Not honestly.

“I’m gonna’ pass on that,” Chloe answered with a nervous laugh. “It got pretty gross, don’t wanna’ dwell.” It hadn’t, of course. Even with the unpleasant and sudden end, thinking about it still put a warmth beneath her skin (especially lower down) that was absurdly distracting. And not at all unpleasant … but between being in jail, feeling she was in danger, that something bad probably happened to her friend, and the exhaustion, it WAS true she didn’t want to dwell on it. Too much going on to throw questions about her sexuality into play, too.

“Awwww … okay. But I’m not even sort of tired, I don’t know what’s going to happen when I get home, so I super-don’t want to just sit here and wait. I mean, do you?” Chloe shook her head, trying to think of anything that’d be even remotely fun to do in an empty room with nothing but two people, their clothes, and apparently small, origami animals.

“No, I guess not … I’m not that worried, though? I mean, you and I are fine, at least. I don’t think Mr. and Mrs. Ravers are going to press charges against Zack, either,” she reasoned out loud. “I mean, he was worried about Logan. At worst, he’s going to need to give up that key.”

“Yeah, but my parents can be weird about stuff like this …” Madison explained, feet kicking idly. “Especially my dad. Brandon doesn’t get how he is about my love life from nowhere, and add parent worry to that, I can’t imagine me getting tossed in jail ends any way but with SOME kind of grounding.”

“So, it’s a ‘last gasp,’ kind of thing, then?”

“I’ll probably be put in some kind of dungeon until I’m forty at this rate, yeah,” Madison groaned. “Hey, you want to play a weird game?”

“I will … need more of a description … before I agree,” Chloe responded apprehensively.

“Oh, it’s nothing bad, calm down!” Madison chided gently. “Okay, so there’s no winning or losing in it, not really, but I say something, then you say something that ‘beats,’ it.”

“Like water over fire?”

“Like, on a base level. But the point is to get weird. It’s only a fun game if you let yourself get abstract and try not to repeat answers. I dunno’. It’s stupid. It’s just something Brandon and I used to do on the road for camping trips.” She seemed a little flustered, and Chloe realized shortly that this … wasn’t the kind of thing she got to do a lot of. Which made sense. Brandon wasn’t the kind of person these days to play a game without a winner. And the life of most of her friends had to move so fast compared to hers. Madison clearly felt a lot of nostalgia for it. “We can do something else, it was just the first thing I thought of.”

“No! No, it sounds fun, I was just trying to understand!” Aside from that, Chloe guessed something old and silly would help Madison focus less intently on what possible punitive measures awaited her on release. “Any other rules?”

“Uh-uh!” Madison told her, much more energetic than a moment ago. “Okay, I’ll start: a man with a knife.”

“Okay … falling rocks?” You can’t really stab rocks, after all. I mean, not effectively.

“Good! See, people usually say ‘a man with a gun,’ when I start with that, falling rocks is totally better!” Madison explained, grinning widely. “A well-constructed dome.”

“An alcoholic architect going through a rough divorce.”

“Marriage counseling?”

“Fake licensing!”

“Considerable natural talent in their field.”

“The possible financial benefits of a law suit,” Chloe countered. “So, it’s just abstract logic puzzles, basically.”

“I guess? I’ve always thought of it like improv. But that’s my drama dork showing,” Madison said with a shrug. “Oh, ummmmm … total government seizure of all personal property.”

“That makes sense. It’s … kind of hard imagining your brother doing this? Does that track?” Chloe pondered for a moment. “Highly efficient anarchist barter system.”

“He used to when we were kids. I mean, we were always the same age, so we used to do, like, EVERYTHING together,” she elaborated, a little bit of sadness appearing on her face as she spoke. “I don’t really know when that stopped, actually. Um … government-backed introduction of highly-dangerous and addictive narcotics.”

“Puberty?” Chloe guessed out loud. “That’s when I went through a weird phase with my mom and stuff. That IS me guessing knowing jack shit about your family life besides what you’ve told me today, so grain of salt. Collapse of foreign relations with the nation backing production.”

“Probably. I think a lot of it was my dad, certain … expectations, once we started being ‘a man,’ and ‘a lady,’ to him.” Madison’s tone was less sad, more bitter when she said that part, in particular “lady.” “CIA **** wizards.”

“Actual wizards?” Madison nodded with her eyes closed, clearly very serious about her change of tactic. “Guys get like that. Every boyfriend I’ve ever had since I got boobs keeps trying to take over my life, like I can’t handle it on my own. Witch hunters.”

“I have had … one boyfriend. In ever,” Madison shared as she thought up another answer. “You probably heard about that, though. Inherent sexism and uselessness of actual witch hunts.”

“That’s the guy Brandon got suspended for beating up in a bathroom … two years ago? That guy?” Most people had heard about that. It was a lot of why so many people were gunshy around Madison. Sure, she was pretty, and usually ready to go with anyone she hooked up with, but the kid had needed a cast and stitches. It set a kind of precedent. “Some kind of phone app that actually detects real magic.”

“Michael Hayden. He dumped me for another girl one day before homecoming. And even though he was a junior, Brandon still went and found him during lunch … I’m still surprised it was only a suspension, it got BAD!” Madison sighed as she continued. “But dad approved of it. And my dad’s not the kind of guy who gives out a lot of approval. I know that’s why Brandon clings to this overprotective crap so much, but … well, YOU try telling a boy he’s the one with daddy issues. Ban by Apple for petty marketing reasons.”

“Want me to?” Chloe’s answer was a little bit of a tease, but she honestly wasn’t that afraid of Brandon. All anger issues aside, he never seemed like the kind of guy who’d actually lay a hand on a woman in anger, even if he REALLY should extend that policy to men, too. “Not that I think I could get him to listen, but I could do it. Ascendancy of Android smartphones in the wake of horrible Apple business decisions.”

“It could be funny …” Madison seemed to be genuinely considering it for a moment. Chloe grinned. She was a long way from the pessimism she’d started the game with, mind drifting to more mundane problems than being in a jail cell and putting her thoughts elsewhere trying to think up increasingly-ridiculous answers for the game. “Probably not, though. Because you’re right, it wouldn’t do much besides waste air. Zombie Steve Jobs.”

“Does talking about it help at all?” Chloe asked. “America’s inherent mistrust of the undead.”

“Kinda’, yeah. I usually don’t. Just bitch about how much it annoys me. It’s a lot easier than trying to solve the problem!” Madison seemed surprisingly chipper in that admission, but Chloe imagined it wasn’t new information. “Ashley’s too close to it, though. And the only other person I trust actually dealing with it is Lisa, but she’s been distracted since the stuff with Zack. He was sort of a dickhead to her at the end there, really messed her up. Which I hope isn’t too harsh on one of your besties. Zombie apocalypse.”

“He was, so not really,” Chloe said with a shrug. “He’s not a bad person? But he’s a high school boy. They’re not known for their attention span; he really could have handled the whole thing a lot better. Realistic transmission of pathogens.”

“Boys,” Madison responded, shaking her head. “I don’t know why I even bother. Um …”

Madison’s digging for a response was interrupted by the jingling of keys. Both girls looked up, seeing a lone officer moving to unlock their door. Chloe stood, arms firmly at her side and back straight. Madison stood, seemed relatively relaxed, then second-guessed her prisoner etiquette looking at Chloe, ending up somewhere between her extremely formal posture and casual, which ended up looking decidedly odd. The officer seemed to agree, given the brief look of surprise when he stepped inside.

“You two, are, um, free to go,” he said slowly, then sort of backing out of the room and heading down the hallway. Chloe looked at Madison, shrugged, then followed him towards the lobby. Zack was already outside, face pale and looking at the red-headed lawyer who had come to get them in shock.

“Hey, dad!” Chloe greeted him with a smile. Roy McRose grinned back at his eldest, but it was tinged with something Chloe easily identified as a combination of fear and sadness. It … wasn’t the expression she wanted to see her father having picking her up from her first bout of legal trouble. “What’s going on?”

“Hey, sweetie,” Roy sighed, accepting and returning a hug from his daughter. As she stood back, he closed his eyes for a second, breathed out, then opened them. “You guys aren’t in any trouble. I explained the situation, and everyone agreed we should just let things be.”

“Yeah, but you look like you’re about to tell me Holly spontaneously combusted, and Zack looks like you just gave him a heart attack …” Chloe told her father, nervous, but too familiar with his and Zack’s expressions to pretend anything else was going on. “What happened?”

“I told him already, but … we should talk about Logan and why he wasn’t at school.” Mr. McRose hung his head for a second, stared up to collect himself, then continued. “We should also talk about his parents.”