only nod her head as she struggled to stop crying.
She watched as another teardrop hit the tiled floor, joining the others. She couldn’t believe this was happening. The image of Sebastian being shoved to the ground kept playing through her head over and over again and–
This couldn’t be happening.
Not now.
This was all just a bad dream. Just a bad dream, Mikey kept telling herself as she sat there struggling to breathe because this couldn’t be happening. One minute, she was staring down at her lunch and the next…someone was telling her that she was under arrest.
After that, everything felt like a dream. She vaguely remembered being dragged into the principal’s office where they’d started asking them questions. She hadn’t been able to make sense out of what they were saying, but she knew that it was bad. The video of Sebastian sneaking into the school over and over again let her know that there was no getting out of this one.
After the last time that Sebastian snuck into the school and caught the vice-principal’s attention, they’d decided to take a closer look at the surveillance video. When they spotted Sebastian sneaking in and meeting with her in the cafeteria, they’d decided to check the old footage and what they found was enough for them to decide to involve the police. So, when Sebastian snuck into the school this time, they’d been ready for him.
They didn’t bother asking her who was sneaking into the school because they wanted to catch Sebastian in the act and they figured that she would warn him and now they were both in trouble. Sebastian was going to jail for criminal trespassing, whatever that meant, and they were waiting for her parents to make her expulsion official before escorting her off the property and…and…
She couldn’t breathe.
God, she couldn’t seem to get enough air, Mikey thought, desperately trying to get air into her lungs and–
“Help her! She can’t breathe!” Sebastian yelled.
The officer that had arrested her moved to check on her, but someone else got there first. Mikey felt the handcuffs keeping her arms locked behind her back removed before she found herself picked up and looking into her stepfather’s face, but it wasn’t her stepfather.
It was Uncle Darrin.
She could always tell them apart because he didn’t have the scar on his brow from the baseball she threw, Mikey thought numbly as he laid her down on the floor.
“It’s okay. Your Dad’s on the way,” Uncle Darrin said, giving her a warm smile as he checked her pulse. The sounds of her breathing grew ragged as she tried to focus on what her uncle was saying, but her head was spinning and she couldn’t seem to get enough air.
“Do something!” Sebastian screamed. “Her lips are turning blue!”
Still giving her that smile, she watched as Uncle Darrin reached for the microphone secured to his uniform and said, “This is unit fifty-seven. I need an ambulance at County Middle School for a fourteen-year-old girl in respiratory distress.”
“Unit fifty-seven, received for the fourteen-year-old girl in respiratory distress at County Middle School. I have a unit with an ETA of two minutes,” came the response a few seconds later.
“She’s under arrest,” the officer standing over them said, drawing her attention and making it harder to breathe.
“No, she’s not,” Uncle Darrin said calmly as he cupped her face and gently caressed her cheek with his thumb.
“Get the handcuffs off my nephew,” Uncle Darrin said only to add, “Now,” when the officer didn’t move.
“He violated the terms of his expulsion. We have it on video. He’s been sneaking into the school for more than two years now and she’s been helping him,” the officer said.
“Unless you have a valid restraining order, you’re going to have a hell of a time proving that a fourteen-year-old kid knew that he’d be arrested if he set foot on school property. So, I suggest that you take the handcuffs off him now and file for the restraining order that you’re not going to need because he’s never going to do it again.”
Mikey watched the officer glare down at them. Terrified that he wasn’t going to let Sebastian go, she opened her mouth and tried to beg him only she couldn’t seem to get the words out.
“Mikey?” Uncle Darrin said, looking upset for some reason. “Mikey? Mikey!” came the words that sounded far away as darkness enveloped her and pulled her down.
*-*-*-*
“We had to sedate her, but she’s going to be fine. We’d like to keep her overnight