The whole ride in the car felt like I was inching further and further away from reality. None of this is real, I thought. Wake up, wake up, wake up--

"We're here," Officer Eugene mumbled. My shaking head nodded timorously as I exited the car. As I walked to the interrogation room, I felt people's eyes trail me. I imagined them all thinking, She killed Carson Harris.

Perhaps if I saw me right now, I would've been thinking the same thing.

"Please," Eliza said, opening the door for me. I nodded to her, but didn't thank her. I selfishly thought that she didn't deserve it, but I figured I deserved to be selfish. Selfish for once in my life. Once I go to college, I'm never looking back, I thought. If I could erase this whole year from my life, I would in a heartbeat.

As I sat down, I glanced to my right and was vaguely aware that Pierce Prescott was sitting next to me, but I realized that I didn't really care. I looked down at my shaking hands and realized that I couldn't feel anything. The room was getting darker, and darker, and darker, and--

"Miss Carter," Eliza interjected, "we would like to know why you lied to us."

Pierce tugged onto my shoulder. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," he reminded me. His voice was soft and foreign. It wasn't garbled and cynical like it typically sounded like. He...he's not drunk, I theorized.

"It does look oddly suspicious, though," Eliza retorted. "If you don't cooperate with us, then we can't help you."

"How about you just tell my client why she's here so we can leave," Pierce countered, leaning back in his chair.

"We recently did another sweep of the hotel lobby, where Carson was shot," Eliza explained, nodding to Officer Eugene. He nodded and produced a petite, plastic bag from his back pocket. He slid it to me from across the table. "Do you know what this is, Avery?"

I attempted to reach out and examine the bag's contents, but my arms didn't respond. Pierce noticed my ineptness and snatched the bag for me. "It's a hair, so what?"

"After running it through forensics, do you know whose hair that is, Avery?" After a long silence, Eliza answered the pressing question: "It's yours.

"Wanna tell us how your hair, your DNA, was at the crime scene?" I minutely shook my head, simply because I didn't have an answer (nor a smart-ass remark). "Avery, you could get tried and persecuted as an adult. You could go to jail for the rest of your life. So, if you give us a motive, give us a reason, we can help you--"

"Eliza, where did you find this...'hair?'" Pierce spoke up suddenly.

"A couple of feet away from the body," Eliza replied.

"And this was after the initial sweep of the crime scene?"

"Yes, so what?"

"Well, Avery is the main suspect--and only suspect, thanks to your incompetence--so what's stopping someone from going somewhere that Avery goes to a lot and planting that hair at the scene." Pierce leaned in and folded his hands on the table. "Say I'm the actual murderer. I need someone to frame, and frame fast, because the police are realizing Avery Carter isn't the culprit. So I go to Avedon's. Or I go the Summers' mansion. Or I go to Avery's own goddamn house, and I wait. And I scour the premises for any DNA I can find. And...bingo." Pierce unfolded his hands and outstretched his arms. "DNA evidence to plant at the crime scene and get off the killing scot-free."

"How likely is it that they found a hair, out of everything?"

"Not likely, but it's not impossible. Evidence has been planted crime scenes before."

"When this gets leaked to the press, the whole town is going to be against you, Avery."

"That's an assumption," Pierce snorted.

"Avery, we can cut you a deal," Officer Eugene offered. He placed his hands on the table. "I'm a father, and to see my little girl in this situation...it would break my heart." Pierce squirmed uncomfortably in his chair. "So how about you spare everyone some heartache, and we talk to the D.A. about striking a deal. The D.A., she's really something. She's been talking about trying you as an adult and locking you away for the rest of your life. Avery, we can cut that down to just a few years if you talk to us."

"Bullshit," Pierce snapped.

"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Prescott," Eugene softly replied.

"I...I want to talk to my lawyer...," I managed to stammer out, "alone."

"Fine. Let us know when you've made your decision," Eliza said, stomping out of the room. Eugene shook his head and mumbled something under his breath, closing the door behind him.

Pierce brought his chair around to face me. "Kid, what's wrong with ya? I know you're a meager kind of person, but right now..." Pierce quit talking when he saw a tear fall from my eye. "What happened, Avery?"

"My boy--my Liam...he, uh..." I sniffed and rested my head on the table. "I caught him."

Pierce sighed. "Oh boy, do I know the feeling."

"R-really?" I replied. He nodded solemnly.

"I'd tell you more, but they're watching, and we're not really alone right now."

"I...I don't want to do this anymore, Pierce," I admitted.

"It's okay, Avery, you're gonna be deemed innocent any day now--"

"Pierce, please don't lie to me. I can't handle people lying to me right now," I interjected. "I...maybe I should take the deal." Even though I wasn't looking, I could feel Pierce's shock.

"But kid, you didn't--"

"I know, but this nightmare...it's never gonna end, Pierce." I composed myself, raised my head, and looked at him. Tears poured from my eyes, but I couldn't feel myself crying. I couldn't feel my eyes welling up with water as my distraught blurred my vision. "Pierce, I can't feel anything."

He grabbed my shoulders, gripping hard. "I'm not letting you go to jail, Avery Carter," he promised me. He stood up, pat me on the back, and knocked on the glass. "Hey," he announced, "unless she's arrested, we're leaving. It's a no for the deal, in case you couldn't tell. Call her back when you have a real case." Pierce walked up to me and offered me his arm.

"You haven't been drinking, have you?" I inquired.

"I've been too busy today to start."

"You should stop. You sound nicer."

Pierce snorted. "I'm not a nice guy, so then I should probably get back to my glass when I can." I smiled sadly. I could feel Eliza's glare from another room. "Want me to drive you home, kid?"

"I...I don't think I can...," I began as my legs suddenly gave out. Pierce dropped by my side. I could feel eyes on me.

"What?" my lawyer demanded from anyone that dared look in our direction. "Avery, come on," he said, extending his arm. I staggered out of the building and collapsed on the stairs outside.

"I can't feel, I-I can't," I began to explain, but suddenly, I couldn't speak anymore. Pierce's face disappeared. His grasp on my arm began to slacken--no, he didn't stop caring. I just stopped being able to feel his care. The stairs beneath me dissipated. The tears that fell from my cheeks fell away into nothingness. I thought I said something but maybe I didn't. Nothing existed.

I couldn't feel.

But...deep in a pit in my stomach...fear emanated.

I began to hyperventilate. Car lights blasted through my field of vision, blinding me. I reached out to see that I was in a car seat. I began to wail, my vision completely obstructed by tears. I was shaking, reaching out to anything I could hold that would distract me. "P-Pierce?" I squeaked out. I felt myself lurch forward, and my stomach did a somersault. I wiped my eyes to see that Pierce had pulled over haphazardly, one wheel up on the curb.

"Avery?" he asked. His voice was full of concern, and almost sounded as if he might've began crying as well. "Can you hear me?"

I nodded. "What's happening to me?" I croaked, my throat scraggly.

"I-I don't...fuck, I don't know."

"B-but I thought y-you k-knew e-e-everything," I joked.

"I think you're having a panic attack. Shit, I need to get you home."

"C-can we just sit here for a minute?" I asked, cars honking as they roared by.

"Why?"

"I...I can't go h-home." If I go home, Dakota will take me to Avedon's, and then I have to see Jane, I thought, convincing myself that was the reason. I didn't know why I couldn't go home, but the thought of entering my house made my stomach grumble and my head hurt.

"Listen to me, Avery," Pierce said. "I know what you're feeling."

"Really?"

"Late night study sessions at Princeton resulted in plenty of panic attacks, kid. None of them better than the last," he explained. Imagining Pierce in a panic was too much of a foreign concept for me to grasp. "Here's my advice: just let yourself cry and let me talk you through it, okay?"

I nodded and let more tears falls from my face. I reclined the seat all the way back and curled up in a ball, bringing my knees close to my chest as I buried my head within it. "So, senior year of college. Yancey goddamn Bellford, the worst roommate imaginable. I thought I would finally be free of him once I graduated. See, I could never get rid of him because my parents refused to pay for my apartment, and I couldn't afford shit on my shitty book clerk salary, so I stayed in a dorm. Yancey would go on my computer and steal my papers for classes that we shared, or pull pranks on me every single night, or get girls' numbers before I could even talk to them.

"But then came along Louisa Clarke. Oh, boy, was she something. I fell head-over-heels in love with her since the moment I met her. So, obviously, Yancey asked her out first and dated her for eight months. So, one night, Louisa asked me out to coffee, and Yancey was pissed. Said I was stealing his girlfriend. And oh God, I just snapped. I beat the shit out of him the second I graduated. Louisa dumped him and we got an apartment together after we both gathered up some money. Wanna know how Yancey is doing right now? Yeah, he dresses in slick suits, but his wife left him for her female secretary, took the kids, and collects child-support that drains him."

"What about Louisa?" I asked softly. I inhaled for eight seconds, held in my breath for a moment or two, and then exhaled for several more seconds.

"Oh, Louisa? It...uh...well, we're not together anymore," he said, scratching his head.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, thanks. Remember when I said that I know how you feel? Well, Louisa slept with Yancey one night while we were still dating. Third worst night of my life was finding that one out. But, we stayed together, because I was an idiot. So yeah, this kid's name is Liam?"

"Yeah. You've met him."

"Oh, yeah. He looked like an ass. Glad you dumped him, you'll find better."

"Pierce?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"I'm changing your contact name."

He smiled. "From what, to what?"

"From 'SSoaB' to...to 'Pierce.'"

"How about, 'Pierce, Lawyer Supreme?'"

"I like mine better."

"Damn. I guess that's the first case I've lost." He waited a couple of minutes before tapping me on the arm. "You good, kid?"

"Y-yeah, yeah I'm good."

"Okay, let's get you home." He got the car away from its precarious parking spot and drove down the street, mumbling a curse word about someone who swerved right in front of him. When he pulled into my driveway, he opened my door for me and offered me his hand.

"You don't owe me one anymore, Pierce," I said, wiping my eyes free from tears.

"Nope, I still do. We'll find something. Maybe I'll buy your first legal drink. Or illegal, whatever suits your fancy."

"Maybe another time," I replied with a laugh.

"Okay. And if this happens again, remember: breathe, and I have plenty of shitty stories to talk you through it. But damn, if you're going to me, you've really hit rock bottom."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"...You weren't supposed to agree with me," he mumbled, shuffling his feet and frowning. I almost felt bad until he hit my shoulder. "Messing with ya, kid; I'm a total mess." He pat me on the head and piled back into his car. I glanced at my phone (which had been in my back-pocket that whole time) and scrolled through the notifications.

(3) Missed calls
(2) Voicemails
(19) Messages

Two calls were from Liam, the other from Dakota. Two voicemails from Liam. I deleted them both. And before I could read any texts, I erased them all and blocked his number. I made my way into my home and saw Dakota worriedly going through her phone. "You're back!" she exclaimed. "It hasn't even been an hour; is everything okay? What did they need from you?"

"I'll...I'll explain later."

"Ready to go to Avedon's?" she inquired.

I heaved, resting my hands in my pockets and closing my eyes tight. No more tears, I thought with a determined facade. "How about we watch a movie instead?"

Dakota grinned. "A New Hope?" she offered.

"Yeah, yeah that's perfect," I replied.

Absolutely perfect.