Chapter 24

He walked down the hallway, and everyone was whispering and looking at him, "Jack, are you okay?" Claire asked.

Jack looked at Claire, then smiled, "Yes, I am, are you guys okay?" Claire was wearing her blue wool jersey, which matched her eyes, and light blue denim pants; she was holding her books.

"About what happened on Saturday, it was just crazy. Had you not been there, I dont know what would have happened."

Max came walking down the hallway with two of his friends. He looked at Jack and never greeted him. He never stopped to greet Claire, either.

"What's up with him?"

"With who? Max? I am not sure, but ever since that incident, he never contacted me."

"Hey guys, what happened Saturday was crazy. Jack took those thugs down. It was like watching a 3D movie right in front of me. Jack, how did you do that? I mean, you were so calm and collected you had saved Max's ass."

Melanie, "enough, im sure Jack has things to do. Right, Jack?"

Jack nodded, "yes, we will catch up some other time."

Jack wore a black leather Jacket, his hair combed to the back, and he had a skull tattoo on the top of his hand. He wore a skinny blue denim Jean and white sneakers.

"Hey, Jack the man, WhatsUp? I heard what happened on Saturday," It was Marcus. He had his arm around Jack's neck. "Let's go, man."

"Marcus?"

Marcus looked at Claire and never responded; instead walked off with Jack.

"What's his problem? He thinks he is the shit." Melanie stood there, "yes, I noticed. You did something to that dude that must have seriously pissed him off."

"Like what?"

"We dated only three days, Melanie. He can't be mad at me if he is the one who left. What did he expect for me to wait around for him?"

"Why am I thinking so much about Jack lately? I mean, we are friends, but after what had happened and talking to eachother getting to know him," she had thought about him all weekend.

He has solid hands, and how he dresses and walks with confidence, he is unpredictable and mysterious.

Claire walked off to class. On her way to class, there were two cops in the hallway. They were talking to the receptionist.

"Something must have happened. Cops barely come here unless a serious crime has been committed or they are here to search this place.

"Melanie, have you seen those cops?"

"Yes, I have, Claire. I think they are here for Jack because of what happened at the mall."

"Jack?" Claire became concerned, "what has he done?"

"The incident of Saturday, he was carrying an unlicensed firearm, and he is dangerous. He waved that gun around like it was a toy."

"Melanie, shut up. You don't know what you are talking about. You always speculating the worst; he comes from a decent family; must you always be this condescending?"

"Girl, relax. Why are you jumping to his defense? It's as if you fell in love with him; all im saying is you have a good man Max who adores you."

"Adores me? But he spends all his time with you, your hanging on eachother like a couple, and besides, not that I care, but last time I checked, Jack saved us, not Max, after Max ran his big mouth."

"I am not getting into this with you. All I'm saying."

"Excuse me, are you Claire and Melanie." said the officer cutting Melanie off.

"Yes, we are. Why are you asking?"

The cop took out his notebook, "we would like to talk with the two of you regarding the incident on Saturday?"

"See, I told you they are here because of Jack?" Melanie said.

The two cops looked at each other, "Jack?"

"Yea, the incident that occurred on Saturday, which you mentioned, officer?"

"We also are here regarding Marcus. Do you know a Marcus?" The cop wrote a note down in the book.

"Yes, we know, Marcus Officer. We have to get to the class regarding what this is."

"Those three men in the fight on Saturday with a student named Jack were found dead. Witness described a kid fitting Marcus's description. Have you seen Marcus on Saturday?"

Melanie was speechless. Next time, she should bite her tongue when there is a turn of events.

"Yes, officer, we briefly saw eachother while he was with Jack, but I can tell you Marcus is not capable of harming anyone."

"Mam, let us do our job and not speculate on what we think." Said the officer.

"So you never saw Marcus again after that?"

"No, officer, but the mall has cameras everywhere. If you are convinced he is capable of harming anyone, you should start looking at the camera."

The cops looked at eachother, "If I may ask, what happened to those three men?"

"They were shot execution-style straight to the head."

Claire's eyes and Melanie's eyes grew big. "Are you sure it's Marcus? Because Jack was the one with the gun?"

"What the fuck, Melanie?" Said Claire.

"Please repeat that." said the officer looking at Melanie.

Melanie realized she had spoken again out of term. "You stated that Jack was carrying a firearm?"

Melanie nodded, "Yes, but he only wanted to scare those guys." The officers dismissed her words of only wanting to scare the guys and wrote in their notebook a possible suspect, Jack.

"So what exactly happened?"

If Claire were to get Jack out of the dirty water, she would have to state what happened clearly. "Max bumped into the guy, and he started a fight, and two other men approached after Max got hit to the ground. I tried to jump to Max's defense, but those guys threw me to the ground. Jack stepped in, beat the two guys with their knives, and removed his gun. He never shot anyone. He pulled it out to scare them off. After they left, Jack turned around and was going to walk away. I left shortly afterward, joined him, and watched a movie."

Melanie turned and looked at Claire.

"So you were with Jack till what time that day?"

Claire looked at Melanie, "we went home in the evening."

"Is there anyone else who could vouch for that?"

Claire nodded, "yes, there is. Marcus saw us entering there."

The two cops looked at eachother as one cop closed the notebook.

"Was Marcus that whole time there, and what was the time that movie ended?"

"Around 5 pm, officer," Claire responded.

"And Marcus, during the movie, did he leave at any time?"

"No, officer." Claire's innocent look, with her bright blue eyes and plaited blonde hair, made her appear as if she couldn't harm a fly.

The cop shook his head, "and you are sure in that time Marcus never left his seat?"

Claire nodded, "Yea, officer, he was sitting right in front of us."

Melanie was surprised at Claire's answers, she told them she was not feeling well and was going home, and now the truth came out. She was this whole time with Jack and Marcus.

"That's all we need for now. We will contact you if there is anything else that comes up. Thank you for your time."

Claire looked at Melanie, "spill it out, Melanie."

"You lied to us. Why?"

"Because Max is the reason all that happened, his words are louder than his actions, and you guys were all over eachother, Melanie. You were there hanging on my boyfriend and pampering him. I mean, why dont you guys date and save me the humiliation?"

"Claire, I dont like Max in that way. I see him more like a brother."

"Sure, Melanie, your actions speak otherwise."

"What do you care anyway? You like that Jack guy. You couldn't jump to his defense fast enough, and does Max know you spend time with Jack alone at the movie?"

"No, but if need to, I will tell him. He has been ignoring me anyways since Saturday."

Melanie laughed, "I dont blame him. Maybe he knows about you and Jack, and he left soon after you left."

They walked off to class.

"So what happened Saturday? Everyone is talking about how you saved Max."

"Not exactly; save him, he would be fine, Marcus. Anyway, what were you doing at the movies on your own we could have gone together."

"Well, I wanted to call you to join, and then I saw you with Claire. Does Max know about this? I mean, you guys seem to like eachother."

"No, we are just friends. Anyway, what did you do for the rest of the day after we left?"

"Not much went straight home. How about you and that girl Claire? I saw you guys leaving together."

"You observe, well. Not much we went over to mine, and we had a drink or two, then I dropped her off."

"Have you seen the cops earlier? They were going around to the student. I am not sure why."

"Yes, I am told they were investigating the murder of the three guys you beat up?"

"Those same three thugs?" Jack was surprised. "Yes, I don't have much information about it, but I guess we will have to wait and find out." Marcus smiled, exposing his perfectly white teeth.