Her mother cocked her head to the side, her eyes narrowing in on the group. “Well, will you look at that.”

“What are they doing here?” she whispered to herself.

She hadn’t realized she said it loud enough for people to hear until the lady responded, “They’re here to turn themselves in.”

“What?” she exclaimed loudly.

The lady winced at her outburst. “Yup. Marched right in and said they were behind it all. Demanded to see the officer in charge of the case.”

Comprehension exploded through her. They were here…for her. Despite everything Wyatt and Avery said, they had her back. They wouldn’t let her take the fall by herself.

They came, she repeated over and over. They actually came.

The sting of Avery’s rebuff that afternoon started to ease. Overcome with feeling, she pushed past her mother and headed toward the group. They looked up as she approached. Each wore different expressions. Wyatt was scowling, Garrett’s face was guarded, Kelly looked resigned and Avery….well, Avery’s was the best. Remorse burned in her almond eyes as she silently mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

Madison rubbed the spot over her heart and mouthed back, “I forgive you.”

Avery’s mouth lifted into a relieved smile. She nodded her head to the side. Sitting next to her was not only the FEC box, but also her personal chest full of stolen items.

Madison’s mouth dropped open. It was one thing to confess about the FEC, but this?

Trying to appear nonchalant, Avery shrugged her shoulders, but the tightness in her face belied her worry.

Madison scurried over. “What are you doing?” she asked in a low voice. “You didn’t have to bring the chest in.”

Avery ran a finger over the chest, tracing the lines. “It’s time.”

Dumbfounded, she could only stammer out, “But…but….”

She put a hand on Madison’s arm. “You had the courage to do the right thing and face your own demons. Now it’s time for me to face mine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Too late for that now,” Wyatt muttered behind them.

Avery shushed him with a glare before turning back. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier. It was wrong of me to place the blame on you. And I don’t hate you. Far from it. You’re the best thing that’s happened to this group.”

“That’s debatable,” Wyatt cut in.

Avery whirled around. “Will you be quiet? What we were doing was wrong and Madison was the only one to stand up and say no.”

Wyatt’s face turned incredulous. “Are you kidding me? I invented that group for you.”

Avery frowned, her nose scrunching in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“The whole reason I made FEC was to cover up for your little….”

“Flaw?” Madison supplemented.

“Yes!” Wyatt threw up his arms. “Did you really not know that?”

“I thought you did because Kelly and I kept trying to one up each other.”

“I don’t care about Kelly,” Wyatt replied in a vexed voice.

Kelly popped her hand on her hip. “Hey!”

He waved a hand. “You know what I mean. You have Garrett.”

She shrugged. “That’s true. You’ve been looking after Avery since middle school.”

“Y-You started it for me?” Avery asked with a quiver in her voice.

“I was trying to protect you,” Wyatt admitted. He pushed a hand through his hair. “Not that it did you much good seeing as where we are right now.”

Suddenly everything started to make sense about Wyatt. The rabid way he protected FEC and verbally attacked Madison. It wasn’t because he was worried about himself; it was because he was worried about Avery. He would do anything to protect her, include warn off potential friends. In fact, she had a feeling it was because she developed a close friendship with Avery that he was so against her. He didn’t want an interloper taking over his role in her life.

“Okay kids,” Detective Marks began as he stepped forward. “We set up individual rooms for you all. Please follow an officer and they’ll take you there. Also, we called your folks and they’ll be here soon.”

All the blood drained out of Avery’s face. “Did you talk to both parents?”

“Avery Li, right? We talked to your father. He’s heading to the precinct right now.”

“Any chance you’ll be keeping us overnight?” Avery asked with pleading eyes.

“Nope. We don’t do that for minors.”

“Any chance you’ll make an expectation for a teenage girl with an extremely strict Asian father?”

Detective Marks shook his head; a brief look of amusement crossed his face. “Sorry. The rules are the rules.”

Shoulders slumped, she heaved a sigh. “That’s what I was afraid of. Lead the way, Officer.”

Detective Marks stayed behind with Madison as each group member was taken away. He leaned against the front desk and clucked his tongue. “It was foolish to try and protect them. Admirable, but foolish.”

“I made a promise.”

“And was your promise worth it?”

She was unsure of how to answer that. On one hand, they came through for her so her promise was negated. On the other hand, if they hadn’t…well, she would be in quite a pickle.

“Well, in any case,” he continued, “it’s time to get back to work. You ready to tell me your story again? This time the whole story?”

She groaned at the thought of re-telling it for a fourth time. Searching for her parents, she saw her mother sitting at her desk. She was on the computer, her attention focused solely on the screen. Madison squinted and saw she was browsing a surfing website. It took everything in her power to stay where she was and not sprint over and hug her mom. This past week had wrung her dry, putting her through the emotional gauntlet, but it was worth it if it meant she got a chance to make the relationship with her mother work. 

“Well, Ms. Chase?” Detective Marks prodded.

“I think I’m finally ready,” she told him. And with one last look to her mother, she followed the officer to his desk and did just that.

****

It was dark by the time Madison arrived home. After hours and hours of talking, Madison was exhausted. As soon as she walked through the door she headed to her room.

“Where do you think you’re going?” her father asked.

“To my room?” she posed hopefully.

“Nuh-uh. Get back over here. We still have a lot to discuss.”

“It’s late,” her mom interjected. “Let’s get some rest and talk about it tomorrow morning.”

“No. We’re going to talk about this now. She did the crime, so she can do the time.” He pulled out a chair and ordered her to sit. “As happy as I am that you two seemed to reach an understanding, there are still important issues we need to go over.”

They sat around the table for another hour. Her parents expressed their disappointment in her behavior and admonished her for all the lies. They decided she was grounded till the end of the year and everything from her phone to her computer would be carefully monitored.  

“You’re lucky Mr. Perez decided not to file charges,” her mother commented. “This could have been a whole lot worse for you.”

“I know.” She owed Mr. Perez a debt of gratitude. Instead of being suspended from school like the others, she would have afterschool detention with him for the rest of the year. On top of that, she would be required to serve sixty hours of community service. She’d grumbled at first, but realized she got off light compared to the others. They were ordered to carry out a hundred and twenty hours.

And Avery, poor Avery got the brunt of it all. She winced as she remembered Mr. Li’s yelling. It could be heard from all the way across the building, behind closed door. A specialist was brought in when they uncovered her chest full of items. It was an early diagnosis, but they believe her flaw was really a symptom of kleptomania. As well as the suspension and community service, she was ordered to attend therapy to help with her compulsion.

“Up to bed, young lady,” her father ordered. “You have a big day full of chores tomorrow.”

After cleaning up and changing into her pajamas, she slipped into bed. She moaned when she heard her phone start ringing. Dragging herself across the room, she grabbed her phone.

“Carson?” she asked, surprised he would be calling. Especially after telling her he wanted space.

“Hey.” His voice was hesitant as he spoke. “I just got home and talked to my dad.”

“Oh.” She buried herself back under the covers. “So you heard.”

“I did. Pretty impressive of you to take the blame. Took a lot of courage.”

“Well, someone told me I had the strength to do it.”

“That person must be very smart.”

 She could hear the smirk in his tone, so she grumbled, “Eh…”

“And extremely wise.”

“Highly dubious.”

“And a fascinating specimen of male perfection.”

“Really?” she chuckled, laughing at his ridiculousness.  

“There it is,” he mumbled.

“There’s what?”

“Your laugh.”

An unspoken tension carried across the line. She wanted to clear the air with him, tell him how much his words meant to her. How much she liked him and hoped they could work things out.

“Carson,” she started, but was interrupted by a voice on his end. She could barely make out the sound but then it was louder as if the person was right next to him.

“There you are,” a husky voice said.

Madison’s heart pounded as she realized the person was most definitely a girl.

“You disappeared on me. The movie’s about to start.”

Movie? It was eleven o’clock at night. Granted it was a Friday night, but still.

Carson coughed and cleared his throat. “Oh, great. I’ll, uh…be there in a moment. I’m talking to someone.”

“Okay. I’m getting drinks. Do you want your usual?” the girl asked.

A chill swept down her spine. She knew that voice. It was Lauren. Lauren was at his house at eleven o’clock on a Friday night.

Carson must have nodded because there was some white noise and then silence. “Maddy?” he asked. “You there?”

“Yeah,” she said numbly. “I’m here.”

“Sorry about that. I have some friends over and we’re about to watch a movie.”

It should have made her feel better that he said friends plural, but it didn’t. Just knowing that Lauren was there with Carson at his house was enough to leave her feeling frozen. Suddenly, she didn’t want to talk to him anymore. “I should let you go then. I’m sure you have better things to do.”

Sounding confused, he murmured, “I guess I’ll talk to you later. Bye Maddy.”

“Bye Carson.” Before she could stop herself she added, “And thanks for calling to check up on me.”

“Of course. That’s what friends do.”

Friends.

They were only friends—like him and Lauren.

And with that painful reminder he hung up.