Are You Locked Up in a World That's Been Planned Out for You?
Chapter seven
“So I’m curious. What does someone your age with your background do on a Friday night?” Mike asked me, turning to me as we were now stuck in a major traffic jam.
“I uh, wait. What do you mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes, as I couldn’t be sure exactly what he was trying to say.
“Well, I could ask what teenage girls your age do on a Friday, but as you’ve all been exposed to different factors you all do different things. That’s a lot coming from a detective, because we all can’t stand teenagers and like to stereotype you as negatively as possible.” Mike stated, but chuckled a little at the end to add some humour to his otherwise true statement.
“That’s an odd statement to make. I’m sure you were young once, and not even that long ago. How old are you, anyway?” I asked, crossing my arms subconsciously as I began to feel a little uncomfortable with this conversation.
“Didn’t your parents ever teach you manners? Asking a person’s age could be considered quite rude.” Mike teased.
“No, not really. My mother died a month after I was born. My father, being a single father and wanting to pursue a career of justice has worked hard his entire life and didn’t really have time for formalities. I mean yeah, he raised me to the best he could and taught me right from wrong, but it was never an in depth lesson into manners.” I replied coolly, but smiled a bit to show I wasn’t actually offended.
Most people backed down at this point. I absolutely hated it when people teased me about things like what Mike had said, so I always pulled out the ‘my mother died, my father walked hard’ line and they shut the hell up. But with Mike, it was different. He was teasing me for the sake of teasing, not because he wanted to put an opinion across and made it out like it was a joke to make the opinion seem less harsh. Therefore I was less harsh in my reply.
“You make a fair point. I’m thirty two.” Mike replied.
“Wow! Seriously? That’s like, pretty close to my dad’s age. That’s weird.” I replied, scrunching up my nose.
“Emma, you’re not doing a good job to try and protect your reputation of not being your typical moron teenager. Besides, why is it weird I’m your dad’s age? Lennie is a lot more past your dad’s age, is that weird?” Mike asked me, and began to slowly move the car forward as the traffic was finally beginning to move just a little.
“Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know, this is going to sound silly but here it goes. Most of the cops are the precinct treat me like I’m an infant. You’re the first person, besides Lennie to treat me like an equal. I guess I just assumed you were closer to my age rather than my father’s age.” I shrugged, my face heating up as I picked my words carefully.
“Yeah, but we’ve had this conversation before, and even previously today. Cops just automatically want to protect the young and vulnerable, which you fall under being so young. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think eighteen is that young. In other countries you’re old enough to drink, and in this country you can now gamble, vote and join the military. It’s double standards. We push for younger perpetrators to be tried as an adult, yet we treat people the same age as a child.” Mike explained to me.
“You’re right I guess. It’s different though…in Miami my uncle and auntie are both detectives and both of them have taken me into the Miami-Dade Crime Lab. It’s completely different, although our conversations aren’t as coherent as the ones we’ve been having, they don’t talk down on me and haven’t since I was about fourteen years old. Maybe it’s because they’re not my parents, but still.” I explained to Mike.
“Maybe, who knows? Anyway I’m sure you’re not going to the Miami Crime Lab tonight, so answer the question. What are you up to tonight anyway?” Mike asked me.
“Not tonight, but I am going to Miami for spring break so that’ll be fun. Tonight though, I’m going to turn up the heater and read a book in bed. Living life on the edge.” I joked sarcastically.
“Hm, I’m going to ignore tonight then because that is quite boring. Miami for spring break sounds interesting though. What can an underager do during spring break at Miami?” Mike asked me, as he moved his eyes back onto the road as the traffic was now moving enough to roll along slowly.
“Drink, obviously. There are things called fake IDs and older people to buy you alcohol. However this underager will be studying, and probably babysitting her two-year-old cousin. I don’t even know anyone in Miami to party with.” I said to Mike, unsure of how to properly reply. He’s a cop, so I was expecting him to lecture me. But at the same time I felt a little easier saying this to him than I would Lennie, for example.
“You want to save your energy for college anyway, trust me.” Mike stated to me.
“Are you advocating that although I’ll be in college and perhaps more responsible, I should still underage drink and engage in wreck less behaviour because you’re socially meant to do that stuff, and it might be perhaps fun?” I grinned, deciding to tease Mike again.
“As an officer of the law I strongly advise against it, as I am tired of cases dealing with young college aged students and alcohol which can easily be avoided. But as someone who’s been to college, I strongly recommend it.” He grinned, however he didn’t face me as he kept his eyes on the road to slowly move forward.
“I’m telling my father you said that, I’m going to dob you in.” I said to Mike, dropping my grin to be completely straight faced.
“Hey, I stated my position and told you to not do it. I’m allowed to tell you as a human being to go have fun.” Mike said, defending himself.
“Naw, I wouldn’t talk about that stuff with my dad anyway. How awkward.” I replied, scrunching up my nose.
“Are you guys close?” Mike asked me curiously. I could tell he was curious by the fact that he blurted it out the second he could ask, instead of cleverly working it into conversation. He was so curious he didn’t even bother hiding it.
“Um, yeah we are. We’re pretty much all each other have. My grandparents on my mother’s side disowned by mother when she got pregnant so I’ve never met them. My grandparents on my father’s side died a long time before I was born. Auntie Yelina, Uncle Raymond and Ray Junior live in Miami so we don’t get to see them a lot. I sometimes feel he isn’t looking after himself properly because he’s too busy catching criminals, so I do it all for him.” I proudly stated.
“It probably doesn’t count for much, but I’m sorry to hear you and your family aren’t close. It’s probably more than inappropriate to say, but I always wished my dysfunctional family weren’t close so I could pretend they didn’t exist. Besides my father, I would have taken a bullet for him.” Mike admitted to me, as the traffic was now moving at a reasonable pace again.
“It probably is inappropriate, but I don’t care. After hearing the same regurgitated replies when people find out that stuff that they don’t even mean, I like hearing something from the heart. Even if it’s about your situation.” I smiled, and Mike flashed me a quick smile back before turning his attention back onto the road as traffic was now back to normal and we were nearly at my apartment block.
“I uh, wait. What do you mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes, as I couldn’t be sure exactly what he was trying to say.
“Well, I could ask what teenage girls your age do on a Friday, but as you’ve all been exposed to different factors you all do different things. That’s a lot coming from a detective, because we all can’t stand teenagers and like to stereotype you as negatively as possible.” Mike stated, but chuckled a little at the end to add some humour to his otherwise true statement.
“That’s an odd statement to make. I’m sure you were young once, and not even that long ago. How old are you, anyway?” I asked, crossing my arms subconsciously as I began to feel a little uncomfortable with this conversation.
“Didn’t your parents ever teach you manners? Asking a person’s age could be considered quite rude.” Mike teased.
“No, not really. My mother died a month after I was born. My father, being a single father and wanting to pursue a career of justice has worked hard his entire life and didn’t really have time for formalities. I mean yeah, he raised me to the best he could and taught me right from wrong, but it was never an in depth lesson into manners.” I replied coolly, but smiled a bit to show I wasn’t actually offended.
Most people backed down at this point. I absolutely hated it when people teased me about things like what Mike had said, so I always pulled out the ‘my mother died, my father walked hard’ line and they shut the hell up. But with Mike, it was different. He was teasing me for the sake of teasing, not because he wanted to put an opinion across and made it out like it was a joke to make the opinion seem less harsh. Therefore I was less harsh in my reply.
“You make a fair point. I’m thirty two.” Mike replied.
“Wow! Seriously? That’s like, pretty close to my dad’s age. That’s weird.” I replied, scrunching up my nose.
“Emma, you’re not doing a good job to try and protect your reputation of not being your typical moron teenager. Besides, why is it weird I’m your dad’s age? Lennie is a lot more past your dad’s age, is that weird?” Mike asked me, and began to slowly move the car forward as the traffic was finally beginning to move just a little.
“Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know, this is going to sound silly but here it goes. Most of the cops are the precinct treat me like I’m an infant. You’re the first person, besides Lennie to treat me like an equal. I guess I just assumed you were closer to my age rather than my father’s age.” I shrugged, my face heating up as I picked my words carefully.
“Yeah, but we’ve had this conversation before, and even previously today. Cops just automatically want to protect the young and vulnerable, which you fall under being so young. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think eighteen is that young. In other countries you’re old enough to drink, and in this country you can now gamble, vote and join the military. It’s double standards. We push for younger perpetrators to be tried as an adult, yet we treat people the same age as a child.” Mike explained to me.
“You’re right I guess. It’s different though…in Miami my uncle and auntie are both detectives and both of them have taken me into the Miami-Dade Crime Lab. It’s completely different, although our conversations aren’t as coherent as the ones we’ve been having, they don’t talk down on me and haven’t since I was about fourteen years old. Maybe it’s because they’re not my parents, but still.” I explained to Mike.
“Maybe, who knows? Anyway I’m sure you’re not going to the Miami Crime Lab tonight, so answer the question. What are you up to tonight anyway?” Mike asked me.
“Not tonight, but I am going to Miami for spring break so that’ll be fun. Tonight though, I’m going to turn up the heater and read a book in bed. Living life on the edge.” I joked sarcastically.
“Hm, I’m going to ignore tonight then because that is quite boring. Miami for spring break sounds interesting though. What can an underager do during spring break at Miami?” Mike asked me, as he moved his eyes back onto the road as the traffic was now moving enough to roll along slowly.
“Drink, obviously. There are things called fake IDs and older people to buy you alcohol. However this underager will be studying, and probably babysitting her two-year-old cousin. I don’t even know anyone in Miami to party with.” I said to Mike, unsure of how to properly reply. He’s a cop, so I was expecting him to lecture me. But at the same time I felt a little easier saying this to him than I would Lennie, for example.
“You want to save your energy for college anyway, trust me.” Mike stated to me.
“Are you advocating that although I’ll be in college and perhaps more responsible, I should still underage drink and engage in wreck less behaviour because you’re socially meant to do that stuff, and it might be perhaps fun?” I grinned, deciding to tease Mike again.
“As an officer of the law I strongly advise against it, as I am tired of cases dealing with young college aged students and alcohol which can easily be avoided. But as someone who’s been to college, I strongly recommend it.” He grinned, however he didn’t face me as he kept his eyes on the road to slowly move forward.
“I’m telling my father you said that, I’m going to dob you in.” I said to Mike, dropping my grin to be completely straight faced.
“Hey, I stated my position and told you to not do it. I’m allowed to tell you as a human being to go have fun.” Mike said, defending himself.
“Naw, I wouldn’t talk about that stuff with my dad anyway. How awkward.” I replied, scrunching up my nose.
“Are you guys close?” Mike asked me curiously. I could tell he was curious by the fact that he blurted it out the second he could ask, instead of cleverly working it into conversation. He was so curious he didn’t even bother hiding it.
“Um, yeah we are. We’re pretty much all each other have. My grandparents on my mother’s side disowned by mother when she got pregnant so I’ve never met them. My grandparents on my father’s side died a long time before I was born. Auntie Yelina, Uncle Raymond and Ray Junior live in Miami so we don’t get to see them a lot. I sometimes feel he isn’t looking after himself properly because he’s too busy catching criminals, so I do it all for him.” I proudly stated.
“It probably doesn’t count for much, but I’m sorry to hear you and your family aren’t close. It’s probably more than inappropriate to say, but I always wished my dysfunctional family weren’t close so I could pretend they didn’t exist. Besides my father, I would have taken a bullet for him.” Mike admitted to me, as the traffic was now moving at a reasonable pace again.
“It probably is inappropriate, but I don’t care. After hearing the same regurgitated replies when people find out that stuff that they don’t even mean, I like hearing something from the heart. Even if it’s about your situation.” I smiled, and Mike flashed me a quick smile back before turning his attention back onto the road as traffic was now back to normal and we were nearly at my apartment block.