FicWad

“He said what?” I gasped. Detective James just nodded at me. “Oh stop it. That’s not what happened.” I tell him looking up at the ceiling… Fucking Ray man! I knew he was gonna blow this out of proportion… I just knew it…Why the fuck did I say anything to him for… “Fucking Ray.” I mumble under my breath and Detective James shifted in his seat a little.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened.” He replies and I kinda rolled my eyes a little.

“Nothing happened.” I tell him and he glanced down in his folder. “What does it say in there?” I ask and he shrugged slightly.

“Just reviewing his statement...” He says and I lean forward curiously.

“What did he say?” I ask.

“He said that you’d probably deny it.” He tells me and I made a face.

“I'm not denying anything- nothing happened.” I say and he shuts the folder.

“So you're saying Mr. Toro is a liar.” He says and I frown.

“No, Ray doesn’t lie, not ever.” I say defensively. He kinda just arched his eyebrows up at me like one of us was lying then… “He just misunderstood a little, okay?” I try to explain.

“Well what did he misunderstand?” He says encouragingly and I frown.

“You're trying to trick me and I don’t like it.” I tell him starting to get upset. I decided right then and there I didn’t like this James guy… The way he was twisting things around. Getting me to say things I don’t mean to say…

“Elle I'm just trying to figure out what's going on.” He says to me. Yeah, well so am I, I thought to myself as I shut my eyes for a second.

“Can I have some water please?” I ask him, stalling slightly. He nods and pushes it over towards me. I took a drink from it slowly… and then another… trying to think of what I was gonna say to this guy…

“You feel better?” He asks when I put the empty cup down.

“No.” I tell him truthfully.

“Do you want me to get someone to come sit with you, maybe that might make it easier-“ He says and I guess a look of fear must've passed over my face. I mean is he fucking crazy! I can’t tell Gerard this! I mean that’s why I told Ray in the first place. “Uh no?” Detective James says, I guess reading my expression.

“There's nothing to tell.” I reply becoming instantly defensive again. He sighed a little and shifted in his seat once more, I guess getting ready to try a different approach. “Look why is my husband even here?” I demand and he looked at me a little thrown off.

“Excuse me?” He says and I frown.

“I mean did you guys call him or…?” I asked still trying to make sense of everything. Detective James frowned a little and glanced back down at his folder.

“Well he's you're next of kin, so he had to file the initial report.” Detective James says plainly and I wrinkle my face a little. “Next of kin, it means-“ He tries to say and I scoff at him.

“I know what it means!” I tell him a little annoyed. “I'm saying who the fuck asked him to file a report.” I snap at him… I was just so angry all of a sudden. Why the hell was I even here? I didn’t want to be here, and now that they got me they're obviously not gonna let me go…

“Well I suppose Mr. Way did.” He tells me and I bite my lip at the mention of Gerard's name… ‘Oh Gerard…’ I kinda sighed to myself… He's not gonna like this… not at all…

“Did you tell him?” I ask and Detective James looked at me quizzically. “What Ray said, did you tell him this?” I clarify and he shakes his head no.

“Uh no, but he is in the hall with Mr. Toro so…” He shrugs a little.

“And Bobby?” I ask weakly and he nods.

“Aw fuck.” I mumble…

“Elle, no one’s going to be angry with you, this is not your fault.” He says and I shake my head no in disagreement… It was my fault. I should've told him no. I should've stopped him. I should've fucking said something the second he touched me…but I didn’t. And now he's gonna get in trouble too…

“Look nothing happened. I don’t know why you guys are making such a big deal out of this.” I tell him trying to convince him to drop it.

“Elle sexual assaults are very serious.” He tells me somewhat scoldingly.

“You think I don’t know that!” I snap at him. What an ass... “I know what an assault is all too well and this certainly wasn’t that.” I tell him and he looked at me like he wanted to ask what I meant but I was just all wound up. I wouldn’t let him get a word in…”He just put his fucking hand on my leg. That’s it. He didn’t grope me. He didn’t rape me. He didn’t hold me down and choke me. It was no big deal.” I tell him gritting my teeth a little. Detective James just sat there for a moment, watching me settle myself back down… the whole thing was just ridiculous…I can’t believe I'm even in here, having this conversation… Detective James shifted forward in his seat again. I guess he was trying something else now… His voice was softer and more compassionate now, but I still thought he was full of shit…

“Elle, you know there are different kinds of assaults.” He tells me and I didn’t answer him. “And touching can be inappropriate no matter where it’s done.” He says and I suddenly feel like I'm in the middle of an after-school special and I guess I rolled my eyes slightly cause Detective James frowned. “He didn’t necessarily have to ‘grope’ you, he could’ve touched your elbow. It’s the intentions behind it.” He tries to explain to me and I feel myself getting angry once more…

“And who are you to judge his intentions?” I demand.

“I'm not the judge. I'm not the jury. My job is simply to gather the facts.” He says calmly and rationally. Reminded me of Ray… “If Mr. Samuel did something that crossed the line- he needs to be held accountable for it.” He tells me and I shook my head a little. I wasn’t really disagreeing with what he said. I think people need to be held accountable, but Mr. S didn’t do anything that I didn’t let him… “Elle he's in a position where he's in constant contact with young impressionable girls-“ Detective James tries to tell me and I lose it once again.

“You know what just stop.” I interrupt him. “You want some facts. Well the fact is I'm 18 yrs old. Married or not. I'm 18. If I want to go to his house is that a crime?” I demand and he just looked at me for a second.

“Youre still maintaining that you went there on your own?” He replies arching his eyebrows up at me.

“Yes. No. I mean I'm just saying the fact that I was there is not a crime is it?” I snap back at him.

“Well, no it’s not a crime, its just unethical.” He says and I shrug.

“Unethical…says you.” I smirk at him. “You know what, you say you don’t judge but you do. You're judging him and you're judging me!” I tell him pressing my lips together… I was just so angry at everything…

“Elle are you implying that you and he-“ He starts to say and I sigh loudly.

“I'm not implying anything” I tell him and he looked at me cautiously like he wasn’t sure if I was lying…”No, but of course that’s what you would think. I know what you think of me.” I tell him crossing my arms on my chest defensively… “But no -I am NOT fucking Mr. Samuel, and you know what even if I was, it be none of your business anyway… I am 18 that’s the consenting age right?” I tell him and he shrugged.

“Uh yeah it is.” He replies and he scribbles something else down in his folder…

“So whatever then, I can let him put his hands on me if I want.” I say snidely and he kept his head down as he continued to write something…

“Did you?” He asks pretending like he didn’t care, but I know he did…

“Do you care?” I ask and he looks back up at me. “I mean I see how you're looking at me. You and that other one… telling me to keep my love life in order?” I say suddenly realzing what he meant by those comments…”You know what, just whatever, yeah Ill try to do that, sorry to have wasted your time.” I tell him. I was just completely frustrated…

“Okay were obviously not going to able to get anywhere.” He says and I shrug like whatever. I didn’t even care anymore.

“So you gonna close out that folder too? Chalk it up to my obvious sluttiness like the other guy did?” I ask smirking a little. He seemed to be frustrated too… Or maybe he just really didn’t care either… I don’t know…either way, looked like I won…

“Well I'm going to have to.” He says as he shuts the folder roughly. “There's simply not enough to go on based on Mr.Toro's statement and if you're refusing to back it up-“ He says like it’s my fault…Like there's a horrible injustice being done and it’s my fault…

“So he's not in any trouble?” I say weakly, just double-checking once more as I stood up…

“Well no, not legally but I doubt the school board is going to look too kindly at him.” He said like he was taking pleasure in the thought…

“What do you mean?” I ask a bit confused now…

“Well his conduct wasn’t illegal. Just unethical. And I can tell you now, the school board operates under very strict guidelines.” He says and I frown. He was making it sound like Mr. S was gonna be fired…

“Well how will they even know?” I ask.

“We have to report it to them… it’s ‘procedure’. He says and I smirk…

“Well lemme tell you what you can do with your procedures….”