Cassie
"What? No!"
"Yes Cassandra, it's for your own good!"
"Mom! How would you know what's good for me when you clearly aren't me!"
This argument with my parents had been going on all morning, and it was nowhere in my favor.
"What I did wasn't that bad."
"You hijacked a car!"
"Hijacked, borrowed - I was gonna give it back."
"You almost spent a night in jail!"
My fathers face had been rapidly changing colors throughout the entire conversation.
"Ahh, "I held up a finger, "but I didn't, all thanks to my loving parents, who aren't going to send me to Miami?" I looked up at the hopefully.
"Young lady, you are going to live with your brother and that is final."
So my mother sent him an e-mail and my father drove me down to Miami. We pulled up to the fancy CSI building and I tried not to groan. I had visited Ryan here before, and the building wasn't exactly as exciting from the inside.
"Dad, I'm seventeen, I really didn't need an escort."
"I'm not so sure about that anymore."
"Dad! Seriously, I stole a car, I didn't commit murder!"
"But this wasn't your first time in trouble with the law! And, for all I know, it wasn't your last either."
"Whatever." I slammed the car door and stomped to the front doors of the ginormous building. We approached the front desk where bored looking secretary was typing rhythmically on a keyboard.
"Can I help you?" she said a little less than pleasantly.
"We're here to see Ryan Wolfe." Dad said in a clipped tone.
"Appointment?" she was already reaching for the visitor's passes.
"Uh, no, I'm his father."
"May I see some I.D.?"
Dad took his sweet time pulling out his wallet and handing over his driver's license.
"And you ma'am?"
I already had my driver's license out so I handed it to her. She smiled slightly and raised an eyebrow.
"On probation, I see."
Ha ha, very humorous lady.
"Grand theft auto." I stated proudly, snatching the card back when she offered it.
After getting our passes, we were escorted upstairs by an unfamiliar lab tech who said he had just seen Ryan. Sure enough, as soon as we were at the top Ryan was right there, wearing his usual White lab coat over a button up shirt and tie.
"Hey Dad, Cas!" His smile was a little too wide to be sincere. Underneath the faux excitement was a twinge of suspicion, but my father was too oblivious to notice this as he hugged Ryan.
"What brings you down here?" the suspicion in his voice was now painstakingly obvious, and yet, even then, I doubted my father detected it.
"Didn't you get your mother's e-mail?" Dad frowned.
"I haven't checked my mail today." Ryan shrugged
"She sent it two days ago."
"Okay, so I haven't checked my mail all week."
Dad glanced around a bit nervously,
"Come here son." he led Ryan away, leaving me glaring after them. My hair fell over my face like a red-brown curtain, obscuring my smoldering stare. I tugged impatiently at the sleeves of my black jacket.
"Cassie?" A familiar voice called.
"Calleigh!"
Her embrace was warm and friendly.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm on probation." I sighed, not really wanting to go through it all.
"What for?"
"Stole a car."
"Cassie!"
"It wasn't my fault though!"
Calleigh rolled her eyes
"Of course not."
"No seriously," I waved a hand at her dismissively, "I'll explain later."
Ryan and Dad came back seconds later. Ryan looked enraged and Dad looked satisfied. I narrowed my eyes again,
"I assume this means that I'm staying?"
"You assume correctly," dad answered triumphantly, "Ryan and I are going to put your stuff in his car."
"Whatever." I said one again; it was becoming sort of a catch phrase for my life. Calleigh's eyes scanned over my outfit, black jacket, dark wash jeans, and black Converse.
"What's with the dark side of life?"
"Ask my dad."
