Chapter 32 #2
Shannon, surprisingly sensible, offers his wrists to the cops without fuss. Xavier doesn’t. He howls about being stitched up as his wife screams that she’ll sue them all. The sound rips through the garden, sparking mayhem and everyone and their mum starts scattering, filming, crying, shouting…
Betty and Gavin rise, and the six of us revolve like disco balls, trying to absorb everything at once.
Hayley Dean, in her beige dress and heels, blocks the female officer trying to put cuffs on Fletcher. “Get away from him, you bitch! He doesn’t even work at that farm! He never has!”
“He’s the fucking accounts manager,” the female officer replies. “Get out of the way, or you’ll join him.”
Hayley claws her arm, so I guess she decided to join him. The lady-cop unleashes her taser, and I’m about to check if Cece’s watching when an even louder scream bursts from the mansion.
“You can’t do this! We’ve done nothing wrong!”
Before I can guess who’s definitely done something wrong, Will Sharpe barrels onto the lawn, Jenny hot on his heels. They half-run, half-stumble across the grass. Jenny’s stilettos sink into the soil, and Will grabs her hand as the cops close in.
“Whoa,” Cece whispers. “This would be cute if they weren’t…”
“The shittiest, most revolting people in the world?” I suggest.
“Yeah.”
“Stop right where you are,” one of the cops shouts.
“Fuck off!” Will calls over his shoulder, but he shouldn’t because the guy sprints forward, hooks his knee, and stacks Will like a sack of bricks.
“Not a bad tackle,” Jake says, and Cece, Betty, and I all laugh like hyenas.
Jenny shrieks bloody murder, re-sinking into the grass as Will’s wrists are pinned and the cuffs snap shut.
“You bastards,” Will bellows. “You’re not gonna get away with this!”
“William Sharpe,” the officer says, grinning as he drags Will to standing. “You’re being arrested for multiple offences, including failure to attend a mandatory police interview…”
Will’s still raging as they frog-march him toward the car park. I wish I had an apple to throw at his head, but you can’t have everything. At least that’s what I think before the cop helping Jenny out of the grass turns her around, cuffs her and steers her right after Will.
My mouth falls open. “How? What?”
“Surprise,” Betty gasps, laughing so hard she can hardly breathe. “She had one of the girls from the farm cleaning her house for free. I thought I’d keep it quiet. A little gift from me to you.”
“Wow,” I whisper. “Wow.”
Jenny wails like a banshee as she’s led away, a mix of pleas and threats echoing across the lawn. Betty and Cece are still laughing, and so are the boys, but I can only stare. Stare and wonder if this is what dying and going to heaven feels like.
“You ‘right?” Jake asks.
I nod because I can’t talk, and he seems to understand. “I love you, Renaldo.”
And I love him. Even more than I love watching Jenny getting arrested, which is really saying something.
The chorus of arrests continues. Officers giving citations, clicking on cuffs, arguing with stragglers as Pukekohe’s untouchables are all lined up like cattle for auction.
I think of Rhys. I don’t know where he is, but I raise my vape to my lips and imagine him beside me, watching this beautiful shitshow unfold.
“Wow,” I say again. “Wow.”
The racket starts to die down, waitstaff hurrying out from wherever they’ve been hiding to clear glasses and plates, erasing any evidence that this ever happened. Our remaining classmates melt away, the ones who stay clustering into little groups to discuss what just happened.
I clench my teeth to keep myself from uttering another ‘wow’ and glance at Jake. Gavin looks at Betty. Cece looks at Davis. Then all of us stare at each other, waiting for someone to break the silence.
Cece exhales, puts her hands on her hips and surveys the wreckage of rose petals and trampled bushes. “Well… there goes the neighbourhood.”
Something in me snaps. The tension, the joy, the sheer unreality of it all. I start laughing until I’m bent double. My howls are ferocious and unstoppable and growing louder every second.
Jake grabs me. He looks worried, but I can’t stop laughing. Because Cece’s right. The neighbourhood is gone. The part that twisted and spread, diseasing everything it touched, has fallen. Because of me. And Betty. And Jake. And Rhys. And Cece. And Davis. And Grace.
Then I start crying. Laughing and crying.
I’m hysterical, I think, but that only makes me laugh harder. I can taste blood, I’m howling so hard.
Jake makes a helpless sound. “Baby—”
“Fuck off, Rugby.”
Cece shoves Jake aside and catches me, her arms crushing my shoulders. She’s crying too, great wracking sobs mixed with laughter, and we’re clasped together, so tight we can barely move, yowling like she-wolves under a full moon.
Jake and Davis hover helplessly, unsure whether to step in or step back, but it doesn’t matter. This isn’t about them. This is ours. Cece and me. A release more than ten years overdue. As ugly as the things that caused it. As beautiful as the pink and lilac sunset falling around our shoulders.
We’ll never be what we were before. But that’s good. Now we can be better.