Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (25 page)

“Why did you feel that way? I mean, she’s your girlfriend.”

He didn’t even have to think about his response, “I’m really not into big public displays of affection like that. It’s like she’s putting on a show or something. It’s a turn off for me.”

I nodded. “Have you ever talked to her about it?”

“Tried to, a couple times.” He shook his head. “She’d get all upset. I learned it wasn’t worth the fight. So, I just let her and wait for her to be done. I know, it’s not necessarily the best thing to do, but with Becca… I tried to tell her I didn’t feel comfortable when she did all that exaggerated public hugging and kissing in front of the guys and at school and she thought I meant that I didn’t want to kiss her at all. I tried, she just didn’t hear me.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Sorry.” We heard them announce the boarding of our flight over the loud speakers. We grabbed our stuff and got in line at the gate’s doors.

“It’s not your fault.”

“How long have you guys been together?” I didn’t mean to sound nosy. I just wanted to keep my mind on other things and not face what waited for me at the destination of our flight.

“About six months. We got together toward the end of the school year.” He laughed, “And she’s been complaining about my friends ever since!”

“Yeah? I don’t think she likes me very much.” My face scrunched up at the thought that she actually seemed to dislike me. I was used to people feeling ambivalent about me, but dislike… or hate. That was different.

“Aww, Becca is harmless. Like I said, she doesn’t really like any of my friends. She puts up with them, because of me. If she got her way, I’d spend every free moment with her and I wouldn’t even be playing basketball. I may compromise on a lot of stuff, but things that are really important to me, like my friends, isn’t one of them. That’s non-negotiable. We had a huge fight about it once, almost broke-up because of it. Ever since then, she’s put up with them, but complains whenever she gets the chance.” He rolled his eyes.

We found our seats and strapped ourselves in. “You’re such a nice guy though, that you did give in a little.” I lightly teased him. He looked at me with curiosity. Clearly, he didn’t understand what I meant. “Unless you’re telling me French Club was your idea.”

Patrick laughed. “Okay, you got me there. You’re right. French Club was her idea. But, hey, she gets French Club twice a month and I get the rest with my friends at lunch. So, she didn’t completely take me away from my friends. I gave in a little.” He laughed again.

“And if you had your choice in clubs to join?” I asked.

“Actually,” Patrick smiled. “I think you’d appreciate this. I wanted to start a robotics club. You know, build bots that fight each other.”

“Yeah? Cool! Why didn’t you?” The thought of building a bigger, badder robot to annihilate other robots was exciting.

“Well, you know…” He seemed a little ashamed. “Becca said… You know, never mind. It isn’t important.”

I felt bad that he was feeling bad, that was the last thing that I wanted. “Well, if you ever decide to start it, I’d join.”

He smiled at me, and then tapped my arm. “Hey, want to try my mom’s cookies?” He looked through the bag his mom packed.

When I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast or much for dinner last night. Patrick pulled out a couple and handed one to me. “No, thanks. I’m not really hungry.” This was true. “Besides I might get air sick.” That wasn’t. “But they look amazing.” I added, which was true. They did.

“Yeah, my mom and Lindsey came up with the recipe when she was a kid.” He smiled. He munched on a cookie.

“That’s cool. So, Lindsey goes to school up there?” I was glad for an opportunity to change the subject.

“Yup. She’s at Stanford.”

“Majoring in?”

“What else? Engineering. Electrical Engineering. In some families, everyone becomes a teacher or a lawyer or a doctor. We are a family of engineers.” He grinned. “Of course, my sister, the overachiever, decides to double major. EE and pre-law. She wants to be a patent attorney.”

We played some cards and continued to talk about his sister, the Celtics, favorite movies, books and music, all sorts of stuff. It was nice – getting my mind off things. But in the back of my head I knew it would come to an end all too soon. Sure enough, it was time to land.

16. TRIAL

We landed and waited our turn to deplane. Patrick called his mom and sister to let them know we arrived. By the time we made it to the airport’s curb, Lindsey was there. Lindsey got out of her car and popped open the trunk. She was everything I hoped to be: bright, independent, self-assured, and easy-going. You could tell just by looking at her.

“Hi, Lindsey.” Patrick gave his sister a hug. He turned to me, “Lindsey, I’d like you to meet Liz. Liz, this is my sister Lindsey.” He handed her the oversized shopping bag. “This is from Mom.”

I was about to shake her hand, but somehow that didn’t feel right. I felt like I knew her. She leaned in and gave me a hug. “Nice to finally meet you. My brothers have told me so much about you. Welcome to
San Francisco
!”

“Nice to meet you too. I’ve heard so many nice things about you.” We all climbed into the car. “Thanks so much for picking us up. I hope I didn’t cause too much trouble for you.”

“Oh, no! No trouble. Anytime I get to see Patrick is a treat. I love Stanford, but I do miss my family. If you guys get done early, let me know and maybe we could get dinner or something before you guys go. If not, that’s okay, I understand that this isn’t a vacation.” She smiled.

I got caught up listening to the CD that Lindsey was playing while she and Patrick chatted. She was playing one of my favorite musicals,
Rent.
I guess I was so busy trying to block out the impending reality of arriving to the courthouse that I was singing along. Not loudly. Then I noticed that they had stopped talking, and suddenly I became self-conscious.

I saw Lindsey look at me through the rear view mirror. “Hey, don’t stop. You have a beautiful voice. It took me a while to realize that it wasn’t the CD and it was you.”

“Thanks.” I felt all the blood rush to my face.

Patrick looked back at me and smiled. “Don’t be embarrassed. You
do
have a nice voice.” He turned back to his sister, “So, you’ll be the lawyering engineer and she’ll be the singing engineer.”

We all laughed. Lindsey teased, “Patrick, you will be an engineer that…”

“Works for you two ladies!” He laughed. “I wouldn’t mind that!”

“So, does that mean you’ve decided to go into electrical?” Lindsey asked.

“I’m thinking about it. There are a few other majors I’m looking into.” Patrick replied.

“Like?”

“Well, mechanical and computer engineering. I’m also thinking about robotics, nanophotonics, or biometrics.”

“Nice.” Lindsey seemed impressed. “What about you, Liz? Any idea what you want to major in?”

“To be honest, aside from it being in engineering, I’m not too sure. If I had to pick right now, I’d probably lean more toward computer, electrical or mechanical engineering. I really like my computer science and physics classes.”

“Well, let me know if you want me to introduce you to any of the women in engineering organizations out there. I belong to a couple of them. They are great for networking.” She looked up into her rear-view mirror to see me again.

“Thanks.” I smiled back.

* * *

The streets in front of the courthouse were busy. There were lots of people, some dressed in suits, some in khakis and polos. The lawyers, jurors, witnesses seemed to be all over the place. At least, that’s what I thought they could be. The only ones that were easy to really spot were the cops and television reporters.

Lindsey wished me luck and told us to call her when we were done. Patrick and I got out of the car and took our stuff out of the trunk. I balled my hands up and felt my body go cold. Patrick saw me tense up, put his hand on my back and whispered, “It’s okay. I’m here. You can do this.”

I looked at him and slowly nodded. I took deep breaths as we walked up the stairs into the courthouse and through security. We made our way to the courtroom that I was told to go to. Patrick was right by my side the entire way. I realized he still didn’t know why I was here. But, he didn’t ask, he didn’t push. He just was there for me, reassuring me that everything would be okay - that
I
would be okay. I didn’t want him to be blind-sided by what he heard, but I didn’t know how to tell him and time was running out.

I knew we found the right courtroom because I recognized one of the people standing outside of it. He was the detective on the case. “Hello, Liz.”

“Detective Peters.” I had a flash of the last time I saw him, I felt scared and safer at the same time.

“It’s good to see you again. You look like you are doing well.” We shook hands. “Did your parents come with you?”

I didn’t know what exactly to say. I knew it really wasn’t an invitation to share the truth. I shook my head. “Let’s just say that some things don’t change.” I cleared my throat, “Detective, this is my friend Patrick. Patrick, Detective Peters.”

Patrick stepped forward and shook the detective’s hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Nice to meet you.” Detective Peters looked at me. “They reconvened about a half hour ago. I’d expect that they would call you in soon. Don’t worry, you’ll do fine. The worst is already over.”

I nodded and sat down on bench just outside the room. I sat there wringing my hands, trying to not be the nervous wreck that I was. I faintly heard Detective Peters and Patrick chatting about the flight, about school and I don’t know what else. I wasn’t really paying much attention. But I did know that Patrick was sitting right next to me, he kept his hand on my arm. It kept me from completely falling apart, kept me grounded somehow.

“Elizabeth Mariposa.” I stiffened when I heard my name called. I had never been so frightened by hearing my name. I looked up and saw the bailiff at the door to the courtroom looking up and down the hallway.

Patrick squeezed my arm and it reminded me to breathe. Detective Peters nodded to the bailiff and indicated that I was present. The bailiff waited at the door. I slowly stood up. Patrick got up and gave me hug. He tried to reassure me, “I’ll be here the entire time. It’ll be fine.”

I looked up into his eyes and wondered if after this he would see me the same way. If he’d think all the good things he thought of me. If he’d still be my friend.

“Do you trust me?” He asked. All I could do is nod. “Then trust me, it will be fine. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what… I’ll be here for you.” He squeezed my hand, and then smiled, “And afterwards, we’ll get something to eat – on me. Maybe… life-sized loaf of sourdough?” I cracked a little smile, not just at his attempt at humor, but at his reassurance. I nodded, turned and walked into the courtroom.

When I walked into the courtroom, I zeroed in on the witness stand. Somehow, my feet got me from the door to the stand. I sat down and focused on DA Espinoza. The bailiff swore me in. The DA approached me.

“Good morning, Ms. Mariposa.”

“Good morning.” My mouth felt dry as the desert.

“Thank you for being here today. I’m sure this isn’t easy for you. You’d much rather be in school?”

“Yes.” Unequivocally, that was an easy question. I wish they would all be that easy.

“Are you a good student? Getting straight A’s?”

“Yes.” Still easy to answer. She told me she’d ease her way to the more difficult ones.