Niall continues as if he didn’t hear me. “I made a few calls this morning, and if the judge agrees, you may be transferred out of here.” I lean forward in anticipation. “But you won’t be going home.” My head cocks to the side, like I didn’t quite hear him right. “You should be allowed the opportunity for a better life, away from all of this. A chance you won’t be given in a detention facility.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask. “Where are you planning to send me?”
“I still need to work out the details, so I’d rather not say right now.”
I eye him suspiciously, hoping I didn’t just make a mistake by allowing him to represent me.
“It’s your only option, Lana … if you want any sort of a life outside of prison.” Niall closes the file and slides it into a leather attaché case. “In regards to Allison Pixley, the girl in a coma, say nothing. If you’re formally charged, that’ll mean they have more evidence, and then you’ll have to talk to me. But only then.”
I consider nodding but fear the small movement could be taken as a sign of admission.
Niall pushes his chair back and stands. He’s quiet, looming over me, focused on my face for a second too long. I notice a small muscle tick in his jaw.
“I promise to continue doing everything I can to protect you.” And without another word, he walks away and knocks on the window of the metal door, letting the guard know we’re done.
Beneath the tower lived a beast with silver eyes and long sharp fangs. His true form could only be seen at night. For when he stepped out into the daylight, he was wrapped in an enchanted cloak, disguised as a man. A falsehood that attracted women with sweet words and alluring charm.
“Keep the door open.”
I shoot a strained smile at the cop standing guard outside my door, biting back a comment about what he can do with the doorknob and a certain body part. “Sure.”
“You have fifteen minutes,” he tells Nina and Tori before they enter. It comes out as a directive, like he’s straight out of boot camp.
"What’s with the babysitter?" Nina asks, winking at him.
Tori blatantly ignores him, too focused on the half-packed bags splayed out on my floor. “Why are you packing?”
“Are you seriously going to stand right there?” I bark at Officer I-Still-Live-With-My-Mother, making a point to fold a pair of lacy thongs that don’t really need folding. His face flushes. He takes a few steps into the living room, out of view, as I knew he would.
“They’re sending me away, as part of my plea agreement,” I explain, continuing to pack—more to keep from having to look at them than to rush to get out of here. I haven’t seen or spoken with either of them since I was arrested over three weeks ago. I wasn’t allowed contact with anyone other than my mother and the lawyers. It was honestly the fastest court process ever. It usually takes months to go through what Niall made happen in just a couple of weeks. I’m grateful, but I’d also rather not be packing my bags right now.
“Where are you going?” Nina asks, slowly scanning the disarray in my room.
“Some private school.” I shut the empty drawer and open the one below it.
“Stop.” Tori takes the stack of clothes from my hands and tosses them on the bed. “What the hell's going on? We haven’t seen you since that night, and every time we asked your mother, she'd say your lawyer was taking care of everything. This was supposed to be for possession. So, what is this?” Tori holds up her hands to present the disaster that is my room being packed away. “Because it doesn’t feel right.”
I let out a long breath, my eyes tracing the floorboards before facing my friends’ worried expressions. “The charges were …complicated. The police tried to get me to talk, and I wouldn’t. Not without making a mess of everything. You would’ve been charged just for being there. I couldn’t let that happen.” I look from Nina to Tori. “I pled to obstruction and aiding and abetting. Niall arranged to have me sent to a private school instead of juvie. The judge said it’s an opportunity to straighten out my life, away from bad influences.” I roll my eyes. “I wasn’t given a choice.”
“For how long?”
“Where’s the school?”
The girls ask in unison.
“I don’t know. They haven’t told me where. I’m due back in court in six months, so I hope they’ll let me come home by Christmas.”
“This is bullshit,” Tori proclaims through gritted teeth, collapsing onto my bed. “I cannot believe you covered for that asshole. He’s the one who should be sent away. Not you.”
“We would’ve told them who he was if you let us.” Nina stops flipping through the hangers in my closet long enough to connect with me. She looks away and selects a pink fur jacket to model in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the door. I know she’s avoiding, finding a way to focus her anger by doing something menial. She forgets that I know her and can easily see that she’s just as pissed as I am. But emotions aren’t her thing. I wish they weren’t mine.
“I know. This was the only real option,” I tell them, having already accepted whatever fate awaited the night I was arrested, convinced it was worth protecting my friends. But I never expected to be sent away to a new school. It feels much more permanent than a stint at an anger management or some other state run program. “I’ll tell you where I am once I’m there.” I start packing again, resigned.
Niall prepared me. I knew that he was going to request to have me transferred out of juvie, but he didn’t say anything about a private school! It’s so much worse than I could’ve prepared for. How is this the best thing for me? I’ve already raged through anger and frustration, screaming at Niall in the halls of the courthouse this morning. I felt betrayed. I actually thought he wanted to help me. Now, I’m too spent and defeated, the anger simmering in my gut. Packing is the only thing I can do, or else, I was told, that it’ll be done for me by Officer Dickhead. And the last thing I want is for him to pocket a pair of thongs while he shoves only sweats and T-shirts into a bag.
“Your mom has to know where you’re going,” Tori says, keenly watching me pack just about everything I own. “We’ll find out from her.”
I shrug. “I guess.”
Tori stands and blocks my way to the closet where Nina’s buttoning up a blouse she stole for me for my birthday last year.
“Why are you acting like this? Like you don’t care?” she demands passionately, the only one of us who has no issue displaying her fury.
“So I won’t cry.” I bite my lip to keep it from trembling. There’s an ache that won’t let me go. I slowly meet her eyes. “I’m afraid that I’m never coming back. I don’t know why. I just am.” I’ve experienced so many emotions the past few weeks, I can feel them fighting to get out. Right now, I can’t stop the tear from drawing a line down my cheek.
Tori closes the distance and wraps her arms around me. “No one’s going to keep you from us. It doesn’t matter where they send you. You understand? You’re our girl. We will find you. Hell, we’ll break you out if you need us to.”