."

     The thought of Blaze in that crazytown scares the shit out of me. I can practically see her, standing behind an electric fence, her beautiful smile wiped from her face. I can't stand the image of that amazing girl being treated like a member of the circus. Worthless. Only good for being a freak.

    "Wait a minute, you aren't sending Blaze- Grace. You aren't sending Grace to the Graveyard, are you?" I hate to sound so frantic, but I'm terrified. Whelp, there goes the whole facade I've been building up for only my entire life.

     Jansen raises her eyebrows, shrugging. How dare she not care! We're talking about a human life being stolen by the government! "We could have a trial if she wants, but she's already admitted to committing the crime. On recording. If Grace honestly insists on addressing the court, she'll have a DNA test and a confession against her, both accessible by the judge."

     "She wants a trial," I blurt out. I'm not even sure why I'm saying this. Blaze tried to kill me, and now I'm helping her? It doesn't make any sense! And what makes even less sense is why Blaze would tell her interrogator that she was part of plotting my murder. It just doesn't add up...

     "That's not really for you to decide." Jansen taps her earpiece again, biting the inside of her lower lip thoughtfully. "If Grace wants to go to court, she can say so herself."