I stared openly at her with my mouth hanging open. It was a rarity that someone shocked me, but the little snowflake girl had landed me speechless. No one had ever taken a hit for me. Grown men had refused to fight for me and here she was playing the tiniest hero. I couldn’t let it happen, but an unwanted rush of pride ran through my system at her words. Why I’d be proud of a practical stranger, I don’t know, but I was.

I said the first words that came to my mind. “I’m not her anything and the drugs are mine.”

A pink flush rushed up her neck and spread across her cheeks. She looked as if she’d been slapped in the face before she turned her back to me. She had to know I wasn’t some punk who would let a woman take my charges.

The cop looked between us and shook his head. “Whatever you say,” he said as he started to pat me down. He reached into my back pocket and pulled out the bag of weed and ticked his teeth. “Looks like your little female friend got you busted, buddy.” Then he opened the door to the police car and lowered my head into the back seat.

Patience joined me in the back, but she wouldn’t look at me. I didn’t say anything to her. There was nothing to say. I guess technically I could thank her for trying to take up for me, but then again, had she not said anything they may have never found it in the first place.

The drive to the police station was awkward and silent. The cops chatted in the front seat about an underground drug problem and The Pit being the center of it. I wasn’t surprised, but it still sucked that we were losing our favorite place to play. These things happened, though, and soon there’d be another place and they’d call us to play. Until then, we’d play in the garage and our groupies would collect there.

The police station was full of Pit people. Tattoos and piercings as far as the eye could see. This wasn’t strange in a place like The Pit, but in a police station surrounded by white walls and police, they stood out. They sat Patience and me in a room alone and still she said nothing as she sat across the table from me. The room was the same room they’d put me in when they thought I drugged her. Funny… every time I get mixed up with this girl I end up in a police station.

“You should’ve just let me take it.” She finally spoke.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “I’m no bitch, snowflake. I couldn’t let a girl take my drug charges, especially the governor’s daughter.”

“My name’s Patience.” She smacked the top of the table. “And I don’t know how you know I’m the governor’s daughter, but that’s the main reason why you should’ve let me take the charges. There’s no way my dad would let me sit in jail for long. He’d bail me out as soon as possible, but you’ll have to stay.”

“It’s done. Plus, we wouldn’t want to ruin your perfect record. What would Harvard think?” I pretended to be appalled.

“Are you always such a rude ass?” She nervously picked at her nails.

I leaned my chair back in the corner, rested my head against the wall, and closed my eyes. “Always.”

The room stayed silent after that. I could hear her anxiously fiddle with the table and the little cup of water she was given. Then I heard the door open. I opened my eyes, but I was tucked away in the corner behind the open door and couldn’t see anything. When the door closed, I could see Patience standing before her dad, the governor. His back was to me and I was sure he didn’t know I was there.

He towered over her and I watched as she physically cowered in fear. I didn’t like to see her react that way. She was supposed to be my tiny savior. She had thrown herself in front of the metaphorical police train for me, yet here she was, cowering in fear in front of the one person in the world who was supposed to protect her. Maybe he was a strict man. Actually, thinking back to how he had acted the first time I met him, I was almost positive he was a strict man.

Then he shocked me when he reached out and pinched her cheeks with his hand. He squished her lips up as his thumb dug into one side of her face and the rest of fingers dug into the other side. She tried to pull away, but it only made his fingers dig deeper. I was on the edge of my seat, ready to pull him off of her, when he spoke.

“This is a new look for you, daughter. Who knew you were this wild girl? I wish I had known.” His voice was soft and menacing. He leaned in and got closer to her face. She tried to turn her head away, but his grasp was turning her cheeks red. “Is this what you like? Do you like the rough side of things?”

I stood abruptly and her eyes flittered to mine. I’d had about enough of his bullshit and if he didn’t take his hand off of her, I was going to remove it for him. He released her quickly and turned to me. Surprise at seeing me there dashed across his expression, but then the calm, cool politician slipped back in place. I suddenly had a deep hate for the man standing in front of me, a fucker who manhandled his daughter and dug into her silky, untouched cheeks. The bastard! I bet he hit her.