Flight Risk

It was a eight days before I felt like going to school. I decided that Thursday was best to begin again, only one day standing in my way. I could handle it, I was sure of it. My mom came to my room like she did each morning and asked if I was feeling better. When I opened my bedroom door, she looked stunned to see that I was showered and dressed.

I grabbed my bag and promised that I was as I side-stepped around her. I'd tried to convince her that it was a stomach bug that kept me in bed, but I could see in her eyes that she knew I cried at night, perhaps she'd even heard me as I tried to muffle myself.

"I can drive you to school, Everly," she offered, leaning against the counter of the kitchen as I headed towards the front door.

"I'm fine," I replied, "I'll see you after school."

As I slung my bag over my shoulder and was about to head out the door, I remembered that there was no one else waiting to take me. Micki wouldn't be showing up and I was thankful that Zack wasn't either. Reluctantly, I stepped outside and closed the door behind me. My driveway was barren of foreign cars.

My eyes moved down to the corner of my street where kids were grouping together to wait for the bus that I'd never had to ride before. When it came, I climbed the three steps and found the first seat I could, crossing one leg over the other as the bus lurched down the street. I wasn't concerned about being late to practice, at the moment I could've cared less to see those girls.

I walked into the building with my hood pulled over my head and my hands shoved into my sweatshirt pocket. I headed towards the gym where my team met every morning. I could hear the girls up and moving already as I walked between the double doors.

"Granger! Where have you been?" Coach shouted across the gym when she saw me walk in. The girls' eyes watched me as she hurried over to me. When she got close enough to really see me, she looked concerned. "Everly, are you okay?"

I nodded and pushed my hood off. As her eyes ran over my messy hair, I could see the tinkers in her brain working to formulate a conclusion. One that had strongly suggested I was anything but okay.

"I'm fine," I spoke, nodding again to reassure her, "I just haven't been feeling good. Sorry about missing practice." I glanced at the clock on the wall. "And being late."

Coach's frown deepened and she touched my shoulder and slid her arm around me. "It's alright, Granger, but take it easy today. You still don't look like you're quite up to par."

I nodded and headed towards the team.

I watched the other girls' eyes on me as I let my coach lead me in their direction. I scanned over the eyes that were on me and met the back of Micki's head as she pretended I wasn't there. Anger bubbled just under my skin, but it was muted by something more powerful; something I didn't want to experience.

I dropped down onto the floor and pulled my messenger bag into my lap as the team started running sprints. I searched my bag for the iPod and popped the buds into my ears, quickly changing the song from what I had paused the night before.

Honestly, I didn't feel up practice or even being out of bed. I put my earbuds in and pulled my hood over my head as I began a slow jog around the gym, trying to work back up to the stamina I had before my week long absence.

After my third lap, someone roughly grabbed me from behind. From the way it felt, they grabbed a fistful of my hoodie and yanked. I shouted as I smacked the person away and pulled my buds out of my ears. "What do you want?" I asked the girl standing there, looking at me like I was stupid.

"Coach has been calling you," she stated, her eyes flicking towards the door that lead to the office, "She wants you to meet her now."

I nodded without reply and turned back towards the way I came. As I glanced at my teammates, many of them looked away, but Micki met my eyes with defiance. I ignored her and hurried to my coach's room.

"You wanted to talk to me again," I said as I rounded the corner into the office. I stuck my hands in my pockets and stood a little straighter when the attendant from the office was standing there expectantly.

"Everly Granger," she said almost like she was greeting me.

"Yeah." I nodded, putting my iPod in my pocket.

"I need you to come with me," she stated, "There are police officers that want to speak to you about a pretty serious matter."

In the last week, my life had consisted of constant visits from cops who wanted to make sure they 'got my story straight'. Each time they asked the same questions and I gave them the same answers, knowing it was the same BS that Zacky was spewing where ever he was. I wanted to ask about him, to make sure he wasn't arrested or in jail, but I didn't want to seem too eager, too worried, like I knew there was a possibility of nine years behind bars.

When I got to the office I pushed my hood off my head and stared at the officers. They looked to me when I walked in. They were new, I hadn't seen them before. They each held out their hands for me to shake.

"I'm Teller and this is Mauchlin," the female cop introduced like we were going to see each other more than once, "You're Everly?"

"I prefer Granger," I replied, knowing that they wouldn't call me it anyways, "I thought I answered all your questions?"

"Maybe we have new ones," Mauchlin replied easily, holding a clip board in one of his hands. He turned to the office lady who'd escorted me and asked if there was anyway we could talk privately.

She pointed him towards the back conference room. I walked around the main desk into the conference room and nonchalantly dropped into one of the over sized plush chairs that surrounded the table. Both of the officers followed me inside and closed the door with the school officials on the other side. Officer Teller rolled a chair over to me and sat down at my side.

"Sweetheart," she spoke softer than ever. She reached out and gently touched my hand. "We just want to understand the type of relationship that you had with Zachary Baker."

I pressed my palms together and studied the cop in front of me. Her hair was dark and short, falling just below her ears. Despite the caring, easy smile, her eyes were serious. "I already explained all of this to the other officers. Draven Bennett lied about Zack and I having a romantic relationship."

She frowned and spared at glance at her partner, who stood in front of the door, unintentionally blocking the only window in the room. When she turned back to me, she sighed and put her shoulders back. "Everly, we can't help you if you don't help yourself."

"I don't need help," I grumbled, wishing that someone would believe me. Even though Zack and I were lying about never being together, I didn't need a savior. Zack had promised to fill the roll.

"Please don't get hostile with us," she said, maintaining her calm demeanor, "I understand that you care about him, but what he did wasn't right and you both know that or else you wouldn't be lying about about the kind of relationship you and Zack Baker had."

This conversation was practically a complete replica of the one I had just days ago, when this all began. I relaxed my posture and kept my expression readable, but complacent. I knew better than to try to defend myself against their words, they would only read into each move I'd make.

I relaxed and then I answered, "Zack and I are just friends." I licked my lips and tilted my face away. "But I don't really have any right now since I'm not allowed to talk to any of them and they're not particularly interested in getting caught in Draven's little hissy fit."

"Why would Draven Bennett gain be making up these accusations?"

"He's a jealous boy who has liked me as long as I can remember," I stated blatantly, "When I wouldn't go out with him, he got angry and started targeting Zack."

"His hatred of Mr. Baker came out of no where?" she questioned, "Because there's an incident report from your school stating that you were caught on campus, during a suspension, partaking in PDA with Zachary Baker."

"There were rumors after that," I replied, running a hand through my hair, "But it was just a joke and it was nothing more than a peck. Draven was obviously upset about it."

Officer Mauchlin moved forward and rested his hands on the table. "Did Mr. Baker get angry about the accusations? Is that when he confronted Draven?"

Agreeing seemed like the simple solution. An assault charge was definitely lesser than statutory rape, but our stories would deviate if I agreed and if Zack were to say anything different, we would lose all credibility.

I looked up at the clock on the wall and the officer's did too. Teller sighed under her breath and gently patted her hand against the table. "I'll walk you to get your things," she said, "We wouldn't want you to be late for your first day back to school."

I nodded and stood up, thankful that there was just fifteen minutes before the first bell would ring. As she guided me out of the conference room and to the main office, I made a plan to find Johnny during the day and relay the plan to Zacky. That was if Johnny was still interested in being anywhere near me.

I had put the guys through a lot just by coming into their lives. Sure, it'd initially been Brian who introduced me to them, but I'd latched on and hadn't let go since. I could've saved everyone a lot of trouble if I let myself continue on the path I was going.

"Why do you get here so early?"

I side-glanced to her. "Softball practice, usually."

She nodded. "What position?"

"First," I said, "Varsity co-captain."

"Sorry to pull you away from that," she said, "It must be important for you to be there."

I nodded and stuck my hands in the pocket of my hoodie, wanting nothing more than to pull my iPod out and drown her out.

She spoke again when she realized that I wasn't going to. "It must be hard to interact with Mickhalah right now," she said, causing me to realize that they knew more about my life than they were admitting, "Picking sides must've been terrible for her... and for you."

"Sometimes, it comes down to doing the right thing and being there for your friends." I crossed the hall towards the locker room door and she followed, standing up straight as I leaned in the door frame.

"I see," she murmured, her head dipping gently in a slow nod. Then she looked up to my eyes and smiled. "Alright, Granger, you have a good day back at school. We will be seeing you again soon."

I slipped the rest of the way into the locker room just to get out of eyesight. I headed through and came out of the other door that lead straight into the gym. My team was just beginning to gather their things in the center of the gym. When the door clanged shut behind me, they looked up and stared.

"I'm not a Lifetime movie," I muttered just loud enough for them to hear. All their prying eyes turned back to what they were doing, except for Mickhalah. I ignored her and grabbed my stuff from the floor before following the majority of the group back to the locker room to change for school.

"Granger, wait up." Micki hurried over and tried to turn me around by my shoulder. When I shrugged her off, she sneered and roughly grabbed my arm. "I didn't know, okay?"

Our team shot nervous glances back at us as they funneled into the locker room. I waited until the door closed to answer her. "I don't care if you knew about your brother telling the whole world or not," I scoffed, not wanting to look at her, "What I care about is that you gave him the leverage to do it in the first place."

"He's my brother," she explained, trying to meet my eye, "He was upset about you and Zack and I was just trying to make him feel better."

"By telling him all about me and Zack?!" I shouted, whipping around to face her with my hands balled into fists. "How would rubbing it in his face make him feel any better, Micki? Of course he would run right to the police with it!"

"I was trying to make him get over you," she exclaimed, "I thought if he realized it was never going to happen that he'd move on and find someone else."

"So much for keeping my secrets," I sneered as I turned around and hoisted my bag higher onto my shoulder. I hurried to the locker room and past the other girls to mine. I quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a clean t'shirt before pulling my hoodie back on, sticking my buds in my ears, and rushing out of the room, leaving them with more questions than before.

The only reason I was sticking it out was for the hope that Johnny would be here and would be willing to relay my message to Zack. This change in our story was the only hope I had to save him.