Are You Locked Up in a World That's Been Planned Out for You?
Chapter thirteen
Life slowly began to go back to normal after that weekend. All anyone could talk about for a few days afterwards was Millie’s party. Jessica and I contributed to the talk, after all we did attend the party and nothing that dodgy happened during the party. It’s only the events that happened afterwards that were to remain a secret.
Speaking of which, no one had uttered a word about it. Jessica and I hadn’t even spoken about it since the day after, and I’m assuming Mike didn’t tell anyone as no unnecessary drama had come up.
All in all life was back to how it was before I kissed Mike, and the small crush I had began to harbour had now fizzled out. Back to my studies.
It was now unfortunately a Monday again. The only thing that could make it worse was the fact that it was Valentines Day – or “Hallmark day” as I liked to refer to it as.
I didn’t even have a problem with people splurging money on someone to say “Hey, I don’t really want to spend this much on you but I feel obliged to just for this one day” like the morons they were. No, I hated how public everyone made everything, in order to try and one up everyone else. Girls giggling and bragging about how much their boyfriends spent in order to compete, and guys doing everything as public as possible in order to be all macho. Barf.
Jessica was also driving me insane today too. It was the first time since we were probably twelve that she didn’t at least have some kind of date lined up, she usually at least had something platonic as a fall back plan. All she could do was whine as she saw girls around school carrying around roses. I was already feeling enough nausea, hearing her whining was not helping my mood.
I had planned to go to the precinct after school in order to have some winding down time with my dad. He was working on a particularly difficult rape case, and I needed to hand deliver him some food. I also needed to bitch about Valentines Day with someone. My dad wasn’t as strongly opposed to Valentines Day as me; his stance was that you should treat your significant other special no matter what day it was. He was open to my pessimism about the day however.
I was a little nervous about heading down to the 27th precinct, deathly afraid of running into Mike. I even found myself applying more makeup and getting changed into some decent clothes when I got home, just before I head out. I didn’t know whether I was doing it because I still had a small crush on him or because I wanted to keep up my standard of him finding me attractive. Either way, I didn’t think about it too much being scared of the answer.
I hadn’t been down to the precinct since our little adventure; I guess I was avoiding Mike. I knew I was being ridiculous and it was now time to go down there. People would start getting suspicious considering how many times I usually go and visit dad, and if I were to face him well I’d have to face him again one day. It’s better to treat it like removing a bandaid and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
I went to the usual shop I bought dad’s food from and ordered him a box of noodles, with lots of vegetables. I knew he wouldn’t feel like a salad today so I’d get him something that at least had some goodness in it.
Then I made my way down the street into the precinct. I approached the front desk to talk to a uniformed officer about dad coming out, but a familiar detective had approached me first.
“Hi Emma, how are you?” the black haired, brown eyed Italian detective asked me.
“Hey Tony, not too bad thanks. Is dad around?” I asked him curiously, feeling a little shy as I didn’t know Detective Profaci that well and had probably spoken to him less than five times in my entire life. I only really knew him by name, as he worked closely with the other detectives and was more of an assistant than an actual detective.
“I think he’s questioning a potential suspect right now. You should come through, it’s quite cold out here and I’m not sure how long he’d be.” Tony offered.
“Come in? As in, sit in the squad room and wait for dad?” I frantically asked, then realising how suspicious I sounded and tried to play it cool.
I looked at my watch. 4:50PM. There was a high chance that Mike would still be in the squad room if he was not out in the field investigating something. I was more than happy to finally come face to face with him, but if dad wasn’t there it might look like I was stalking him. Eep!
“Of course. You’re allowed to come through, everyone knows who you are and it’s not like the squad room is a top-secret facility or something. You can sit at your dad’s desk whilst you wait.” Tony said to me, as he began to lead me through the station.
I froze, but followed him through as if I was on autopilot. I couldn’t think of an excuse not to fast enough, and because I was deathly afraid of looking suspicious I went with the flow.
I went through the door that lead to the squad room, and followed Tony through. I had been in here many times and knew where I was doing, however I usually just met with dad outside the main desk because it was easier for him to come out than me to manoeuvre through the busy police station.
I was then taken to the room where all the detectives worked. It looked a little like a regular office, however it was a lot more run down than a normal office thanks to the public funding. Each detective had a desk that had a plaque with their name on it, and usually messy, messy papers as they didn’t have a lot of time to go through their paperwork.
As my eyes landed on my dad’s desk, I noticed that even he had a few stray papers scattered across his desk. Before Tony could even motion for me to sit anywhere I took a seat at dad’s desk, moving his papers into a neat pile as I put his food onto the desk.
I looked around, and on the other side of the room I saw two plaques that were facing each other – “Leonard Briscoe” “Michael Logan” and I sighed with relief as I realised they weren’t in the room. Even if they come by later hopefully it’s obvious I’m waiting for dad…
I was a little surprised when I saw Tony pull up a chair next to me, but thought he was just being polite and decided to extend the conversation. The more distractions from the fact that Mike may walk through that door, the better.
“So it’s Valentines day isn’t it? Pretty high schooler like you should have a date shouldn’t she?” Tony asked me.
I then felt a little awkward again. I wasn’t feeling uncomfortable because I thought he was being inappropriate or anything, but it felt a little awkward because I didn’t know him that well and had to try and be polite, when I wanted to rant about today.
“I don’t believe in that stuff.” I smirked, smacking my hand onto the table to add a dramatic effect.
“Why? It’s girls like you that usually lap it up.” Tony stated.
I decided to let his ‘girls like you’ comment slide, but unleashed the rage about how much I hated today out.
Speaking of which, no one had uttered a word about it. Jessica and I hadn’t even spoken about it since the day after, and I’m assuming Mike didn’t tell anyone as no unnecessary drama had come up.
All in all life was back to how it was before I kissed Mike, and the small crush I had began to harbour had now fizzled out. Back to my studies.
It was now unfortunately a Monday again. The only thing that could make it worse was the fact that it was Valentines Day – or “Hallmark day” as I liked to refer to it as.
I didn’t even have a problem with people splurging money on someone to say “Hey, I don’t really want to spend this much on you but I feel obliged to just for this one day” like the morons they were. No, I hated how public everyone made everything, in order to try and one up everyone else. Girls giggling and bragging about how much their boyfriends spent in order to compete, and guys doing everything as public as possible in order to be all macho. Barf.
Jessica was also driving me insane today too. It was the first time since we were probably twelve that she didn’t at least have some kind of date lined up, she usually at least had something platonic as a fall back plan. All she could do was whine as she saw girls around school carrying around roses. I was already feeling enough nausea, hearing her whining was not helping my mood.
I had planned to go to the precinct after school in order to have some winding down time with my dad. He was working on a particularly difficult rape case, and I needed to hand deliver him some food. I also needed to bitch about Valentines Day with someone. My dad wasn’t as strongly opposed to Valentines Day as me; his stance was that you should treat your significant other special no matter what day it was. He was open to my pessimism about the day however.
I was a little nervous about heading down to the 27th precinct, deathly afraid of running into Mike. I even found myself applying more makeup and getting changed into some decent clothes when I got home, just before I head out. I didn’t know whether I was doing it because I still had a small crush on him or because I wanted to keep up my standard of him finding me attractive. Either way, I didn’t think about it too much being scared of the answer.
I hadn’t been down to the precinct since our little adventure; I guess I was avoiding Mike. I knew I was being ridiculous and it was now time to go down there. People would start getting suspicious considering how many times I usually go and visit dad, and if I were to face him well I’d have to face him again one day. It’s better to treat it like removing a bandaid and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
I went to the usual shop I bought dad’s food from and ordered him a box of noodles, with lots of vegetables. I knew he wouldn’t feel like a salad today so I’d get him something that at least had some goodness in it.
Then I made my way down the street into the precinct. I approached the front desk to talk to a uniformed officer about dad coming out, but a familiar detective had approached me first.
“Hi Emma, how are you?” the black haired, brown eyed Italian detective asked me.
“Hey Tony, not too bad thanks. Is dad around?” I asked him curiously, feeling a little shy as I didn’t know Detective Profaci that well and had probably spoken to him less than five times in my entire life. I only really knew him by name, as he worked closely with the other detectives and was more of an assistant than an actual detective.
“I think he’s questioning a potential suspect right now. You should come through, it’s quite cold out here and I’m not sure how long he’d be.” Tony offered.
“Come in? As in, sit in the squad room and wait for dad?” I frantically asked, then realising how suspicious I sounded and tried to play it cool.
I looked at my watch. 4:50PM. There was a high chance that Mike would still be in the squad room if he was not out in the field investigating something. I was more than happy to finally come face to face with him, but if dad wasn’t there it might look like I was stalking him. Eep!
“Of course. You’re allowed to come through, everyone knows who you are and it’s not like the squad room is a top-secret facility or something. You can sit at your dad’s desk whilst you wait.” Tony said to me, as he began to lead me through the station.
I froze, but followed him through as if I was on autopilot. I couldn’t think of an excuse not to fast enough, and because I was deathly afraid of looking suspicious I went with the flow.
I went through the door that lead to the squad room, and followed Tony through. I had been in here many times and knew where I was doing, however I usually just met with dad outside the main desk because it was easier for him to come out than me to manoeuvre through the busy police station.
I was then taken to the room where all the detectives worked. It looked a little like a regular office, however it was a lot more run down than a normal office thanks to the public funding. Each detective had a desk that had a plaque with their name on it, and usually messy, messy papers as they didn’t have a lot of time to go through their paperwork.
As my eyes landed on my dad’s desk, I noticed that even he had a few stray papers scattered across his desk. Before Tony could even motion for me to sit anywhere I took a seat at dad’s desk, moving his papers into a neat pile as I put his food onto the desk.
I looked around, and on the other side of the room I saw two plaques that were facing each other – “Leonard Briscoe” “Michael Logan” and I sighed with relief as I realised they weren’t in the room. Even if they come by later hopefully it’s obvious I’m waiting for dad…
I was a little surprised when I saw Tony pull up a chair next to me, but thought he was just being polite and decided to extend the conversation. The more distractions from the fact that Mike may walk through that door, the better.
“So it’s Valentines day isn’t it? Pretty high schooler like you should have a date shouldn’t she?” Tony asked me.
I then felt a little awkward again. I wasn’t feeling uncomfortable because I thought he was being inappropriate or anything, but it felt a little awkward because I didn’t know him that well and had to try and be polite, when I wanted to rant about today.
“I don’t believe in that stuff.” I smirked, smacking my hand onto the table to add a dramatic effect.
“Why? It’s girls like you that usually lap it up.” Tony stated.
I decided to let his ‘girls like you’ comment slide, but unleashed the rage about how much I hated today out.