The Escapade
Chapter Nine: Condemnation

A/N: The scene where Lexie [or, myself] breaks down is actually based on a true event. The fire, however, did not happen in real life to my house. Not yet anyway. I haven't learned how to cook well enough to set fire to anything. :) By the way, the name with the asterisk is a fake name. It isn't my real name. So don't stalk me, or the chick that possibly has the name. Or the guy who has Shane's name either. It's completely coincidental.

Shane set fire to my apartment.

How hard was this for me to comprehend? How hard was this for me to understand? It wasn't hard at all; it most certainly wasn't. The apartment complex was made up of three apartments; luckily there was no one else in the complex but LB and I. The other tenants couldn't afford the rent, I supposed, so they found somewhere else to live. Rent was the last thing on my mind.

Where was I going to go?

After the fire was put out, I stared at the apartment I used to call home for four years. It was gone. All of it was gone. The whole thing wasn't gone, but everything—my furniture, my possessions—my home was gone. I saw a man dressed in firefighter clothing, and I automatically assumed he was either the Captain or the Fire Marshall. He turned and looked at me; the sympathy in his eyes was more than I could bear at the time.

"Was this your apartment, Miss…?" he trailed off. I noticed the past tense.

"Yes. Yes, I rented for four years with my roommate. Rivers. Alexandria Rivers.*" I reached my hand out to him and we shook hands. His grip was firm and manly, and I was suddenly reminded of Kakashi.

"I am sorry about the loss of your home, Miss Rivers. It is a complete shame. Do you have any place to stay for the time being? I can put you in contact with a local shelter of some sort." He asked.

"Yes, my parents live not too far from here. Thank you." I said. He handed me some papers and a pen and I began to fill them out.

"I'm going to have to ask you to fill out some paperwork. I am not one of joy to tell you but I have to condemn the apartment complex."

"These situations do arise, I suppose." I stated blankly. I handed him back the paperwork and the pen, and he stuffed it into a manila folder he had in the other hand. He gave the file a quick once-over then raised his eyebrow at me.

"Were you having trouble with the apartment beforehand? Any electrical problems of any kind?"

"No, the apartment was fine," I said. I reached into my pocket to dig out the note that Shane had placed on my car earlier. "Here. It was arson. This note was placed on my car."

"So your apartment was set on fire on purpose?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"I'll send the sheriff to talk to you, Miss Rivers. Thank you."

The Fire Marshall walked away and I saw him shake hands with the sheriff of the local police department. They stood next to the place that I used to call home. The structure of the building was half there; wooden planks of two-by-fours were falling in, gray smoke still covered part of what I used to call my living room, and ash was found throughout of the apartment from what I could see. The white paint of the exterior was chipping and crumbling over the contact made by the faint breeze, and I caught a chill. I shook my head at the mess that was feet away from me.

Why?

Five minutes had passed and the sheriff walked over to talk to me. She—yes, the sheriff was a woman—handed me some quick paperwork to fill out while she talked to me. I told her everything I knew: the note on my car, the relationship between Shane and I, and the incident at the diner. She nodded and said that she understood, and we talked some more. After a few minutes, she shook my hand and told me that everything would be okay—which I had a hard time believing. The police and the fire department cleared the area and went back to regular duty. I walked back to my car, brought out my cell phone, and dialed LB's number.

"LB, it's me. I hope you have somewhere or someone to stay with. Shane burned the apartment down." I said in a complete monotone voice.

"Yeah, I can stay with Iruka. Most of my clothes were over there anyway. God, I can't believe he did that. Do you have anywhere to go? You're welcome to stay with Iruka and I."

"I'm going to go to my parents house until I can get things straightened out and find a new apartment or if I can talk to Kaka—" I cut myself off quick before I even said his name. "I'll be fine. I'm going to go, I'm going to stop by a few stores and get some things. I'll call you later." I said, not waiting for an answer and hanging up. I wasn't really going to go anywhere but my mom and dad's house.

I drove to my old home in silence. I parked the car out front and walked to the back door, knowing that the front gate was always locked. My parents weren't home so I dug my key out of my purse and opened the door. I looked around—everything was as it was back when I was in high school. My mom still had her porcelain rooster figurines everywhere, my dad's odd obsession with toy cars, and my old certificates and awards from school, which were taped onto the cabinet doors of the pantry. Some were fading, but some were still intact. I had one that even went back to when I was in first grade. I looked at each one of them carefully—some had my 'outstanding performance average'; 'honor roll'; 'dean's list', and more.

I went back to where my old room was. I pushed aside the glow-in-the-dark beads that were strung across the door frame and switched on the light. My room was the same as it was; my parents never did a thing to my room after I had moved out. Three of my walls were still painted the same navy blue, along with a burgundy accent wall and ceiling to match. The carpet—which was older than I was—was still coming up in the same places due to all the times I had spilled Pepsi on it and attempted to clean it up with a washcloth. Even some of my old clothes were still in my closet, and that brought a smile to my face.

I began to search through the room. I looked through folders, some old books, and some notes that I'd passed to my friends. I came upon my first yearbook from high school. I opened it up and flipped through the pages. I felt my heart ache as soon as I saw what was in the back of the yearbook on the inside of the hard cover—Shane's message. I stared at it continuously, reading the words over and over and letting them sink into my brain.

I grabbed that piece of paper and ripped it out of the notebook and threw it across the room—along with a random remote—hearing the remote crash against the vanity glass and hearing it break. I started to throw random things against the walls of the room, until I threw myself against the only concrete wall where I proceeded to bang on it and cry. I couldn't stop the tears from coming out, no matter what I tried. Short, shallow breaths escaped me and I was having difficulty breathing. I muttered words I didn't even know I was capable of pronouncing, and I cried harder.

"This is what you wanted from me, wasn't it? You wanted to break me down and see me tear myself apart, didn't you? That's all you really wanted! You wanted to break me," I slumped down the wall and put my head in my hands. "I wasn't good enough. All I did was sacrifice and you didn't think a thing of it, did you? No! You were always with someone else. I was so insecure. You never loved me. You never loved me." I repeated the last sentence until I was sick of hearing myself say it, and until my body couldn't take it anymore. I found the strength to wipe my eyes and collapse on the soft covers of my old bed.

"Lexie, wake up." I heard a female voice say. It grew distant. "Her room hasn't been this trashed since she was still living here."

"It certainly hasn't," a male voice said this time. "I wonder why she's here."

I recognized those voices.

I shot straight up out of the bed and opened my eyes. I looked around, and I was relieved when I saw my mom and dad in the room.

"How long have I been out?" I asked, my voice thick with sleep. They both sat down on the bed, and my mom put her arms around me.

"We got back about two hours ago. Two hours or more since you were here before us." She said, shaking her head. "Why are you here? Did something happen between you and LB or something?"

For a split second, I couldn't remember why I was there in the first place. Then, I shut my eyes and saw the clouds of black smoke engulfing my apartment, along with the red-orange flames that would forever condemn it to the deepest parts of the earth.

"No," I muttered. "My apartment was burned down."

"Your apartment?" asked mom and dad at the same time.

I nodded. "Yeah. Fire Marshall condemned it. I wasn't there when it happened, though. Sh—someone left a note on my car and I saw it as soon as LB and I left Starbucks. I told her to check by here and the diner to make sure everything was all right. She said it was, so I went back home to the apartment and the road was blocked. I went around them and I saw my apartment being burned down."

"Do you know who did it?" my dad asked. I looked up at him and nodded again.

"Yeah. Shane."

Mom and dad exchanged glances, and I almost laughed when I knew that they didn't remember. "Shane?"

"Shane Weston.* My boyfriend from high school. We had a encounter at the diner and everything just went downhill from there." I said.

"LB told us when you were at work. She came over here with Iruka for lunch one day." Mom said. Dad smiled at her.

"She's getting married, isn't she? I remember her way back when." He said. I forced a smile. LB getting married before me really gave me some sort of complex problem and I really didn't know why, no matter how many times anyone else had reassured me.

"Can I stay here? Until I find somewhere else to go?" I asked them, even though this was really a stupid question.

Mom and dad smiled at me. "Of course you can," Dad said. "You kind of have to. You aren't allowed to leave until you cleaned your room."