Sorry it took me so long. Splitting this one up didn't really work so you have a super long chapter. I found it hard to explain my dialogue here. The conversation with the girl is all like flirty and playful, right from the start. So imagine it's all kinda of laughing and stuff. Because I just read it over and it sound sort of polite, not like I was imagining it in my head. I didn't want to break up the dialogue between Greg and Brooke be adding "he yelled" or "she cried" but you'll kind of get the picture. It's mainly emotional and loud from Brooke especially. Anyway, hope you like it and let me know if you're still enjoying! Thanks to Lil Badger 101 and Brooklyn for your reviews and mirdaishan for PMing me. Also, I made up the whole story Greg's Nana Olaf used to tell him, but it sounds kind of like a folk tale right? Lytte is actually Norweigan for listen (at least according to google translate) because the guy listens to peoples problems and it sounds like light, so I thought it was pretty fitting.
In less than ten minutes, the police had arrived. But these weren't like the police in Norway, two men in ill-fitting blue shirts, ties that seemed to have permanent coffee stains and hats that were just a little too tight for their heads. This was a man in an expensive suit and shiny shoes, a man in a lab coat, carrying a medical kit, four officers in a tan uniform with badges, and three people in navy overalls with FORENSICS printed across the back.
The man in the suit, the detective was talking to Brooke now. She was playing with the ends of her brown hair, not looking into their eyes. Greg could sense how uneasy and upset she was, and he wanted to go hug her. But that probably wuldn't be right. He looked at her again, she was stumbling over her words, her cheeks pink. Greg could almost feel her heart beating from where he stood. He sighed. They were going to think she was suspicous. But she was just scared.
He looked at the others instead. The man in the lab coat was sticking something into the dead guy, while the people in overalls were taking photographs. The four officers patrolled the outside of the crime scene tape they had put up around the perimetre. One of the people in overalls caught his eye. A blonde, her hair was tyed back into a high ponytail. She was bending down and examining something on the road.
Greg sidled up to the crime scene tape.
"You can't come in." she told him, looking up.
"Just looking." he replied.
"You're the guy who saw the murder right?" she asked.
"Yeah, me and my friend." he nodded.
"That her?" she asked, pointing to where Brooke stood, nervously stammering at the detective.
"Yeah, that's Brooke." he gave a small smile.
"Have you talked to them yet?" she asked him.
"Not yet." he shook his head.
"Good luck." she told him.
"Thanks. So you live here?" he asked.
"Here?" she repeated, looking down at the crime scene.
"No. Here as in New York." he explained.
"Yeah, about three years now."
"I'm on day two."
"Fun start."
"More exciting than where I come from."
"You here on holidays?"
"No, I moved here. Got sick of Norway."
"You like it?"
"A lot."
"It's a pretty amazing place."
"It is so far."
"So, did you come here with your girlfriend?"
"There is no girlfriend. I came alone."
"You're brave. When I moved here I don't know what I would have done without my boyfriend."
"You live with him?"
"Not anymore. We broke up a few years ago. But I have a lot of other stuff now that keeps me going."
"You got a pretty fun job, being a cop."
"I'm actually a CSI. It stands for Crime Scene Investigator."
"What do you do then?"
"It's our job to analyse and process the evidence. It's more of a sciencey thing."
"Cool. Do you get to blow stuff up?"
"Not really."
"Unlucky."
"You like blowing stuff up?"
"When I was a kid I used to make bombs. Little bombs."
"Like threat to the national security system bombs?"
"No, more like science fair winning bombs." he laughed.
"Geek?" she asked him, grinning.
"Do I look like a geek to you?" he asked, gesturing himself.
"Hmm..." she said, looking him up and down.
"Checking me out?" he asked.
"Maybe a little." she shrugged.
"You like?" he asked her.
"I've seen worse." she winked.
"In the mirror?" he suggested.
"That's not very nice." she said, pouting.
"Sorry. How bout I make up for it by letting you show me a good restraunt in this city?"
"I don't think it would be a good idea to get involved with a witness in an ongoing investigation."
"Ouch. They teach you that at school?"
"I have to use it more often than the Miranda warning."
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense?"
"I'm impressed. How did you know that?"
"I didn't even know that I did. Movies I guess."
"Hey, come take a look at this."
"I should probably go."
"This is where we part ways then."
"Who knows, I might see you again."
"Might you?"
"New York's not as big as you might think."
"Good luck with the case."
"Good luck taking on the big apple."
Greg took one last look at her, and walked away. He found Brooke, still talking to the detective.
"Are you done here?" Greg asked the detective.
"You're the guy who called us right?" the man asked him.
"That's me. Why don't you talk to me for a while?" Greg asked.
"I'm going to need to take both of you down to the station to get official statements. You can talk to us in the car." the detective told them, gesturing the police car.
"Alright then. Let's go Brooke." Greg smiled.
She was silent the whole way there, but Greg was happy to give a detailed account of what they had seen. He found that he was enjoying himself. He realised he hadn't been this excited the whole seventeen years he'd been in Norway. He gave his statement, and asked if they would tell him what happened. The detective told him that it wasn't within state policy to reveal any information about an ongoing investigation. Greg guessed he'd been taught that. When they let them leave, it was already tomorrow. He realised that he never asked his new friend the CSI what her name was. But it didn't matter really. Now all that mattered was getting Brooke back to the hotel. And solving that crime.
"Come on Brooke, let's go home." he said to her.
"Home is over a thousand miles away Greg. And right now, that's where I'd like to be." she said.
"Hey, it wasn't that bad."
"Not that bad? I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm still in shock after what we saw."
"You have to admit though, it was a little exciting."
"Exciting? We saw a man get killed."
"It's like something out of a movie."
"But it's not a movie Greg. It's real life. And now that man is dead."
"The cops will catch the girl who did it though, and we helped them to solve the case! Doesn't that make you feel good?"
"Don't you watch the news Greg? The cops won't catch them. They never do."
"That's not true! In Norway, the guy across the road was robbed, and they caught the guy in less than two weeks. It was the next door neighbour, in case you're interested."
"This isn't your small town in Norway Greg. Think about the number of people in New York and all the cities around it? How are they supposed to find one person in all that?"
"This girl I was talking to today, she said that New York isn't as big as you might think."
"Oh yes, the girl. That cop you were flirting with minutes after seeing a man get killed. You were FLIRTING."
"She's a CSI actually. It stands for Crime..."
"GREG! Do you not feel anything?"
"For her? Sure, she was hot. Funny too, and..."
"Not about her! About what we saw? A man had his life taken. He could have children, a wife. He could have dreams and potential Greg. And now he can never achieve them. Does that not have any affect on you?"
"Well sure, it does but..."
"Really Greg? Cos I don't think you're feeling anything at all. You know why? Because all you think about is yourself. And every hot blonde in a ten mile vicinity."
"That..."
"You may be the best thing that ever happened to your small town in Norway, but there are a lot of people in New York Greg. And all of them matter just as much as you do. You're no more important than them, no more deserving to live your dream. That man we just saw get killed, he had dreams too. But he's gone now, dead. And we saw it happen, and we hid and did nothing. NOTHING."
"If we'd came out, she would have killed all three of us. We're no use to him dead. Come on Brooke, I care. I want to catch this guy."
"You don't want to catch him to bring justice. You want to catch him for the glory. For the mystery and the challenge. This isn't a movie. Your life isn't a movie. Welcome to reality Greg. You need to get your head out of the clouds and see that you can't just run away from home one day and then that's it, your life is some stupid film when you're a hero and everyone loves you and all the girls want to date you and you can't do anything your head out of the clouds Greg. We can't all be like you. I worked my ass off to get here, scraped by on bread rolls and soup, worked three jobs, saved every penny I saw on the side of the road, sacraficed everything to get here. You have all the money you'll ever need, so your life can be anything you've ever wanted it to be. I get that, that's cool. But everything being so easy for you doesn't give you a right to see everything that happens as your chance to kick start this movie style life you assumed you'd have the second you got to New York. Hey, let's follow that girl. Who does that? You see what you've gotten us into?"
"Then why did you follow me? You could have just stayed behind, or asked me to stop and I would."
"Because you drag me in. You make everything seem so easy that for a second I think it could be. You can just decide that you want to go to New York, and ext thing you know it you'll be there. You attract chaos, an excitement, and its attractive. It's fun. I got sucked in, because when I was with you it was like I was living a movie lifestyle. But things happen Greg. Bad things. And that's when you see the cold reality. This isn't a movie Greg. This is a homicide."
"So you're just going to give up? You're not going to try and fix it?"
"God Greg do you ever stop? You're like a puppy, your endless energy and enthusiasm and relentlessness. Can you just leave me alone for one minute?"
"You want me to leave you alone?"
"Yes, I know, hard as that is fro you to believe. There is a person in the world who does not want to spend every possible minute with Greg Sanders, who does not believe that he is a perfect human being that we should all worship."
"I..."
"Please, just get it into your head. This is not Greg Sanders the movie."
And then she ran. Greg went after her for a few seconds, but then he stopped. He stood and watched her for a long time. Then he headed back to the hotel. Alone.
That night when he went out on the balcony, he was alone. Just him and the stars. And as he looked up at them, he realised that Brooke was right. He couldn't just move to New York and everything would be perfect. Because looking up at the stars, he remembered that even stars die. They burn out, and fall. Nothing could ever be perfect. Even the stars, the big shining things that everybody looks at during their happiest reflections, and their darkest times. Greg gripped the banister. He looked out. The sky was almost black, way up high. Above the street lights and the fog and the constant rumble of the city that never sleeps. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. There was only black and the twinkle on the stars. His Nana Olaf used to tell him a story about an old Norweigan man, Lytte. Lytte came to help anybody whenever they had a problem, whenever they needed a friend. But people would ask them where he went in between. For as soon as they were okay again, he would leave. Leave to go help somebody else. So he decided to hang lights up in the sky. So he did. He put all the stars up, decorating the whole sky. And all of a sudden, children stopped crying and people realised that everything was alright. Because they realised that there was always someone looking out for them. And in daytime, when the sun comes out, the stars weren't needed anymore, so Lytte would turn them off. But they were always there. And Lytte would not be there unless you needed him. When all was bright and happy in your life, he would be nowhere to be seen. Only when the darkness set in and you were alone and broken, that's when he would come out. Because he'd been there all along. Greg sunk down to the concrete floor, and leaned his head against the balcony. Where was Lytte now?
"Hey." he heard, and he looked up. It was not Lytte. Just a normal guy standing out on the balcony above him.
"Hi." he said back.
"You looking at the stars too?" the man asked him, and Greg noticed a southern accent.
"Yeah. It relaxes me."
"Me too."
"Who are you?"
"Nicholas. I'm here on holiday."
"Greg. I'm here from Norway."
"Cool. Who was that girl you were out here with yesterday?"
"You saw us?"
"Yeah."
"That was Brooke. She's my friend."
"Trouble?"
"How did you know?"
"You are out here looking at the stars at four o clock in the morning."
"True. Yeah. She says that I only worry about myself. And that I think life is like a movie, but I have to get back down to earth."
"Sometimes earth isn't the best place to be. If you can be somewhere better, you should."
"But my life can't be perfect. Trying to make all the negative things seem positive probably isn't the best way to deal with them."
"You're an optimist, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Well hey, nothing can be perfect. You just have to take it one day at a time."
"Well when you spend the last seventeen years of your life waiting for your life to start, it's hard to sit back and go with the flow."
"But sometimes it works. And even if you don't get perfect, you might get pretty close."
"Not even the stars are perfect. They all burn out and fall and stuff." Greg told him.
"That's a song you know." the man replied.
"It is?" Greg asked.
"Kinda. I won't give up, by Jason Mraz." the guy said.
"I haven't heard of it." Greg shrugged.
The man left for a minute, into his room. He returned and threw something down to Greg.
"Here, catch." the guy said.
"Thank you." Greg said, catching it.
"Listen to it. It should help you out with your friend." he told him.
"I will." he said. It was a Jason Mraz CD.
"Good luck Greg." the guy called as he went inside.
Greg popped the CD into the CD player in his room. He checked the back of the box. Number 3.
When I look into your eyes
It's like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
Well, there's so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you've come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?
Well, I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
And when you're needing your space
To do some navigating
I'll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find
'Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We've got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it
No, I won't give up
I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got, yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn't break, we didn't burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not, and who I am
I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up, still looking up.
Well, I won't give up on us (no I'm not giving up)
God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)
We've got a lot to learn (we're alive, we are loved)
God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)
I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
That guy was right. This song was perfect. Even the stars they burn, some even fall to the earth. And he realised that it was right too. He shouldn't give up on Brooke. He had a lot to learn, they both did. And New York City was the perfect place for them to learn them. But it would be a lot easier to learn them together. And in the end, she was worth it. It was five am. So he went to bed. But he knew one thing.
He wouldn't give up.
Thanks for reading! Leave me a review?