GUILTY OF LOVE

Five

ROSA's POV

"That's a sweet mustang", Junior said as walked past it and got to where he parked his car.

The sheriff had already gotten into his jeep so we quickly got in ours and went home. It was a long ride home as neither Juinor or I said any word to each other in the car.

We got home first. As we parked our car outside, I saw mama opening and closing the window of the house. Two police cars were parked outside and in less than a minute, the sheriff parked his car beside Junior's which made three cops cars.

Two cops came out the front door and then mama, she looked like she had been crying a lot. She ran over to me and hugged me.

"Bebé, ¿cómo te va?", she kissed me forehead and was looking so worried. She spoke Spanish, 'baby how are you doing?'

"He oído que fuiste tú quine lo encontró, ¿te han quitado tu declaración?", she added. 'I heard you were the one that found him, have they taken down your statement?'

"¿Acaso te preocupas pro mí?," I asked her. 'Do you even care about me?'

"What?", she asked me but I walked right past her, my school bag flung loosely over my shoulder. Everyone was looking at us, Junior, the sheriff, and some other officers.

"Never mind"

"No, dime", she blocked my path. 'No, tell me'

"Encontré el coche. Lo hice. Vi la sangre. Acababan de sacarne de escuela. ¿Y estás preocupado pro David? Los policías pronto lo encontrarán y entonces las co was volverán a ser co no siempre. Siempre se trata David, David, David. Desearía que estuviera muerto" I said to her just to spite her more. She slapped me hard across the face after my last statement. 'I found the car. I did. I saw the blood. I had just been pulled out from school, me. And you're worried about David? The cops will soon find him and then things will get back to how it always is. It's always about David, David, David. I wish he was dead'.

"Me gustaría que estuvieras muerto, tú esta desgraciada desgraciada", after the slap and these words, she spat on the ground. 'I wish you dead, you this ungrateful mean b***h'.

I saw someone close the curtain, the officers watching us pretended that they weren't and Juinor just stood, shocked and glued to the spot. I ran into the house, there were two more officers drinking a cup of coffee in my sitting room. I ran up to my room, banged the door shut behind me and jumped in my bed, crying my eyes out.

About 15 minutes later, I heard a few knocks on my door.

"Hey, open the door. My hands are full", it was Junior

"Not in the mood"

"I have food and coke... It's more like a snack. Is pizza classified as a food or a snack? It's your favourite pizza though. Chicken with pepperoni, broccoli...", I opened the door for him.

"Shut up", I said jokingly.

I opened the door only because I was starving. Claire and Stevve have been calling me since, like when we were still driving on our way home, I didn't pick because I didn't want to spoil the first day of school for them. They called and I didn't pick, I let it go to voicemail. Texts were coming in, I didn't even check them.

"You gonna pick up?", Junior asked while sitting comfortably on my bed

"No",I took a slice of pizza and poured the coke in a cup

"Ok..."

"What do you want, Junior?

"Nothing...", we both took big bites from our slice of pizza

"You still dating that jerk?", he asked. His mouth still had food inside and I could see what it contained, it was disgusting. Junior has always had the habit of talking while eating, he wouldn't wait till he had finished what was in his mouth before talking

"If you mean Will... then yes...", I answered taking a sip out of my coke

"Remind me how many times you guys have broken up and gotten back together in just two years?", he asked looking deep in my eyes

"Only like 500 times", I answered laughing

"500 times...oh my...hmmmm"He took another big bite. He stopped talking halfway giving respect for my good taste in pizza. I couldn't stop laughing because of the face he made while eating.

"You know that you still have to give your statement right?"

"On two conditions only", I dropped my cup of coke beside my jug of water on the drawer close to my bed

"And what might they be, milady?", he said in a British accent

"First, I want you to leave the box of pizza and coke in my room"

"Doable", he said back in his American accent

"Secondly, one officer in my room to take my statement. I don't want to see her"

"Will try my best on that", he chuckled

"She's such a b***h", I said in disgust

"She's your mama, besides you are just like her"

"I'm nothing like her. Besides after today, she's Veronica to me", I said calling her by her first name

He just laughed and took some blue pills from his pocket. I adjusted myself on the bed. He took one out and handed it over to me.

"After the officer leaves the room, take it and have a nap. You need to blow off some steam"

"Drugs?" I asked, still surprised that he just gave it to me without me stealing it or meeting up with his dealer. He just smiled and kissed my forehead before getting up to leave my room.

"Junior..." I called out to him before he closed the door behind him

"Tell the officer to give me about ten minutes to change out of my uniform..."

"Doable", he said and closed the door.

I quickly removed my boots and got out my uniform. I then wore a big purple round neck long sleeved shirt and a blue denim bum-short. I let my hair down. I went to the bathroom to pee, and after I flushed I looked at myself in the mirror. My black curly strands reaching my waist were flattering my appearance. My mascara left a black streak of tears down my face so I washed my face and dried it with my face towel. I looked stressed in the mirror so I turned on the tap and took the drugs Junior gave me. I then applied aloe vera gel on my face since I was going to sleep.

I went out of the bathroom and went under my duvet. Two minutes later, an officer came and I took down my statement. Soon after, I felt so hot like I was burning up so I removed my shirt and the bum-shorts. I was now in my pink lingerie. Without a blink of an eye, I was fast asleep in my bed

I woke up feeling like I died and woke up again. What the f**k did Junior give me? It knocked me out and was damn good. I heard voices coming from down the stairs but I didn't want to get up to check what the noise was all about so I laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling thinking mostly about everything that happened this morning. Images of David's car came back to me but I wasn't too freaked out by it unlike before so I got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I spent about 20 minutes in the shower, I loved how it felt when the cold water hit my skin. I felt jump when it touched my face but I stayed under the shower and after a few seconds, my body adjusted to the temperature of the water.

I left the bathroom and re-entered my room.

"I thought you were going to spend an eternity in there", Claire said sucking a pizza crust. I screamed because I was so shock to see her in my room. I was expecting to be alone.

"Don't blast my eardrums", Steve said

"Why? Are they new?" I joked

"Why are you here? You're meant to be in school, right?" I asked surprised

"School is over and I'm sorry I called you a coward. I don't know why I said that, maybe because I myself was a bit shaken up but I know that what I feel is nothing compared to how you feel and I'm sorry.", Claire said so fast it was almost to hard to comprehend it.

"Yeah, and Junior was scared that you had OD'd. You've been sleeping for hours." she added in a normal tone.

"Junior is so cute. Does he have a girlfriend?", she asked

"His dad is missing", Steve said to remind her of the bad event that happened

"I'm not even mad at you", I told Claire because I honestly wasn't. I had even forgotten that she called me a coward.

"Then why didn't you pick my calls or reply my messages"

"I haven't been doing that since Dave's so it isn't about you", I said as I was looking for my clothes. My grey towel was still tightly wrapped around my body as I was still totally naked underneath so I quickly took the clothes I had previously worn before I slept and lingerie and went to the bathroom to dress up privately.

In a few minutes, I came out of the bathroom. Steve wasn't in the room anymore.

"You have dark circles under your eyes", Claire said

I ran to the mirror to check and it was there. It wasn't very obvious but it was there, so I turn back to her and pouted.

"Help me"

She used some concealer and did some magic. In a few minutes, all was okay.

"People are downstairs. They're worried about you"

"I don't want go down", I pleaded

"You have to... you can't stay here all day. There's food downstairs. Mr Fisher even brought takeouts...", she was trying to convince me to go down but was interrupted by knocks on the door. It was Junior. Immediately he came in, Claire just kept staring at him dreamily like he was Prince Charming or something.

"Hey Claire", he greeted but she just kept staring weirdly

"Flyers are ready", he said to me

"Flyers for?" I asked still confused

"Missing flyers for my dad"

"And that concerns me how?", I asked him unbothered

He just walked in and dropped some on my laps. He lifted my chin till my eyes met his and bent to kiss my forehead

"I hope you do the right thing", he said and walked out, closing the door behind him.

I blinked a few times and said, "so that happened".

"He's so caring, loving, kind...", Claire started ranting

"You mean too cheesy, right?" I corrected her

"He's sentimental... he's not cheesy, he's nice", she tried to laugh it off

"C'mon we all know Junior is only nice when he needs something", I put on a serious face to snap her out of Junior charms. I've been there before, I know how she feels because I used to feel that way until he became my brother

"Whatever", she rolled her eyes and grabbed my arms, "Let's go down"

"Wait... my hair", I took some band and packed it into a ponytail that reached my waist and then applied some cherry lip gloss. I then opened the drawer and took a pack of cigarette and lighter with my phone into a purple mini bag to match my purple round neck long sleeve shirt and quickly wore my denim sneakers.

"Don't forget the flyers", she said and picked then up herself from the table, then we left the room.

Immediately I stepped out of my room, the noise coming from downstairs died down. The neighbours of Heartground street were all looking at me. I could see the pity in their eyes, it was making me feel sick. I descended down the stairs taking it one step at a time until I reached the last step where Steve was waiting for me. His hand was stretched out as if he was requesting for a dance and I gladly and held on tightly. Wives and fellow school mates came to hug me to show support.

"I'm not sure you guys need to cook for the rest of the year because each house decided to bring a dish to show support", Steve whispered in my ear but my nose caught the strong smell of Mr Fisher's lasagna. I just smiled and kept on hugging friends and answering questions on how I'm faring.

I looked around to see if I could find the sheriff but he was gone. He must be very busy since this is the first missing case I've ever heard of in Darwins. I'm not sure we, the residents of Darwins even know how to respond to a missing person's case. I mean who brings food to this kind of event. It's been over 30 minutes and I still haven't seen Will, no new information or lead from the sheriff, nothing at all except over-abundance of food and over-crowdness of people in my house. I checked the time on my phone and it was just 4pm. Claire and Steve told me about how stores, restaurants and schools closed really early due to David's newly upgraded status which is missing.

I climbed up three steps so everyone could see me. I wanted to address everyone in the house.

I cleared my throat first in order to gain everyone's attention and waited for all while for everyone's attention to be shifted to me. From the stairs, I could see everyone including mama and Junior who were wondering what I was up to next.

"Good evening everyone, thanks so so much for the support you're giving to us right now. God really knows that we need it... ummmmm, Darwins is a small quiet town and I'm still shocked by what I saw this morning. This is my first time of hearing about a missing person's case in Darwins. I'm still shaken honestly... I know the sheriff and the entire police force will do their best to find him but are we really doing our best? (I could hear a few mumurs but I continue) David is missing for Christ sake. A search party should be conducted not a get together of all the neighbours of Heartfield street. Flyers have been printed out already and you should all be helping us find him. I guess since this is the first missing person's case in Darwins, residents don't know how to handle it. Hell, adults don't know how to handle it so I think that if the adults have lost their way, children should remind them and put them back on the right path. The truth is I need your help to find David. We need your help to find David. So are you going to help us? It isn't compulsory but voluntary. We'll need all your support and help because a search party will be conducted by 10pm starting from here... I'll also need the help of friends to spread and paste these missing flyers all over town. Thanks once more for the support. I know that we'll find David very soon and then we have enough food to party all night long (I pointed to the pile of dishes of food brought by neighbours and everyone laughed). Thanks once again for your support".

I stepped down and went straight to the front door to greet people and thank them for the support as they left the house. In about 30 minutes, only a few adults were in the house still consoling mama.

"I never said thank you", Norman walked up to saying.

"For?"

"Actually thank you and sorry"

"I still don't get... (I said to Norman clearing still confused) Thanks again. Especially for the chicken pie (I hugged Mr and Mrs Henderson thanking them)"

"For last night... I'm sorry I treated you that way", he apologised

"What do you want?"

"Hey, Norman right?", Will asked him

Will just arrived at my house. He came with his mom and dad. He pecked me on the cheek and stood looking at the two of us like we were up to something.

"Am I interrupting something?", Will threw the question out for either Norman or I to answer.

"I'll see you later", Norman said to me before walking back home.

Will's parents had just finished talking to Mr and Mrs Henderson and they were headed towards me. Will's mom had a basket with her and I knew that it had to be food in it so I walked towards them in order to avoid the series of questions I knew were headed to me by Will.

"Hey Juliet" I hugged Will's mom.

"How are you holding up?"

"I'm good. Thanks for coming"

"Of course",I then let go into the house to see mama

A text then came in from Junior

Thanks for talking to everything?

"What was with you and the new guy?" Will asked

Seriously? I'm not really in the mood for Will's jealousy

"Not now Will", I said and walked off to a more quiet place around the house

Since I've been ignoring calls and texts, I decided to check them. I had 347 missed calls, 47 voicemails and 205 messages but not a single call or text from my boyfriend, even Maddy (the same girl I bullied in the toilet today at school) called and left me a voice note. A few tears slid down my cheeks and I quickly wiped them with the back of my hand.

I walked back to the house and only a few friends from school waited back. I picked up some flyers from the dining table close to a pile of boxes of pizza and empty cans of beer.

"Like I said before, the flyers are printed out already. Let's go paste it around town", I said raising the flyers up in the air