Invisible Handcuffs

I scowled as I slammed the car door of Kenny’s truck closed. My fists were clenched and my breathing was ragged. My adrenaline was coursing through my veins. I hadn’t ever been this angry before; then again, this was the first time that my car was stolen.

I wanted to kill whoever stole my car. I wouldn’t let them get away with anything. I wanted them put away, not in jail, but put away. I wanted them somewhere really dark, cold and miserable. They would be there so long that they would forget what sunlight looks like. They were going to pay for taking my car.

And I knew exactly who did it.

It had to be the girl and those two guys. She was practically drooling over my car from the moment she saw me get out of it. When I came out she was gone along with her “accomplices”. I highly doubted that this was all a coincidence.

I pushed the door to the police station open, a scowl still on my face. The phone to the police station was ringing when I entered. They were people sitting in the few chairs lobby. A few of them were in handcuffs, while everyone else was simply waiting.

My mom looked up from her chair and ran over to me. She pulled me into one of her extremely tight hugs. I felt the air leave me as soon as she began to hug me.

I had called my mom and told her to call the police and report what happened, while I was waiting for Kenny to pick me up. She immediately assumed the worst when I called her but did it none the less. I already knew what reaction I would be getting from her once I came down to the station.

“Awe sweetie you’re okay. I was so worried,” she spoke.

“Can’t……breathe,” I croaked.

She gave me one last squeeze before she let go. She kept her hands on my shoulders as she stared at me directly in my eyes. Her expression held nothing more than concern.

“Did they hurt you? You didn’t get into a fight with them did you? Do we need to take you to the hospital? You—”

“Mom.” I interrupted. “I’m fine. They took the car while I was inside Starbucks. I didn’t have a chance to put up a fight,”

She sighed in relief. “Well that’s a good thing, you could have gotten hurt. You know they say that it’s safer to just give them what they want rather than put up a fight. Be grateful that they took it while you were inside,”

“What the h—” I stopped short of my rant as my mom sent me a scolding look.

I rolled my eyes at her expression. She didn’t honestly think that I was going to stay calm at a time like this. My car had been stolen, that wasn’t exactly something to keep calm about. Regardless of how I felt I straightened up, she was my mom after all.

“That makes no since mom. Why would I be glad that my car was stolen? If I wanted them to have my car, then I would have just handed them the keys. This is not something to be grateful about,”

My mom opened her mouth to speak, but stopped short when a police officer entered the room. She dropped her hands from my shoulders as she continued to stare at him.

He was a young cop, so he was probably rarely in the office doing paperwork. He had messy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was about 5’10” tall. He couldn’t be any older than 27.

He read the paper in his hands before he looked up at us. “Mr. Bieber?” he questioned.

I nodded my head. “Yeah?”

“I’m officer Hanks. Well, we’re going to need to take you in the back so that we can get your statement so your mom is going to have to come back with us,” he spoke. I nodded my head as I started walking towards him.

“And then we’re going to need you to identify the suspects,”

I scowled as an image of the girl and her friends entered my mind. I didn’t need to identify them. I already knew who it was. I knew what they looked like and I knew that they did it. You only identify criminals when you don’t know who did it.

I followed officer Hanks to a room in the back of the station, my mom trailing behind me. The room was practically empty. The light over head allowed the room to be well lit. A table sat in the middle of the room. At the table sat three chairs. One of the chairs had a clipboard sitting in front of it with paper.

I sat down at the chair with the clipboard in front of it. I filled out the paper work, giving them my statement. My mom signed everything that she needed to sign before giving the paper work to Hank. We sat in the back for five minutes before he said that we could identify the suspects.

I followed him down another hallway, with my mom walking beside me. I noticed that we were walking towards the back of the station, so I know that this wasn’t a long walk, but this wasn’t what caught my eye the most.

It was who was sitting in chairs at the end of the hallway. It was them. I could recognize them even from far away.

They were sitting in three chairs next to each other. The two guys were sitting uncomfortably in their chairs due to their handcuffs. Unlike the girl, they were handcuffed behind their backs. Both of the guys looked annoyed and uncomfortable.

The girl looked bored once more. Her wrists were handcuffed and sitting in her lap. Her head was thrown back, so that it was pressed against the white wall. Her eyes were closed as her breathing steadied. She was no longer wearing a hat, but her hair was still pulled back into a low ponytail.

My blood began to boil as I stared at them. My eyes narrowed in a glare as I clenched my jaw. I bawled up my fist as my nostrils began to flare. I was losing my temper.

“You!!” I yelled.

Hank and my mom both stopped walking as the stared at me. I could care less about them right now. All I could focus on was my anger towards them.

The guys both turned their heads so that they were staring at me. The girl opened her eyes and glanced at me from the corner of her eye.

I stomped towards them with my fist clenched. My anger flared with every step that I took.

“What—”

“Justin,” my mom interrupted.

I didn’t bother to look back at her. I stood in front of them three of them, glaring.

“It was them,” I muttered.

I clenched my fist tighter as the girl closed her eyes once more. My knuckles were turning white from the pressure.

Her face was still just as bored as it had been before. I was beginning to wonder if she ever wasn’t bored. She probably wasn’t bored when she was taking my car for a joy ride.

“But they can’t be much older than you…” I heard my mom say.

“You shouldn’t be concerned with age ma’am,” Hank spoke.

I finally turned around to face them, taking deep breathes to relax. My heart began to slow down until it was beating at its normal pace. I slowly unclenched my fists as I listened to what Hank was saying.

“This isn’t the first time that either one of them has been down here. There minors and they’ve been down here more times that I would like…actually…DJ here is an adult now isn’t he?”

The girl’s eyes suddenly flew open. She sat up straight before she looked over at “DJ”. His eyes were narrowed in a glare towards Hank. The girl continued to stare at DJ until he met her eyes. As soon as he did, she looked away from him.

The sound of heels clicking down the hallway caused me to turn around. A woman with blonde hair was walking down the hallway. She looked almost as young as Hank. Her blue heels clicked with every step that she took. She looked a bit irritated as she walked down the hallway.

“My client has an alibi, which has been confirmed in front of the sheriff so, she’s free to go,” she spoke.

“Well Mr. Bieber has just identified your client as one who took his truck,” Hank countered.

She raised her brow as she stared at hank. She then crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at him. “Well that can be considered as pure speculation. He didn’t see my client steal the car; therefore, we can’t exactly go on his statement. He only heard a comment from my client, that’s not exactly considerable evidence against my client,”

It suddenly clicked in my head about why she was here. She was the girl’s lawyer. She was here to get her off the hook.

“Angela…” the girl spoke. Everyone turned to look at her.

She sighed before she stood up. “I did it. I lied about my alibi, I stole his truck. I did it…without any help,” she softly spoke.

“A confession,” Hank nodded.

I clenched my fist once more as my eyes narrowed. I continued to glare at her as my as my breathing began to go ragged.

The girl refused to meet anyone’s eyes. She stared at the white wall next to her. Her expression was unreadable. All I could pick up on was the fact that she wasn’t regretting anything that she had done.

Angela looked confused, and angry. I could tell that she doubted something that the girl was saying. She stared at the girl with a skeptical look plastered on her face. Eventually she sighed and closed her eyes, muttering something about this being her day off.

Hank walked over to the girl and stood behind her. “You know where to go,”

She rolled her eyes before she started to walk down the hallway. I tried to control myself as they walked past me. It took all of my energy not to trip her up or even yell at her. I was beyond mad that she had stolen my car.

“Officer Hank…” my mom spoke.

He stopped walking as he turned around to face my mom. The girl stopped walking but didn’t bother to turn around.

“We aren’t going to press any charges,”

“What?!” I screamed.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What did she mean that she wasn’t going to press any charges? This was utterly insane. How couldn’t she press charges? The girl had already confessed that she had done it. She needed to be punished; I wanted her to be punished. I wanted her to suffer for even thinking about stealing my car.

“Mom she—”

“Maybe we could work something out instead,” Angela interrupted. “We shouldn’t just let this go unpunished,”

My mom nodded her head. “I’m sure that we can work something out,”

“No we can’t!!” I yelled. “She needs to go to jail, she stole my car. I’m not just going to let her get off for stealing a car, my car at that. Mom I want her to go to jail!!”

“Justin,” she scolded. “We are not, pressing charges and that is final,”

“But—”

“No buts. No go wait for me in the front while me and Ms. Angela work something out,” I stared at my mom in disbelief.

I was the one being punished instead of the actual criminal.