Repressed

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Nicholas arrived shortly after. He didn't look pleased to be there. The officer sat Jamie, Nicholas, and me in another room.

Jamie recounted his story, and Nicholas looked mad. More than mad, really, he looked furious. "I told you not to tell anyone!"

Jamie looked him dead in the eye. "I wanna help Oliver. So if this is gonna help Oliver, then it's worth telling some secret you have."

"Start talking," the officer commanded.

Nicholas glared at Jamie before he began speaking. "This isn't my thing to tell. Make Oliver."

I tried to speak, but the officer interrupted. "Oliver said he doesn't know."

Nicholas looked at me. "You and Lewis. When we were twelve. He was fourteen. Remember?"

I shook my head.

Nicholas sighed. "If you won't say anything, then... Lewis is dead, anyway."
"He's dead?" I broke in.

Nicholas and Jamie both looked at me in shock. "You were there, Oliver," Jamie spoke. "He was shot. The doctors said he was dead on arrival at the hospital."

I let my head drop. I couldn't cry. No tears came to my eyes.

The officer sounded frustrated now. "Nicholas."
"Right, right. Um, when we were twelve and Lewis was fourteen, the three of us would have sleepovers at Lewis's and my house. We would sleep in the RV outside, just because it was further away from my parents. Sometimes we would play truth and dare. Lewis would always dare Oliver. He'd, um, tell Oliver to go into the back room with him. I would wait in the front. I never really knew what happened, um, but Oliver would always come out looking scared. I'd ask him what happened, but he never told me."

"Oliver?" the officer asked.

"Why does it matter? This doesn't relate to anything."

"It could help us. Any bit of information."

"I don't know. I don't remember. It must have been something unimportant, or I would have remembered."

"Sometimes," the officer began. "If a person goes through a particularly traumatic experience, their brain will block that memory from their brain."
"Nothing happened!"

"So you remember that nothing happened? I thought you didn't remember."
"Lewis - he wouldn't do anything to me. He loves - he loved me."

The officer grunted. "You're going to talk to a psychiatrist. Someone who can help you remember. This could be important."